A current Protos report reveals a collection of enterprise relationships between San Diego-based Axos Financial institution and a string of characters who’ve discovered themselves topic to regulatory or prosecutorial ire.
Axos Financial institution—the direct financial institution affiliate of Axos Monetary, based mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada—has maintained enterprise relationships with quite a lot of people and entities who’ve drawn the scrutiny of regulators, prosecutors, and in some instances, the courts.
Axos has maintained relationships with Binance.US and BAM Buying and selling, the mum or dad firm of Binance.US, at the same time as the businesses face a string of authorized challenges. Binance.US and BAM Buying and selling held over 10 accounts with a startling $377 million in buyer funds at Axos as of Might 2023.
Axos additionally provides a service known as AxPay that allows crypto corporations to bypass the Federal Reserve’s financial institution wire system. An intrabank funds switch system, AxPay is much like choices by banks equivalent to Signature Financial institution and Silvergate, each of which shuttered this yr.
Whereas Axos has persistently downplayed its engagement with the crypto business in its quarterly filings, it began accepting Binance US-related deposits in January 2023, additional muddying the waters round its precise crypto publicity.
Past crypto
Axos’ excessive–profile purchasers prolong past its crypto dealings. It has acted because the monetary establishment for Alex Jones, a widely known conspiracy theorist and the face of InfoWars, a model owned by Jones’ Free Speech Media, which additionally had accounts at Axos. The financial institution shut down these accounts in September 2023, citing unauthorized transactions as the explanation for this sudden resolution.
One other controversial consumer in Axos’ guide of enterprise is former U.S. president Donald Trump. Based on a July report within the Washington Publish Axos Financial institution’s CEO, Gregory Garrabrants, personally accepted loans price $225 million to Trump after a number of monetary establishments had severed ties with Trump following the January sixth, 2021 assault on america Capitol.
Axos’ loans helped stabilize Trump’s post-presidential funds, enabling him to mount a possible marketing campaign for the 2024 presidential nomination. Relating to the choice to increase credit score to the previous president, Garrabants instructed the Publish that he was assured of their profit-generating potential and denied favoritism as a figuring out issue.“It wouldn’t matter if I used to be pals with somebody, I’m not going to make a mortgage that’s no good,” he instructed the Publish. “I don’t like anybody that a lot.”
The collection of distinctive relationships Axos Monetary has fostered has invited consideration to the financial institution’s enterprise methods and danger analysis strategies. Because the crypto business continues to develop and mature, the practices and operations of banks like Axos Monetary are more likely to be matters of ongoing dialogue and evaluation.