The former US Marine Corps intelligence officer has been a vocal critic of Washington\u2019s foreign policy<\/p>\n
Scott Ritter, a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, RT contributor and critic of American foreign policy, has said he has been \u201cde-banked\u201d and that US federal authorities are likely behind his bank\u2019s decision.
\nRitter served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s. He opposed the 2003 US invasion, arguing that Saddam Hussein\u2019s government did not possess weapons of mass destruction, contrary to Washington\u2019s now-debunked claims. He later became an independent journalist and political commentator and has cooperated with international media, including RT.
\nOn Thursday, Ritter wrote on his website that \u201ctoday my banking institution of 26 years, Citizens Bank, declared that they were ending their banking relationship with me.\u201d
\n\u201cMy accounts were zeroed out without explanation,\u201d he added.
\nRitter said the move may have been a unilateral de-risking decision by Citizens Bank, but that it \u201cdoes not preclude federal involvement.\u201d
\nHe noted that the \u201cNorthern District of New York empaneled a Grand Jury targeting me back in August 2024,\u201d on suspicion of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. He believes federal authorities had obtained all his banking information through Grand Jury subpoenas.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Scott Ritter forced to end cooperation with RT<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I am beginning to suspect is that someone in the FBI, fully armed with the totality of my banking transactions\u2026 \u201ctipped off\u201d Citizen\u2019s Bank about \u201csuspicious activity\u201d that resulted in Citizen\u2019s Bank issuing a SAR [Suspicious Activity Report],\u201d Ritter wrote.
\nRitter said donations he received and subsequent cash withdrawals before his three trips to Russia in 2025 may have triggered the move. He added that he had carried $10,000 in cash each trip because Russia is \u201cdisconnected from the Western digital economy.\u201d
\nAccording to Ritter, the \u201cpurpose of \u201cde-banking\u201d is to harass a targeted individual,\u201d even in the absence of evidence pointing to any criminal activity.
\nIn June 2024, Ritter\u2019s passport was seized by the US government when he attempted to board a flight to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
\nSeveral months later, FBI agents searched Ritter\u2019s home, which he described as an \u201cact of intimidation\u201d for his journalistic work. Ritter said the agents accused him of working \u201con behalf of the Russian government,\u201d an allegation he has denied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The former US Marine Corps intelligence officer has been a vocal critic of Washington\u2019s foreign policy Scott Ritter, a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, RT contributor and critic of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26361,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}