Conservative group The Patriot Voice (TPV) is suing a payment processing firm for allegedly canceling transaction services for an event it was hosting in Texas over its politics.
The plaintiff alleges that the Atlanta based payment processing service, which handles online transactions for clients, canceled them in an act of “viewpoint discrimination,” by abruptly ending its contract.
TPV, which is headquartered in Southlake, Texas, hosts events across the country featuring conservative speakers such as James O’Keefe, former CEO of Project Veritas, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, and movie actor James Caviezel.
Conservative Events Group Canceled
The conservative organization is alleging fraud, deception, and a breach of contract on the part of TSYS.After TPV scheduled its event for January 2023, TSYS agreed to offer transactional services after a previous service provider canceled its contract under similar circumstances in November 2022.
The conservative group then alleged that TSYS rejected its transactions the following month and when it contacted the service for an explanation, one of its employees “stated that the transaction was either ‘too large’ for TSYS to process or was ‘outside our risk parameters.’”
The same employee then informed TPV that the payment processor’s risk department had put transactions on hold, because the organization qualified as an “exclusionary business.”
According to court records, Mr. Sabal provided a screenshot of an email from TSYS reading, “When we discover a merchant’s business no longer meets our criteria, we must assess the risk for that account and take appropriate action.”
Organizer Cancels Event
After TPV’s contract was put on hold and was prevented from processing event transactions, the Dallas engagement was canceled.The cancellation cost Mr. Sabal’s organization hundreds of thousands of dollars in already incurred costs, plus a projected $1.5 million in lost profits from that event and more from other future events, he said.
TPV also faced losses from a potential sponsorship from Patriot Mobile, which fell through after the event’s termination.
“TSYS never disclosed and concealed from TPV the fact that there were ‘risk parameters’ associated with the account,” said the complaint.
TPV Attorney Involved in Failed Defamation Suit
Meanwhile, a defamation lawsuit against Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach was dismissed on Aug. 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, reported The Texan.Plaintiff Morgan McComb, a member of an organization that advocates for the secession of Texas, was represented by TPV’s attorney Paul Davis.
Mr. Leach was commenting on Texas secessionists’ support for the “TEXIT” bill, that would have given voters a referendum on leaving the United States of America.
When asked by Ms. McComb if he thought her support for the bill was an act of treasonous sedition, Mr. Leach responded: “If you believe that Texas should secede from the United States of America - then yes. Unequivocally yes,” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Epoch Times has contacted TPV and TSYS for comment.
