# The Talk Liberation bank freeze > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The Talk Liberation bank freeze," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/talk-liberation-bank-freeze/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's account of the September 2022 freezing of Talk Liberation's Icelandic bank accounts, the seed funding behind the Panquake platform, on stated suspicion of money laundering and possible terrorist financing. Kiriakou, who deliberately declines to name the bank, calls the allegations nonsense, says in his personal opinion the freeze came at a government's behest, and notes the accounts were later unfrozen.* - **Date:** September 2022 - **Company:** Talk Liberation, developer of [Panquake](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/panquake) - **Location:** Reykjavík, Iceland - **Bank:** Unnamed by Kiriakou; referred to as 'bad Banky' - **Stated grounds:** Suspected money laundering, possibly terrorist financing - **Kiriakou's view:** Personal opinion that a government was behind it - **Outcome:** Accounts unfrozen; litigation continuing in the Icelandic courts In September 2022 the Reykjavík bank holding the accounts of Talk Liberation, the company developing [Panquake](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/panquake), froze them without warning.[1][2] [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), the platform's brand ambassador, declines to identify the institution: *"we're not going to name the bank, there's no reason to, we call it bad Banky."*[2] The frozen account held the company's seed funding, which Kiriakou describes as *"the lifeline, the company's lifeline."* The bank's stated grounds were suspected money laundering and *"maybe even terrorist financing"*, *"all of that was nonsense, of course."*[2] ## Kiriakou's reading Kiriakou labels his interpretation explicitly as opinion rather than finding, noting that he is neither an investigator nor an attorney: *"my own opinion is that this had to come at the behest of a government. Banks don't just freeze assets for no reason."*[3] ## Effect and aftermath The company had no choice but to redirect its resources from development to fighting the freeze, and Kiriakou says the platform would have been running by the time of this interview had that not happened.[4] Talk Liberation retained Icelandic attorneys who had won cases there before and pursued legal remedies.[4] Elsewhere Kiriakou identifies the lawyers more precisely, they were the Iceland attorneys who had acted for [WikiLeaks](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/julian-assange), and reads the whole episode through that lens, calling it *"like a WikiLeaks style thing."* On that telling the company won, the money was unfrozen, and the damage was to the product schedule rather than the company: the freeze *"set us back a little bit in terms of our product rollouts, but that's okay, because we've won at each step of the way."*[5] By March 2025 he described the company as valued in the millions of dollars with dozens of employees.[6] The bank subsequently unfroze the accounts, which Kiriakou reads as an admission: *"that just proves that Panquake had done nothing wrong in the first place, so it's time to pay the piper,"* with the matter still working its way through the Icelandic courts.[7] The detail he returns to is that the company did not merely survive: *"the company actually grew while the company's accounts were frozen. That says a lot."*[8] ## See also - [Panquake](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/panquake) - [Suzie Dawson](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/suzie-dawson) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 11:07. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=667s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/ 2. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 11:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=698s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/ 3. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 12:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=732s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/ 4. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 12:42. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=762s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/ 5. Ex-CIA and Founder of Panquake John Kiriakou EP531 (2025-04-19), at 59:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud37ddfab6&t=3559s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-04-19-the-big-mig-show-ex-cia-and-founder-of-panquake-john-kiriakou/ 6. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 13:13. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=793s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/ 7. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 16:24. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=984s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/ 8. Where the Hell Is Panquake? Surveillance & The Technocratic (2025-03-01), at 19:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M8u-MbN9jA&t=1142s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-01-truthwire-where-the-hell-is-panquake-surveillance-the-t/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/talk-liberation-bank-freeze/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt