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Largest U.S. bank suspends Wikileaks payments

Largest U.S. bank holding company Bank of America Corp. (BoA) announced on Saturday that it has stopped handling payments for website Wikileaks, which had released thousands of secret U.S. State Department cables.

In a statement published on Saturday, the North Carolina-based bank said it would "not process transactions of any type that we have reason to believe are intended for Wikileaks," because "Wikileaks may be engaged in activities that are... inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments."

BoA's move is the latest blow to the secret-releasing organization after major financial institutuions like MasterCard and PayPal cut off Wikileaks' payments earlier this month.

Wikileaks responded in a message on Twitter, urging "all people who love freedom close out their accounts at Bank of America".

The website also called on businesses to "place your funds somewhere safer". Both MasterCard and PayPal websites were attacked by Wikileaks supporters.

In recent weeks, Wikileaks has released parts of a cache of more than 250,000 secret U.S. State Department diplomatic cables from around the world, causing tension between Washington and some of its allies.

The site has come under pressure from several directions besides the financial. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said repeatedly a criminal investigation of WikiLeaks' release of the cables is under way.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was freed on bail in the UK earlier this week. He still faces extradition proceedings to Sweden over sexual assault allegations.

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