FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds as Trump administration tries to claw back climate money

Citibank revealed in court filings on Wednesday that the FBI, the EPA, the EPA inspector general, and the Treasury Department have all requested that the bank freeze accounts of several nonprofits and state government agencies.

The accounts were frozen in February, but the new documents make public details that had previously been unknown, including a full list of the nonprofits under FBI scrutiny.

The funds were disbursed as part of the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was created by the Inflation Reduction Act, a law passed by Congress in 2022. Of that, the EPA received $14 billion for a National Clean Investment Fund, which provides grants to green banks.

Green banks use those funds to provide financing for clean technology projects around the country. Startups that have technologies that are ready to scale commercially were eligible to receive financing to make projects a reality.

The funding was mostly to be used for loans, which were to be paid back and recycled for future lending. Green banks tend to have delinquency rates on par with commercial and residential portfolios held by other commercial lenders.

Citibank was selected as the financial agent to administer that money, holding it in accounts under the names of the awardees. It is also administering a separate, $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator program. The EPA’s contract with Citibank was publicly announced in April 2024.

The FBI has requested that Citibank place 30-day administrative freezes on accounts held by nonprofits that were recipients of the green bank funding. It also asked the bank to freeze other nonprofit and state government agency accounts, including Habitat for Humanity, United Way, the Colorado Clean Energy Fund, and New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

Three nonprofits that received green bank funds have sued Citibank, asking the bank to release the money in their accounts.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has said that the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund doesn’t align with the agency’s priorities and that he has concerns about fraud, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim.

In a hearing on Wednesday, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia questioned a Justice Department attorney representing the EPA.

“Can you proffer any evidence that [the grant] was illegal, or evidence of abuse or fraud or bribery — that any of that was improperly or unlawfully done, other than the fact that Mr. Zeldin doesn’t like it?” Judge Tanya Chutkan said.

Judge Chutkan also ordered the Justice Department to provide the court with details about the alleged fraud, “because I don’t have the credible evidence that’s required.”

Update 3/13/25: Added details from the Wednesday hearing.