By Alan Zibel and Andrew R. Johnson 

WASHINGTON--U.S. officials have opened at least 15 civil and criminal investigations into whether banks and payment-processing firms helped enable fraudulent activity, according to Justice Department documents made public Thursday.

The documents, made public Thursday by a U.S. congressional committee, detail last year's launch of a sweeping probe targeting banks and payment processors--companies that act as middlemen between banks and merchants in financial transactions.

In a November 2013 internal memo, a Justice Department official said the agency had opened civil investigations into 10 banks and payment processors, as well as criminal investigations of one bank and four payment-processing firms.

Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, who was then deputy assistant attorney general, described the government's so-called "Operation Choke Point" probe a success, saying banks are stepping up scrutiny of their relationships with firms that process payments.

"In several cases, after receiving a subpoena, banks and processors have self-disclosed potentially problematic relationships and have informed us that they have taken corrective action," she wrote in the internal memo.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee published more than 850 pages of internal documents on the Justice Department's probe of alleged fraud in the financial industry. The release of the documents comes amid a battle between the Justice Department and congressional Republicans, who argue the government is trying to intimidate legal businesses, including short-term lenders that operate online.

Republicans say the government has pressured banks to stop handling payments for merchants deemed as high risk--including gun dealers, short-term lenders and credit-repair programs--punishing good actors along with bad ones.

"If the administration believes some businesses should be out of business, they should prosecute them before a judge and jury," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), the chairman of the oversight panel.

The names of affected banks were blacked out in the memos, but several banks have disclosed investigations related to payment processing.

In January, the Justice Department reached a $1.2 million settlement with a small North Carolina bank, Four Oaks Fincorp Inc., over allegations the bank processed more than $2 billion in transactions for a payment processor that worked with allegedly fraudulent merchants, including short-term lenders that operate from offshore.

A federal judge approved the settlement in April.

Zions Bancorp., a regional lender based in Salt Lake City, has said in regulatory filings it faces an investigation by the Justice Department related to payment processing for allegedly fraudulent telemarketers and other customers. The bank said in a May filing that the investigation is ongoing.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. in February disclosed it had received a subpoena from the Justice Department seeking information about its payment-processing customers and whether the bank may have facilitated fraud, PNC said in a filing, adding it was cooperating with the subpoena.

Emily Pierce, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said banks are breaking U.S. law if they knowingly process illegal transactions or are "willfully ignorant" of fraud. "We only investigate banks and third-party payment processors that violate federal law, and these documents suggest nothing to the contrary," she said.

Lisa McGreevy, chief executive of the Online Lenders Alliance, which represents many short-term lenders that operate on the Internet, said the documents confirm the government has been "engaged in a coordinated effort to eliminate the online lending industry and choke off consumer access to the short-term credit millions of Americans need."

Write to Alan Zibel at a lan.zibel@wsj.com and Andrew R. Johnson at Andrewr.johnson@wsj.com

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