A financial advisor and leading organizer of the Nebraska Tea Party has filed suit against the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance alleging the department sanctioned him because he made a public statement calling President Obama a Communist.

Robert R. Bennie Jr., head of Bob Bennie Wealth Management Inc. in Lincoln, Neb., said he lost $25 million in business after the Banking Department put conditions on his operating license. He was prohibited from doing any advertising or marketing or opening any accounts for new clients for three months from December 2010 to March, he says.

That cost him $6.43 million in lost income and he is suing for that amount, plus attorney's fees and punitive damages in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska. The Nebraska Attorney General's Office, which is in charge of the case, declined to comment.

As a Tea Party organizer, Bennie, a CFP licensee, says he was interviewed by a local newspaper and made the statement about Obama. At the time he was in the process of transferring his independent financial advisor business, which had been with LPL Financial Services, to Prospera Financial Services.

"My business has always grown and during that time I was prohibited from growing," says Bennie, who filed suit June 13 and whose firm now has $75 million in assets under management. The sanctions also hurt his reputation and his long-term prospects, he said. In 2009, Bennie was named one of the top 1,000 Financial Planners in the United States by Barron's Magazine.

The Banking Department also questioned him about an advertisement that ran in 2009 that offered new clients a $100 coupon towards the purchase of a firearm. The advertisements had the approval of his broker's compliance department and of Finra, he says. The conditions on his license were lifted in March.

The suit alleges Bennie's constitutional right of due process was violated because he was given no reason for conditions being placed on his license and no hearing on the issue. He says such conditions have never been imposed on anyone else by the department.

The suit is filed against the Nebraska Department of Banking Director John Munn and other Banking Department officials.

-Karen DeMasters