For many Americans, our institutions know more about our life than our own mother. Based on our financial information, they can properly think a company’s religious views, political affiliations, and more. This broad knowledge has been used by the federal government to spie on us, according to a discovery made by the House Judiciary Committee ( HJC) in a movie posted by the committee.
The HJC record is entitled” Financial Surveillance in the United States: How The Federal Government Weaponized The Bank Secrecy Act To Spy On Americans.” The Bank Secrecy Act ( BSA ), which is referenced in the report title, was a dated law passed in 1970 to stop criminal money laundering schemes. A financial institution is required by the BSA to file Suspicious Activity Reports ( SARs ) on its customers if it discovers” a suspicious transaction relevant to a potential violation of law or regulation” or CTRs if a customer” conducts a transaction greater than$ 10, 000 or multiple transactions that amount to over$ 10, 000 in a single day.”
However, the HJC’s research revealed that a law intended to deter thieves had been used by the federal government to elude arrest without a permit.
Three main issues were identified by the HJC statement. Second is how economic organizations’ over-reporting has affected millions of law-abiding Americans. The law encourages financial institutions to over-file SARs in a desire for self-preservation yet when a customer’s activity had been completely legitimate because there is a major financial penalty for failing to file.
The BSA’s regular transaction threshold is very low, making matters worse. According to the American Bankers Association ( ABA ),$ 10, 000 in 1970 is equivalent to$ 75, 000 today. So, an American who transfers money between accounts to purchase a luxury vehicle, a piece of jewelry, or a piece of cheap jewelry could be listed next to suspected drug traffickers and terrorists on a CTR statement.
In consequence, the SARs and CTRs “have increased rapidly and are no more inherently related to reducing monetary crime.” In 2023 alone, nearly 300, 000″ separate financial institutions and other entities” filed 25.4 million BSA reports with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ( FinCEN). These reports document the sensitive data of millions of Americans, including personally identifiable information and comprehensive purchases. Financial institutions are now classified as” containable informants that are required to secretly report Americans ‘ financial activities to the federal government” due to compliance with the BSA.
For instance, an FBI journalist, George Hill, played a vital role in prompting the HJC’s research. According to Hill, a former intelligence analyst at the FBI,” Bank of America ( BoA ) provided the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) with a list of names of all individuals who used a BoA credit or debit card in the Washington, D.C. region at that time voluntarily and without legal process.” BoA argued that what it did was in line with the BSA’s requirements.
Next, the HJC analysis revealed a surprising level of data access. The information collected in these reports, which is very delicate, should have been strictly limited in exposure. Tens and thousands of authorities employees, nevertheless, have unchallenged and illegal access to FinCEN, frequently downloading information from their agency system. Government workers used FinCEN to conduct over three million queries in 2023. This widespread access is alarming and raises serious issues about abuse, with the possibility that some republican government officials could use it to targeted Americans who don’t share distinct political views. That’s exactly what happened in the weeks following Jan. 6, 2021.
The FBI, per the document, uses “extremism” measures to pin conservative Americans. The FBI provides listings of Americans whose actions fall under these signals rather than waiting for financial organizations to report Influenza on their own. These measures, such as purchasing a Bible or a rifle, making a deal that involved the term “MAGA” or” Trump”, or opposing Covid demands, are evidently designed to target traditional Americans. The FBI subsequently “encourages” these financial establishments to record SARs on the precise individuals, a procedure that the HJC has deemed dangerous.
The FBI has turned this model on its head and violated the Fourth Amendment’s demands of uniqueness and probable cause, according to the HJC, by providing financial institutions with lists of people it views as usually” suspicious” on the front end. Standard Chartered Bank was reportedly the only financial institution to request that the FBI undergo a legal process before sharing customer data among the 17 that the HJC has looked into.
Additionally, FinCEN cast an even wider net by soliciting customer transaction information from financial institutions at vendors at D. C. area airports, train stations, and bus stops around early January 2021 and Inauguration Day, even if the transactions were perfectly legal. Even an innocent American who purchased a cup of coffee at the BWI Airport during that time period could be unintentionally caught in this net due to this arbitrary approach.
Some financial institutions went one step further by “debanking” ( denying customers financial services based on their alleged political views ) and reported on other issues. Former First Lady Melania Trump made it known in her memoir that a bank she had a long-term relationship with ( she didn’t name it ) terminated her account and refused to open an account for her son, Barron. In our increasingly digital economy, an ordinary American who is debanked will find it difficult to make a living and support his family when he cannot be paid for goods and services. However, Melania and Barron have plenty of other banking options. Debanking is similar to being imprisoned in a digital prison and prevented from entering modern society.
Finally, the federal government’s warrantless financial surveillance of Americans is poised to get significantly worse. Financial institutions and FinCEN are rapidly enhancing their surveillance capabilities with the aid of novel projects and technologies. Many banks have already implemented” surveillance monitoring” programs to capture a broader spectrum of customer data, including” cash activity, fund transfers, automated clearing house (ACH) transfers, and ATM transactions”.
Financial institutions are being aggressively urged by the federal government to adopt new technologies like artificial intelligence and digital ID requirements in order to expand their surveillance of Americans ‘ financial lives through the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group ( BSAAG ). Every financial movement of every American could soon be automatically recorded and scrutinized, according to the HJC’s stark warning.
Americans should be deeply concerned that our governments and financial institutions may be collaborating to eavesdrop on us and potentially use their authority to target and punish Americans financially for their political or religious beliefs. The Republican-led U.S. Congress and the incoming Trump administration must work together to stop American financial data from being potentially abused.
