{"id":14328,"date":"2024-01-20T01:46:31","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T01:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/20\/senate-republican-demands-answers-from-treasury-on-push-for-banks-to-surveil-customer-transactions-in-2021\/"},"modified":"2024-01-20T01:46:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T01:46:31","slug":"senate-republican-demands-answers-from-treasury-on-push-for-banks-to-surveil-customer-transactions-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/20\/senate-republican-demands-answers-from-treasury-on-push-for-banks-to-surveil-customer-transactions-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Republican demands answers from Treasury on push for banks to \u2018surveil\u2019 customer transactions in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EXCLUSIVE: <\/strong>The top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee is demanding answers from the Treasury Department and its financial crimes enforcement division after revelations the agencies urged private financial institutions to \u2018surveil\u2019 private transactions using \u2018politically charged search terms\u2019 to flag customer profiles to federal law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., penned a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki on Friday after Fox News Digital exclusively reported that the agency suggested in January 2021 that banks use specific search terms to query transactions, including \u2018MAGA,\u2019 \u2018Trump,\u2019 \u2018Biden\u2019 and more, along with merchant codes from specific sporting goods stores.<\/p>\n

\u2018I write regarding recent reporting that the U.S. Treasury Department (Treasury) through its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) urged private financial institutions to surveil customers\u2019 transaction-level data using politically charged search terms, in order to flag certain customer profiles on behalf of Federal law enforcement,\u2019 Scott wrote in the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital. \u2018These allegations, if true, represent a flagrant violation of Americans\u2019 privacy and the improper targeting of U.S. citizens for exercising their constitutional rights without due process.\u2019<\/p>\n

Scott pointed to the Fox News Digital report, which revealed that FinCEN provided materials to financial institutions instructing them to search and filter Americans\u2019 financial data using keywords and search terms, as well as merchant category codes to aid law enforcement in identifying persons of interest ahead of the Jan. 20, 2021 inauguration \u2014 weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.<\/p>\n

The terms and codes were discovered as part of a House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government investigation. The committees obtained documents indicating that MCC codes were used to query transactions like: \u20183484: Small Arms,\u2019 \u20185091: Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies\u2019 and the keywords \u2018Cabela\u2019s,\u2019 \u2018Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods\u2019 and \u2018Bass Pro Shops,\u2019 among others.<\/p>\n

The House Judiciary Committee also obtained documents revealing that FinCEN warned financial institutions that an \u2018extremism indicator\u2019 could be \u2018the purchase of books (including religious texts),\u2019 like the Bible, and subscriptions to certain media \u2018containing extremist views.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018These allegations are particularly concerning given past efforts to weaponize the financial system and payment activity against politically disfavored, lawful activity,\u2019 Scott wrote. \u2018Under the Obama administration\u2019s \u2018Operation Choke Point\u2019 initiative, the Department of Justice (DOJ) coordinated with federal financial regulators to intimidate financial institutions into denying services to legitimate businesses that the administration was ideologically opposed to, including gun retailers.\u2019<\/p>\n

Scott said that \u2018the weaponization and misuse of MCC codes is not a new issue either,\u2019 saying members of Congress have recently raised concerns about the potential to \u2018surveil the free exercise of lawful activity using an MCC code \u2014 the same concern is at issue here.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Federal government efforts to target individuals and entities based on their political views is a blatant and egregious violation of our Constitution,\u2019 Scott wrote. \u2018Additionally, reported actions like these disrupt confidence in federal law enforcement and raise significant questions regarding the independence of federal financial regulators.\u2019<\/p>\n

Scott is demanding that the Treasury Department and FinCEN turn over information on the \u2018role, if any,\u2019 FinCEN played in \u2018soliciting financial data from private companies\u2019 to help law enforcement to identify targets after Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

Scott is also asking if anyone from any other executive branch agency \u2014 like the Justice Department or FBI \u2014 ever directed, requested or encouraged FinCEN to engage in those alleged activities.<\/p>\n

Scott is also asking for answers on what the basis was for FinCEN to conclude that the purchasing or possessing of religious texts \u2018may be indicative of extremism,\u2019 and who at FinCEN decided to warn banks of that possibility.<\/p>\n

Scott has also requested a list of the financial institutions that FinCEN met with when suggesting the search for transactions of customers who shopped at Bass Pro Shops, Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods and Cabela\u2019s, and a list of all agencies in the government involved in the decision to search and filter those transactions.<\/p>\n

Scott has asked the Treasury Department to turn over that information by Feb 2.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, sources familiar told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the search terms, like \u2018MAGA\u2019 and \u2018Trump,\u2019 were generated by a bank and used to help them identify suspicious transactions when reviewing customer transactional information. It is unclear which bank generated the search terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sources said FinCEN then shared those terms with other banks to help those financial institutions to comply with their own suspicious activity reports.<\/p>\n

However, beyond the terms identified by the House Judiciary Committee, the unnamed bank generated other terms, which FinCEN shared with other banks, the sources told Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The source said the additional search terms included: \u2018White Power,\u2019 \u2018Camp Auschwitz,\u2019 \u2018Antifa,\u2019 \u2018Proud B,\u2019 \u2018Storm, the,\u2019 \u2018Capitol,\u2019 \u2018Groyper Army,\u2019 \u2018Threepers,\u2019 \u2018boogaloo,\u2019 \u2018civil war,\u2019 \u2018last sons,\u2019 \u2018kill,\u2019 \u2018shoot,\u2019 \u2018gun,\u2019 \u2018death,\u2019 \u2018murder,\u2019 \u2018Biden,\u2019 \u2018Kamala,\u2019 \u2018Pelosi,\u2019 \u2018Schumer\u2019 and \u2018Pence.\u2019<\/p>\n

The sources said the distribution of the search terms began in the final weeks of the Trump administration after Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who made the initial discovery, is requesting the former FinCEN official and an FBI official appear before his committee and the Weaponization Subcommittee for transcribed interviews to aid in the panel\u2019s oversight investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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