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New Report Exposes Massive Government Surveillance of Americans’ Financial Data
March 6, 2024
Press Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released an interim staff report titled, “Financial Surveillance in the United States: How Federal Law Enforcement Commandeered Financial Institutions to Spy on Americans.”
The report reveals alarming evidence of federal law enforcement engaging in broad financial surveillance and prying into the private transactions of American consumers. This surveillance, not predicated on specific evidence of criminal conduct, targeted terms and transactions related to core political and religious expressions protected by the Constitution.
Federal law enforcement, including the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the FBI, facilitated multiple backchannel discussions with financial institutions to gather Americans’ private financial information.
These discussions involved some of the largest financial institutions in the United States, such as Barclays, U.S. Bank, Charles Schwab, HSBC, Bank of America, PayPal, and many others.
Tactics included keyword filtering of transactions, targeting terms like:
- "MAGA" and "TRUMP,"
- as well as purchases of books,
- religious texts,
- firearms-related items,
- and recreational stores,
- like Cabela’s,
- Bass Pro Shop, and
- Dick’s Sporting Goods.
This surveillance extended beyond criminal suspicion, likely encompassing millions of Americans with conservative viewpoints or Second Amendment interests.
H/T Freeper bitt
Schwab incorrectly turned me into to the IRS for “not reporting gain” on sale for something I had full basis in. Tried to charge me $300K in taxes. Accountant said it was because I am a director of a public company that is not the kind of company Chuckie Schwab likes and it is their policy to screw with oil executives.
Audit cost me $3500. IRS paid me $98 in the end for their bad faith investigation.
The banks on that list…
Barclays, U.S. Bank, Charles Schwab, HSBC, BoA, Paypal, KeyBank, Standard Chartered, Western Union, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Santander, JPMorgan Chase, and MUFG.
Certainly all the big ones. Are there any banks out there that are refusing to spy on Americans?
bkmk