Spy on Your Customers… or Else

Do you distrust the banking system? Prefer to do business in cash? Complain about the encroachment of Big Brother into every facet of your life?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’d better watch out. You’re a “person of interest” – and a growing number of businesses must report your “suspicious activities” to the feds. If they don’t, they can be fined and the responsible parties even imprisoned.

These requirements originated in a law called the “Bank Secrecy Act” (BSA). Of course, this Orwellian law has nothing at all to do with protecting bank secrecy. Indeed, the BSA has all but eliminated confidentiality.

Regulations issued under the BSA require financial institutions to notify the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a Treasury Department bureau, of any unusual transactions in which their customers engage. Reporting is mandatory for transactions that exceed $10,000 and are not the sort in which the particular customer would normally be expected to engage. For money transmitter businesses, a $2,000 threshold applies.

The businesses covered by these requirements must file “suspicious activities reports” (SARs) secretly, without your knowledge or consent. FinCEN makes the reports available electronically to every US Attorney’s office and to dozens of law enforcement agencies. No court order, warrant, subpoena, or even written request is needed to access a report.

What exactly is suspicious? According to official Treasury guidance, suspicious behavior includes:

  • Paying off a loan;
  • Objecting to completing Currency Transaction Reports (required for transactions over $10,000);
  • Changing currency from small to large denominations;
  • Buying cashier’s checks, money orders, or travelers’ checks for less than the reporting limit $10,000 for a cash transaction);
  • Making deposits in cash, then having the money wired somewhere else; and
  • Withdrawing cash without counting the cash first.

Now, FinCEN has issued preliminary regulations that could extend these rules to investment managers. All SEC-registered investment advisers would be required to design and implement an anti-money-laundering program. They would also need to file SARs with FinCEN.

Once these rules come into effect, investment advisors would no longer be accountable to you, their client. Their highest duty, reinforced by civil and criminal sanctions, would be to act as unpaid undercover agents for the US Treasury.

But FinCEN’s suspicious transaction reporting rules are just the tip of the iceberg. For instance, official guidance from the FBI and other government agencies indicate that all of the following actions make you a terror suspect:

Then there’s the “drug courier profile” developed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The following profiles are all court-approved reasons to search you and your property:

  • Having a pale or dark complexion;
  • Having a Hispanic appearance;
  • Being between the ages of 25 and 35;
  • Acting too nervous or too calm;
  • Carrying $100, $50, $20, $10, or $5 bills;
  • Wearing casual clothing;
  • Wearing perfume;
  • Having window coverings on your personal residence;
  • Buying a one-way or round-trip airline ticket; and
  • Being among the first, last, or middle group of passengers off of an airplane.

As Richard Miller expressed in his landmark book, Drug Warriors and Their Prey,

eing a citizen is sufficient cause to suspect a person of criminal conduct, thereby constricting civil liberties protections for that person. That situation is hard to distinguish from the legal status of citizens of Nazi Germany.

In a world that views virtually everything you do as suspicious, there aren’t a lot of options to protect yourself. Indeed, simply by expressing your interest in privacy, asset protection, precious metals, or any of the other topics I cover routinely, you’re likely on one government watch list or another already.

However, you can take steps to avoid having a bank or other financial institution – including an investment manager – file an SAR on you. If you’re considering doing anything out of the ordinary in your account, talk to an officer at the bank, brokerage, or other financial institution first. For instance, you might want to let someone know before you pay off a loan or make or receive a large transfer.

If you have a reasonable explanation for the transaction, it’s much less likely to set off an alarm. And in a country in which all citizens are considered criminal suspects, that’s definitely something you want to avoid.

Mark Nestmann
Nestmann.com


 

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11 Comments
Lysander
Lysander
September 17, 2015 12:13 pm

The definition of fascism; “Everything that is not forbidden is mandatory”.

Maddie's Mom
Maddie's Mom
September 17, 2015 12:22 pm

Paying off a loan??? lmao
I just knew I’d find an Onion at the end of that.
I mean, wtf?!?!

How about not having any loans??? lol

TE
TE
September 17, 2015 12:23 pm

Ha! I’m the conspiracy nut but now my hub is on the list!

Recently our banking laws changed, and even though Metro Detroit Michigan has a HUGE customer base in Canada, and NAFTA was supposed to make this better, all of a sudden ALL Canadian checks, which we deposit as our natural course of business, are now held for up to 20 days AND require a special form.

He complained to the manager. Now he is on the list.

Anyone else notice that there are literally no ways to avoid being a suspicious person? How the hell can you exit the plan and NOT be “first, last or in the middle”?

Insanity. Glad the morons surrounding me think this shit makes them safer. It’s making me nuts.

cantbaretowatch
cantbaretowatch
September 17, 2015 12:38 pm

I guess I just need to learn how to be unsuspiciously unsuspicious.

Back in PA Mike
Back in PA Mike
September 17, 2015 1:41 pm

Took 2k out of the bank last month and they were extremely interested in what I do for a living. Told them I was a window washer on the corner.

Overthecliff
Overthecliff
September 17, 2015 3:41 pm

If it is possible for the bank or phone company or Internet provider to spy on you, you will be spied upon. You are a fool to think differently. Act accordingly deal with reality.

robert h siddell jr
robert h siddell jr
September 17, 2015 4:19 pm

TPTB stick their nose in my business and I want to stick my foot in their ass.

ASIG
ASIG
September 17, 2015 7:02 pm

“Searching online for a pressure cooker and backpack;”

OK — now— don’t say anything to ANYONE– lets keep this a secret—- but

—– I already have a pressure cooker and a backpack.—–

I mean I bought the pressure cooker over 30 years ago,,, I just didn’t think to consider I was committing a crime at the time.

OMG!! what do I do if they find out?????

jamesthewanderer
jamesthewanderer
September 17, 2015 7:33 pm

In more than one fashion, this is self-defeating.

(1) Take out $10k for no reason at all, and use it to open an account in another bank. Just move the money (in cash) from one bank to another; both will eventually file SARs that are useless, since you aren’t a terrorist, and clog up the report ledgers for the spies. Eventually, they will waste the majority of their time / effort / resources chasing down non-terrorists, which lessens the resources available for chasing down REAL terrorists.

(2) Take out $100 a week until you move all the cushion (beyond normal living expenses) out of the banks entirely, to your sock drawer or whatever. The banks are weakened by loss of deposits, and must depend on the Fed even more (serves them right for being snitches).

(3) Move you brokerage needs overseas. Don’t bring the money back until these ridiculous rules are changed. The US economy suffers thereby, but you may well make more money (if you’re good at trading overseas companies).

(4) Move yourself overseas, and use the “overseas income exclusion” to avoid paying US taxes at all. Not for everyone, but in this age of the Internet lots of writers, consultants, etc. could do this, and diminish the tax receipts.

(5) Use an overseas bank (if you can find one who accepts US clients) and keep your cash out of Fed hands. If you can’t find one that suits you, expatriate and take up citizenship elsewhere. It’s better than supporting the Nazis that persecute you.

They will not be satisfied until there is a revolution, but then they won’ t be satisfied with the results of that either. Stupidity rules, at all levels. Just leaving normal folks alone doesn’t seem to occur to them, unfortunately.

Stanley
Stanley
September 17, 2015 8:17 pm

I have a question here if anybody is qualified to answer it –

I’m fascinated with those house flip shows on HGTV. When the flipper arrives at the property auction they’re required to deposit a $10,000 cashiers check to participate, and then upon purchase remit in cash the entire price of the house, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars.

These flippers do this for a living so they’re constantly moving large amounts of cash. Do they get reported like every day?

Spinolator
Spinolator
September 17, 2015 8:30 pm

Also considered for future revisions of the criteria:

9. Breathing
10. Barely breathing
11. Not looking dead enough.
12. Not fully decomposed.
13….