According to recent reports, the Biden administration confirmed that a federal initiative pushed banks to surveil a list of politically charged terms in private financial transactions. A letter from the Treasury Department sent to Sen. Tim Scott detailed terms such as ‘antifa,’ ‘MAGA,’ ‘Trump,’ ‘Biden,’ ‘Kamala,’ ‘Schumer,’ and ‘Pelosi’ that were targeted following the Jan. 6, 2021 protests at the U.S. Capitol.
The letter signed by Acting Assistant Secretary Corey Tellez informs Sen. Scott that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) sought to utilize existing tools to aid the investigation into who participated in the January 6 protests.
“In the wake of the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, FinCEN convened a series of FinCEN Exchange events. While we are still looking into the details of these events, we understand that these FinCEN Exchange events included government and private sector representatives who voluntarily participated in discussions and information exchanges focused on identifying the perpetrators of this attack and providing support to ongoing law enforcement investigations. The purpose of these FinCEN Exchange events was for law enforcement, FinCEN, and banks to share trends, analysis, and information that banks could consider incorporating into their existing AML/CFT programs to more effectively identify perpetrators of crimes during the January 6 attack or individuals who may have been plotting or conspiring to disrupt the 2021 Inauguration,” the letter read.
The response to the South Carolina Republican further outlined how specific “key words” or phrases were being correlated with suspicious activity. According to the letter, private financial institutions could incorporate the phrases into their existing AML (anti-money laundering) protocols, which flag suspicious activity.
“No one specific word or transaction code included in these typologies was designed to be used in isolation to “flag” or “target” any individuals. Rather, to the extent key words or phrases were suggested, it was expected they would be used alongside other factors and data that banks regularly analyze as part of their AML programs to detect and report suspicious activity. For example, a document distributed on January 15, 2021 suggested that banks could review payment messages for indications that an individual participated in the assault on the Capitol and included terms such as “antifa,” “MAGA,” “Trump,” “Biden,” “Kamala,” “Schumer,” and “Pelosi,” along with terms indicating an intent to do violence, such as “shoot,” “kill,” “murder” and “storm the Capitol,” the response continued.
The American Tribune recently reported on comments last month from Rep. Jim Jordan, who sounded off on federal agents for pushing this agenda. Jordan, the chair of the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, wrote a letter to the former director of an office in the Treasury’s Strategic Operations Division of Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Noah Bishoff, inquiring about the agency’s agenda.
“These materials included a document recommending the use of generic terms like ‘TRUMP’ and ‘MAGA’ to ‘search Zelle payment messages’ as well as a ‘prior FinCEN analysis’ of ‘Lone Actor/Homegrown Violent Extremism Indicators,’” a letter from Jordan read.
“According to this analysis, FinCEN warned financial institutions of ‘extremism’ indicators that include ‘transportation charges, such as bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel to areas with no apparent purpose,’ or ‘the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.’” the representative continued.
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