House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen
Americans had their private financial data shared after January 6
DailyMail.com reveals seven new financial institutions under investigation
At least 13 financial institutions are being investigated by Republicans in Congress for colluding with the federal government to spy on Americans after the January 6 protests looking for 'extremism' indicators.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government led by top Republican Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is investigating 'collusion' between U.S. banks and federal agencies in the aftermath of the Capitol riot.
The Biden administration worked with banks to comb through 'extremism' indicators like the purchase of a religious text, like a Bible, or searches including the terms 'MAGA' and 'TRUMP,' according to shocking revelations by the committee.
Bank of America, Chase, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Citi Bank and Truist were already being targeted in the probe looking to expose how the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the FBI worked together.
Now, DailyMail.com can first reveal that seven other financial firms are also under investigation for ties to an FBI and FinCEN plot to spy on Americans' private banking transactions without first obtaining a warrant.
It’s that the institutions rolled over without a warrant that’ll get them in trouble.
Charles Schwab, HSBC, MUFG, PayPal, Santander, Standard Chartered and Western Union have all been asked to turn over documents and communications with FinCEN and the FBI to the committee, according to letters exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com.
'The Committee and Select Subcommittee remain concerned about how and to what extent federal law enforcement and financial institutions continue to spy on Americans by weaponizing backdoor information sharing and casting sprawling classes of transactions, purchase behavior, and protected political or religious expression as potentially 'suspicious' or indicative of 'extremism,'' the letters to the institutions said.
'Documents obtained by the Committee and Select Subcommittee show that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) circulated concerning materials,' to each of the seven additional firms Jordan wrote.
Charles Schwab, MUFG, PayPal, Santander, Standard Chartered and Western Union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
HSBC declined DailyMail.com's request for comment.
'This kind of warrantless financial surveillance raises serious concerns about the federal government's respect for Americans' privacy and fundamental civil liberties,' Jordan wrote in a separate letter to Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen, also obtained by DailyMail.com.
According to investigators, FinCEN and the FBI received data on 211 individuals from the Bank of America in a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) on January 17, 2021.
But the SAR was only sent after the FBI and FinCEN asked U.S. banks to scour customer transactions for key terms like 'MAGA' and 'Trump' to identify 'extremism' in a memo distributed in the aftermath of January 6.
The federal agencies provided the financial institutions 'thresholds' for which an SAR should be raise, according to Peter Sullivan, the FBI's former financial sector liaison.
He sat for a transcribed interview with the weaponization committee on April 9.
According to the 'threshold' set by the FBI and FinCEN, Bank of America then sent the data of the 211 individuals.
'Given this coordination, the Committee and Select Subcommittee are concerned that the federal government, through the FBI and FinCEN, sent similar or identical thresholds to other financial institutions that manipulated the SAR filing process to elicit the information and transaction history of individuals without any allegation of federal criminal conduct,' the letter to Yellen said.
When pressed on the Treasury's FinCEN materials circulated to top financial institutions during a February Congressional hearing, Yellen dodges lawmakers' questions, responding once 'I promise a thorough look into everything.'
After Bank of America sent over the list of 211 customers' whose transactions met the federal 'thresholds,' Sullivan requested additional transaction history.
He asked that Bank of America send over any 'weapons-related transactions.'
Four Bank of America customers out of the original 211 qualified.
This prompted 'criminal background queries' into the four customers.
Later, four federal agents were deployed to three FBI field offices to investigate those individuals.
After the investigations were complete, the FBI uploaded their findings to a portal and sent out 'a number of leads' on additional persons of interst.
But, according to the then-Section Chief of the FBI's Domestic Terrorism Operations Selection Steve Jensen, the leads were pulled because they 'lacked allegations of federal criminal conduct.'
Posted by: Skidmark ||
04/26/2024 00:00 ||
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[241 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
Wells Fargo just upped my electronic transfer limits. Now I can move up to $50k every 30 days.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/26/2024 6:49 Comments ||
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#6
Is the investigation for the purposes of legislation or are they just fishing for votes?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/26/2024 10:25 Comments ||
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#7
Snowden exposed this illegal spying. But the US Right just called him a traitor. Oh, well! You were warned. Now come the consequences. Enjoy being debanked. Surely you can find people still willing to accept cash for the next few years. Until digital money which you will be excited to sign up for because it gets rid of troublesome pocket change.
[RedState] One of LA County District Attorney George Gascon's top employees, Assistant District Attorney of Ethics and Integrity Operations Diana Teran, has been arrested on 11 felony charges related to the "unauthorized use of data from confidential, statutorily-protected peace officer files." According to a press release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Teran "accessed computer data including numerous confidential peace officer files in 2018, while working as a Constitutional Policing Advisor at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and, after joining the LADA in January 2021, impermissibly used that data at the LADA."
Sources familiar with the events described in the warrant and the investigation have given RedState additional details. The sources requested anonymity since they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Starting in June 2018, when Alex Villanueva made a good showing in the primary election for LA County Sheriff against his former boss, then-incumbent Sheriff Jim McDonnell, Teran improperly accessed and downloaded the personnel files of Villanueva and other LASD employees who supported his campaign. Sources say this was done at the direction of county Inspector General Max Huntsman, who is also currently under investigation by AG Bonta.
Teran's actions ramped up in November 2018 when underdog Villanueva unseated McDonnell, marking the first time an incumbent Sheriff lost re-election in 104 years. The weekend before Villanueva was sworn in, according to sources, Huntsman sent Teran into the Sheriff's office with an external hard drive and instructions to gather additional personnel files.
About a month after Villanueva took office he got wind of what had happened and alerted the California AG's office and the FBI. The FBI told Villanueva's office they'd provide technical assistance but there was nothing they could really do, and the AG's office gave Villanueva's office the go-ahead to investigate themselves.
Villanueva then tasked a deputy who was an IT expert with investigating the breach. Sources say that expert found that Teran had improperly accessed and copied thousands of personnel files, which accounts were used to access the system, and found emails instructing which files to obtain and when.
That information was turned over to the AG's office "several years ago," according to the source, eventually leading to today's arrest.
Sources speaking to RedState say they cannot share specific examples of how Teran impermissibly used the data once she was in Gascon's office at this time.
After Villanueva took office, Teran went to work at the Office of the Inspector General with Huntsman.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/26/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
Predicted punishment - 40 hours of community service mowing grass in a cemetery, $50 fine, a slap on the wrist by the CA Bar and a jail sentence of... time served!
I do wonder about anyone with "Ethics" in her title. Especially if it's "her" title.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/26/2024 11:18 Comments ||
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#6
If a Democrat hack like AG Bonta had this woman arrested she must have screwed up really bad.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/26/2024 12:42 Comments ||
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#7
Villanueva is not the kind of guy who will play ball with crooks like Bonta and Gascon. He must have found a way to pressure them into arresting Teran because otherwise I don't think they would have.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/26/2024 12:59 Comments ||
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[GEO.TV] The indictment-plagued former US president Donald Trump took a jibe at a person whom the Republican continuously criticised for being weak, and slow-moving.
The former Attorney General Bill Barr endorsed Donald Trump despite their disagreement, however, he believed that Joe Biden and Democrats Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
are far greater than the former president.
"The Biden administration is in fact the greater threat to democracy," the 72-year-old former AG told Fox News Saturday, calling them a "heavy-handed bunch of thugs".
Last year, he told NBC News that "I had made clear that he strongly opposed Trump for the nomination and would not endorse him."
The 77-year-old Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social Thursday: "Wow! Former AG Bill Barr, who let a lot of great people down by not investigating Voter Fraud in our Country, has just Endorsed me for President despite the fact that I called him ’Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy’ [New York Post!]."
"Based on the fact that I greatly appreciate his wholehearted Endorsement, I am removing the word ’Lethargic’ from my statement. Thank you Bill," the Republican presumptive nominee said.
[RedState] On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), by a 3-2 vote, reinstated the Obama-era net neutrality rule.
The 3-2 vote along partisan lines is a victory for Democrats, who have pushed for this type of regulation for the last two decades and say it’s necessary for consumer protection, fair competition and national security.
The rules, which prevent broadband providers from blocking and throttling consumers’ internet traffic, were repealed in 2017 during the Trump era. The order also reclassifies broadband as a telecom service, as the 2015 rules did, expanding the agency’s authority to regulate internet networks. An earlier version of the rules was struck down by a court in 2014.
This may prove futile, as an incoming Trump administration could simply repeal the rule again. But for the time being, the policy stands, barring any future legal challenge.
The FCC's Chair, Jessica Rosenworcel, released a statement:
"I think in a modern digital economy we should have a national net neutrality policy and make clear the nation’s expert on communications has the ability to act when it comes to broadband," FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said ahead of the vote. "In our post-pandemic world, we know that broadband is a necessity, not a luxury."
Democratic commissioners stressed that the plan is not an effort to regulate the prices that broadband providers charge consumers, which has been a source of telecom industry anxiety for years.
This rule does, however, effectively regulate the prices that broadband providers charge consumers, as it disallows high-volume customers from being charged a higher periodic rate than lower-volume consumers. If that's not regulating prices, it's not at all clear what might be.
Republican members of the FCC disagreed sharply.
"It’s all just shifting sands," Brendan Carr, the senior GOP commissioner, said of Democrats’ net neutrality rationales. "All fall apart under casual scrutiny."
He blamed Democrats’ pursuit of the regulatory framework on 2014 pressure from then-President Barack Obama and said the issue has become "civic religion for activists on the left."
The new net neutrality rule will go into effect 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register. The date for that publication has not yet been released.
Telecom industry organizations may challenge the rule in court. In 2015, the Obama administration fended off a similar legal challenge to the net neutrality rule then in place, when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the rule to stand in a 2-1 vote. At that time, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) cuttingly described net neutrality as "Obamacare for the Internet."
There will be other challenges to the rule as well: FCC Chair Rosenworcel and the other Commissioners will be testifying before the House Energy and Commerce telecom subcommittee on May 7th, during which a discussion of the net neutrality rule is more than likely.
#5
Legally challenge it while it is place so that we don’t play ping pong with the 1st Amendment til Guam capsizes.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/26/2024 10:18 Comments ||
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#6
The big telecom companies can do the heavy legal fee lifting on this.
Get a president who keeps the SCROTUS majority at least somewhat conservative and net screwtality will die again.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/26/2024 10:30 Comments ||
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#7
The courts have been good on this sort of thing. But they do take an awfully long time to decide--especially if it goes all the way to the Supreme Court. So we get stuck with these ukases for 2-3 years until they're finally struck down.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/26/2024 11:20 Comments ||
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[FoxNews] The US-led effort received support from 60 member states but Russia's veto nullifies it.
A U.S.-led resolution that would prevent using nuclear weapons in outer space received dozens of co-sponsors, but Russia vetoed the measure amid reports it has deployed a weapon that can destroy satellites.
"The detonation of a nuclear weapon in space would destroy satellites that are vital to communications, agriculture, national security, and more worldwide, with grave implications for sustainable development, and other aspects of international peace and security," the U.S. Mission to the United Nations wrote in a press release prior to the vote.
"The diverse group of cosponsors of this resolution reflects the strong shared interest in avoiding such an outcome," the statement read. "We join these Member States in calling on the Security Council to meet this moment today and adopt the resolution unanimously, consistent with its mandate to maintain international peace and security."
The U.S. and Japan presented the resolution to the U.N. Security Council for a vote on Wednesday, but Russia shot the measure down. Prior to the vote, Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky reported that his country's initial impression was that the resolution served as "yet another propaganda stunt by Washington" and called it a "very politicized" effort "divorced from reality," The Associated Press reported.
The draft resolution, which received backing from 60 member states, states that "the prevention of an arms race in outer space would avert a grave danger for international peace and security." It affirms that countries that ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty must comply with their obligations.
#6
Regime change in Moscow now. If Putin puts nukes in space we're screwed. We must not wait until it's too late. Pile up troops on the border and GO! It's not that far to Moscow and it's summer.
#8
We must not wait until it's too late. Pile up troops on the border and GO! It's not that far to Moscow and it's summer.
And *that*, my dears, is why Russia is currently grinding away at Ukraine to get a defensible position. As Besoeker points it, it did work rather well back in the day. Does the name 'Stalingrad' ring a bell?
#9
Guess I'm not the only one getting secondhand buzzed from the billowing clouds of sarc bark.
The Watch on the Bug
As the Motherland slumbered, McCoy
Massed his might on the border, then...
"OI!"
And the Hitlerite horde
That was Herbie? He ROARED
Down the highway to... Moscow!
Hooo, boy. ;-)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 
...every time you hear the phrase 
[FoxNews] The US-led effort received support from 60 member states but Russia's veto nullifies it.
