Weaponization Panel’s Findings on Financial Institutions Prompt Privacy Resolution

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A watchdog group is pushing Bank of America to conduct an inquiry in light of revelations from a House panel probing weaponization of government that financial institutions are providing customers’ information to the FBI and Treasury Department. 

The National Legal and Policy Center submitted a shareholder resolution asking that the Bank of America’s board conduct a review. The bank, NLPC proposed, should provide a public report “concerning the legality and judgment of management’s decision-making, and insufficient disclosure specificity, regarding the dissemination to government agencies of customers’ personal information.”

“If Bank of America was more transparent about how they disclose information, at least customers could look and say, ‘I want to do business with Bank of America,’ or ‘I don’t feel comfortable doing business with Bank of America,’” Paul Chesser, director of the corporate integrity project for the National Legal and Policy Center, told The Daily Signal on Wednesday. 

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a report critical of numerous financial institutions, Bank of America among them. 

The House’s Dec. 6 report, titled “Financial Surveillance in the United States: How the Federal Government Weaponized the Bank Secrecy Act to Spy on Americans,” follows an interim report March 6 from the House. 

“The FBI has manipulated the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filing process to treat financial institutions as de facto arms of law enforcement, issuing ‘requests,’ without legal process, that amount to demands for information related to certain persons or activities it considers ‘suspicious,’” the new report says. 

The report refers to the protest and riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as lawmakers certified the November 2020 election.

“In the days and weeks after Jan. 6, 2021, the FBI coordinated with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to encourage financial institutions across the country to scour their data and file SARs on hundreds of Americans, if not more, without any clear criminal nexus,” the House report continues. 

The federal government’s “access to Americans’ private data is widespread and virtually unchecked,” it adds.

The NLPC submitted the shareholder resolution to Bank of America last month for its annual shareholder meeting, typically held in April. The center shared the resolution with The Daily Signal. 

“Where else did this happen? There are FBI offices across the country with cases not as high profile as Jan. 6,” NLPC’s Chesser said.  

A Bank of America spokesperson had no comment for this story for The Daily Signal. 

But in reported statements last year, Bank of America said it followed all applicable laws in interacting with the Treasury Department and law enforcement. 

The bank also reportedly said the interactions began when the Treasury Department urgently gathered major banks and law enforcement Jan. 15, 2021, and shared information regarding potential criminal activity that could disrupt the upcoming inauguration of Joe Biden as president. 

“We have cooperated with the committee as they evaluate whether the laws we complied with should be changed,” Bank of America previously said.

In an email statement to The Daily Signal, the FBI said it protects the rights of Americans, but declined to comment on the House report.

“While we have no comment on the report, as a general matter the FBI frequently receives information from the private sector about possible criminal activity,” the FBI statement says. It adds:

Financial institutions are required under the Bank Secrecy Act to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS) on activity they deem reportable, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) shares the information with law enforcement. The FBI cannot open an investigation without evidence of a federal criminal violation or a threat to national security. We follow the law and the facts, and we never open an investigation based solely on First Amendment activity.”

However, the National Legal and Policy Center’s shareholder resolution says the information shared with government falls outside the scope of what is required by law. 

The proposed shareholder resolution also refers to the Capitol protest and riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

“As BofA’s release of customer data relate[d] to the findings in the Weaponization Subcommittee report, the evidence shows no firearms were used at the Jan. 6, 2021 incident, and no one at the U.S. Capitol was injured or killed with one, except one woman protester by an officer,” the shareholder resolution says. 

“Thus,” it adds, “the company’s actions fall outside the scope of U.S. disclosure laws, and are incongruent with BofA’s assurances that it keeps customer information private. As a result, the company deceived its customers and betrayed their trust.”

The NLPC’s shareholder resolution also says of Bank of America: “The company’s customer privacy and security disclosures are weak and vague as they pertain to release of data to authorities, stating only that it shares personal information with ‘government agencies as required by laws and regulations.’”

The 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, aimed at preventing money laundering or terrorist financing, authorizes the Treasury Department to impose reporting obligations on financial institutions. The law requires banks to file reports, such as Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs, and Currency Transaction Reports, or CTRs, with the federal government reflecting customers’ financial activities.

The House report asserts that the FBI “gets around the requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act.” It says that at least one financial institution requested a legal process from the FBI for information sought by the bureau, but adds that “all too often the FBI appeared to receive no pushback.” 

“In sum, by providing financial institutions with lists of people that it views as generally ‘suspicious’ on the front end, the FBI has turned this framework on its head and contravened the Fourth Amendment’s requirements of particularity and probable cause,” the House report says. 

The National Legal and Policy Center’s shareholder resolution cites the March interim report from the House, which concluded that Bank of America “voluntarily and without legal process, provided the FBI with a list of names of all individuals who used a BofA credit or debit card in the Washington, D.C. region between the dates of Jan. 5 and Jan. 7, 2021.”

The post Weaponization Panel’s Findings on Financial Institutions Prompt Privacy Resolution appeared first on The Daily Signal.