Federal law enforcement exploited the Suspicious Activity Report system to access and surveil Americans’ private financial data without warrants or probable cause, according to a report from the House Judiciary Committee.
The FBI "manipulated" the SAR filing process by pressuring banks to file reports on individuals the FBI deems "suspicious," making financial institutions "de facto arms of law enforcement," the interim report released Friday said. SARs do not require any legal process, granting officials "virtually unchecked access" to "confidential and highly sensitive information."
The Republican-led oversight committee accused the FBI of circumventing the Bank Secrecy Act, which specifies that it is a bank’s responsibility to file a SAR when it identifies a "suspicious transaction relevant to a possible violation of law or regulation."
The Friday report has shed "new light on the decaying state of Americans’ financial privacy and the federal government’s widespread, warrantless surveillance programs," the committee said.
"Documents show that federal law enforcement increasingly works hand-in-glove with financial institutions, obtaining virtually unchecked access to private financial data and testing out new methods and new technology to continue the financial surveillance of American citizens," the report reads.
The committee first launched its investigation last summer after a whistleblower revealed that, following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, Bank of America "voluntarily and without legal process" turned over to the the FBI a list of individuals who used its credit or debit cards in the Washington, D.C., area during that period, Fox News reported.
After the Capitol riot, the FBI, coordinating with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, "encourag[ed] financial institutions across the country to scour their data and file SARs on hundreds of Americans, if not more, without any clear criminal nexus," according to the House report.
The House committee said that "all Americans should be disturbed by how their financial data is collected, made accessible to, and searched by federal and state officials, including law enforcement and regulatory agencies," warning that "the future leaves very little financial activity beyond the purview of modern financial institutions or the government’s prying eyes."
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