Federal Law Enforcement Manipulates SAR System to Gain Access to Americans’ Financial Information Without Warrants or Probable Cause, House Judiciary Committee Says
The House Judiciary Committee recently released a report claiming that federal law enforcement has been manipulating the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) system to gain access to Americans’ financial information without warrants or probable cause.
According to the report, the FBI has been using the SAR system 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’.” This allows the FBI to circumvent the requirement of obtaining legal process before accessing Americans’ financial information.
The committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan, also found that the FBI has been using the SAR system to gain access to confidential and highly sensitive information without any legal process. The report states that at least one financial institution requested legal process from the FBI, but “all too often the FBI appeared to receive no pushback.”
The FBI responded to the report, stating that it frequently receives information from the private sector about possible criminal activity and that financial institutions are required to file SARs on activity they deem reportable, which are then shared with law enforcement. The agency emphasized that it cannot open an investigation without evidence of a federal criminal violation or a threat to national security.
The report also shed light on the “decaying state of Americans’ financial privacy and the federal government’s widespread, warrantless surveillance programs.” The committee warned that the government’s ability to siphon off Americans’ sensitive financial data and place it in the hands of bureaucrats “erodes any remaining semblance of financial privacy in the United States.” The report calls for renewed safeguards to prevent the erosion of financial privacy in the United States.
