At least 13 financial institutions are under investigation by congressional Republicans for colluding with the federal government to spy on Americans after the January 6 protests, looking for indicators of ” extremism”.
The House Select Subcommittee on Militarization of the Federal Government, led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is investigating “collusion” between U.S. banks and federal agencies in the wake of the U.S. riot. Capitol.
The Biden administration has worked with banks to comb through indicators of “extremism” such as purchasing a religious text, such as a Bible, or searches including the terms “MAGA” and “TRUMP,” according to the committee’s shocking revelations.
Bank of America, Chase, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Citi Bank and Truist were already targeted in the investigation aimed at revealing how the The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the The FBI worked together.
Today, DailyMail.com can first reveal that seven other financial companies are also being investigated for links to an FBI and FinCEN plot to spy on Americans’ private banking transactions without first obtaining a mandate.
Charles Schwab, HSBC, MUFG, PayPal, Santander, Standard Chartered and Western Union were all asked to turn over documents and communications with FinCEN and the FBI to the committee, according to letters obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.
Dry. of the US Treasury. Janet Yellen told lawmakers in February that she did not know much about the monitoring instructions issued by FinCEN after January 6.
The House Judiciary Committee revealed in January that U.S. Treasury officials had circulated a memo telling financial institutions how to spot indicators of extremism, such as the purchase of trips to Washington, D.C. or religious texts, around January 6, 2021.
“The Committee and Select Subcommittee remain concerned about the manner in which and to what extent federal law enforcement and financial institutions continue to spy on Americans using backdoor information sharing and sprawling categories of transactions, purchasing behavior and political or religious expressions protected from potentially “suspicious” or indicative of “extremism”, indicate the letters addressed to the institutions.
“Documents obtained by the Committee and Select Subcommittee show that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has disseminated documents regarding,” Jordan wrote to each of the seven additional companies.
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 type 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. Janet Yellen, also obtained by DailyMail.com.
According to investigators, FinCEN and the FBI received data on 211 individuals from Bank of America in a suspicious activity report (SAR) on January 17, 2021.
But the SAR was sent only after the FBI and FinCEN asked U.S. banks to scan customer transactions for key terms like “MAGA” and “Trump” to identify “the extremism” in a note distributed the day after January 6.
Federal agencies have set “thresholds” for financial institutions at which a SAR should be raised, according to Peter Sullivan, the FBI’s former financial industry liaison.
He attended a transcribed interview with the Arms Committee on April 9.
According to the “threshold” set by the FBI and FinCEN, Bank of America then sent the data of 211 people.
“Given this coordination, the Committee and Select Subcommittee are concerned that the federal government, through the FBI and FinCEN, may have sent similar or identical thresholds to other financial institutions that manipulated the process of filing SARs to obtain information and transaction history from individuals without any allegations of federal criminal conduct,” the letter to Yellen said.
Asked about Treasury’s FinCEN documents released to major financial institutions during a congressional hearing in February, Yellen dodged questions from lawmakers, once replying, “I promise a thorough review of everything.”
After Bank of America sent a list of 211 customers whose transactions met federal “thresholds,” Sullivan requested additional transaction history.
He demanded that Bank of America turn over all “arms-related transactions” to him.
Four Bank of America customers out of the initial 211 were qualified.
This resulted in “criminal history inquiries” from all four clients.
Later, four federal agents were deployed to three FBI field offices to investigate these individuals.
Once the investigations were completed, the FBI uploaded its findings to a portal and sent out “a number of leads” on other people of interest.
But, according to Steve Jensen, then-chief of the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Operations Screening Section, the leads were removed because they “lacked allegations of federal criminal conduct.”
Federal agencies have set “thresholds” for financial institutions at which a SAR should be raised, according to Peter Sullivan, the FBI’s former financial industry liaison.
Bank of America sent its customers’ private financial data to federal officials to help them investigate crimes related to the January 6, 2021 protest at the Capitol.
This means that even if these individuals met the “thresholds” set by the FBI and FinCEN, they were not actually under investigation for an alleged crime.
“Given this coordination, the Committee and Select Subcommittee are concerned that the federal government, through the FBI and FinCEN, may have sent similar or identical thresholds to other financial institutions that manipulated the process of filing SARs to obtain information and transaction history of individuals without any allegations of federal criminal conduct,” the letter to Yellen continues.
The committee also obtained documents indicating officials suggest banks querying purchases with keywords such as “Dick’s Sporting Goods” could be markers of extremism.
In the aftermath of January 6, FinCEN even suggested that banks examine transactions at sporting and leisure supply stores like Cabela’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Bass Pro Shops to detect customers who might be “extremists.”
Additionally, officials also warned banks against indicators of “extremism,” such as purchasing a religious text, such as a Bible, or searching for searches that include the terms “MAGA” and “TRUMP.”
In March, Jordan sent letters to GoFundMe and Eventbrite asking them to cooperate with the committee’s ongoing investigation.
House Republicans say the federal government has urged crowdfunding platforms to “scrutinize” their personal transactions and “report fees based on protected political and religious expression.”
The federal government also created “profiles” on Americans kept in a “secret portal” shared with companies to identify customers’ levels of extremism, Jordan said.
An interface shared between more than 650 companies and federal officials holds a “secret portal” containing sensitive data on American citizens, the Ohio Republican warned during a March 6 hearing.
Jordan said conservatives and Christians were targets of FinCEN surveillance
“The federal government is building profiles on the American people. And the profile is not based on criminal conduct, but on political beliefs,” Jordan said at the time.
“And if you have the wrong political beliefs, you are potentially a violent extremist domestically.”
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