Posted on 09/11/2006 2:15:13 AM PDT by JOAT
Banks are reporting even slightly 'abnormal' transactions to comply with the law. The result: A deluge of reports, a lot of confusion and more government intrusion.
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It's called the Suspicious Activity Report, or SAR, and critics say it victimizes honest citizens who are conducting legitimate financial activities through legitimate banking channels, while generating a flood of useless paperwork and burdening financial institutions with billions of dollars in costs.
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In total, 919,230 SARs were filed in 2005. You cannot find out if one has been filed on you; anyone revealing that information is breaking the law.
What can trigger a SAR? Almost anything out of the ordinary that rouses the suspicion of the personnel where the transaction took place. According to their rules, any group of transactions totaling $5,000 or more that "is not the sort in which the particular customer would normally be expected to engage" can cause enough suspicion to create a SAR. The reports are filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a division of the Department of the Treasury, and shared with law enforcement.
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Scared of paying off a debt
Unlike other government spying programs, this one is out in the open -- and it's creating fear among people doing ordinary banking activities. Take a recent college graduate from Columbus, Ohio, whose parents offered an interest-free loan to pay off his high-interest credit-card debt. While surfing online, a message-board post caught his attention.
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"They could report you to Homeland Security if payments deviate from the norm. It sounded scary and made me nervous. I think it's ludicrous that anyone should be afraid of paying off their debt."
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.moneycentral.msn.com ...
That was shouted dwon when people found out about it.
Now, with the WOT, everyone finally got something worse.
Withdrawls of $5K are quite common. See 'em every day.
Meet Mr. Unintended Consequence.
"Being rich in and of itself - is not a crime-yet."
There. Fixed it.
$10,000 has been a red flag for years to track money laundering.
This article is full of B.S.!!! SAR's are not what this
POS reports them to be. Once again the DBM hit and run
smear is full of misinformation and half truths...
I believe it's down to $3,000. And I hope they do find the bad guys.
You and me both. I'm affiliated with the "Gang That Couldn't Pay Attention".
The point of the Homeland Security Legislation is two fold; the first is to surface potential and actual money laundering. The second is to ensure that banks do not do business with people or groups or countries that are on a proscribed list (Iran being one).
The whole effort is to block the movement of cash between terrorist parties both outside and inside the U.S.
We bought a new car out of town a couple of years ago, and paid cash. We had to take the certified checks in 5,000.00 increments and as far as I know there never was any problem whatsoever.
Have something to hide, do you?
I don't want to get your knickers in a twist......but KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER is alive and well.
... And on steroids, now, apparantly.
Indded it is. Check out this application from the government website. YOU ARE A "SUSPECT" if you withdraw 5K from your account. Mind-blowing document. pdf file.
http://www.fdic.gov/formsdocuments/6710-06.pdf
There is a lot of data mining going on out there to find unusual banking activity.
Yes. I have a private life. Bend over on govt command? No thanks. You can have it.
I don't see a box to check for "$xxxxx.xx commercial wire transfer transferred to Visa in 24 Hours", but if it makes them feel better.....
Can't say I like it much, but I have already paid witholding.
There are regs with mandatory filing, but the government also leaves it up to the bank's discretion to file for any transaction that doesn't meet the mandatory filing requirements, but is still suspicious given the unique circumstances. Thus, the banks are probably playing CYA by reporting almost everything.
Anybody who doesn't like this, but supports the War on Drugs as it is being executed, prepare for some cognitive dissonance.
Well, terrorism can be surprisingly affordable. Let me show you some of our attractive financing plans... ;-)
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