Sen. Wyden: Money Transfer Surveillance Program Larger Than Previously Reported

The amount of money transfer data available to law enforcement is larger than previously reported.

The database includes 150 million such transfers from the United States to other countries, is growing and is accessible to more than 600 agencies without a court order, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Wednesday (Jan. 18), citing internal records related to the database obtained by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Critics of the program have said that the database includes personal information, is accessible by law enforcement without a warrant or probable cause, and is seen as a serious invasion of privacy and security.

Wyden revealed the existence of the data collection program in March 2022. In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, Wyden asked that agency to investigate if it had any such programs and noted that such activities are subject to supervision by Congress.

This week, Wyden said in a letter to the Justice Department that “The scope of this surveillance program and federal agencies’ role is far greater than initially revealed,” according to the WSJ.

The data that is maintained by the Transaction Record Analysis Center (TRAC) and shared with law enforcement includes the names of senders and recipients and the transaction amounts, according to the report.

The ACLU, which obtained documents on the program via a public records request, said in an article on its website that the program is an example of government overreach.

“The government should not be allowed to abuse subpoenas and sweep up millions of records on a huge number of people without any basis for suspicion,” the group wrote in its article. “This financial surveillance program is built on repeated violations of the law and must be shut down.”

TRAC Director Rich Lebel told the WSJ that the program needs to capture bulk data because money-transfer companies aren’t covered by the same know-your-customer (KYC) rules as banks, that it collects data only on transactions above $500 to avoid tracking common remittances and that it has resulted in hundreds of leads that resulted in law enforcement actions against criminals.

“It’s a law enforcement investigative tool,” Lebel said, per the report. “We don’t broadcast it to the world, but we don’t run from or hide from it either.”

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