Leslie R. Caldwell, former Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the DOJ, told a group of bankers while in office that they need to expand upon the ‘suspicious activity reports’ they are required to file on their customers by calling law enforcement directly on anyone withdrawing a large amount of cash, according to investor and financial blogger Simon Black.
Banks are already required to file ‘suspicious activity reports’ on their customers, with threats of fines and even jail time for directors if financial institutions don’t meet quotas.
But as investor and financial blogger Simon Black points out, last week, “A senior official from the Justice Department spoke to a group of bankers about the need for them to rat out their customers to the police.”
Assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell gave a speech in which he urged banks to “alert law enforcement authorities about the problem” so that police can “seize the funds” or at least “initiate an investigation”.
As Black highlights, according to the handbook for the Federal Financial Institution Examination Council, such suspicious activity includes, “Transactions conducted or attempted by, at, or through the bank (or an affiliate) and aggregating $5,000 or more…”
Black provides a chilling scenario under which an attempt to withdraw your own money from your bank account could end with a home visit from the cops.
“As you pull into your driveway later there’s an unexpected surprise waiting for you: two police officers would like to have a word with you about your intended withdrawal earlier,” writes Black, who accuses banks of already operating as “unpaid government spies”.
“Do you need to withdraw cash to purchase a used car from a private seller? Or perhaps you are pulling out some emergency cash for a loved one,” writes Mac Slavo.
“Either one of these activities are now considered suspicious and if your cash withdrawal amounts to even a few thousand dollars your bank teller is under a legal requirement to alert officials about your suspected criminal activity. And before you argue that you can’t possibly be a suspect because you have done nothing wrong, consider that even being suspected of being a suspect is now enough to land you on a terrorist watchlist in America.”
The war on cash is intensifying as authorities attempt to crack down on one of the few remaining modes of anonymity.
Over in France, Finance Minister Michel Sapin hailed the introduction of measures set to come into force in September which will restrict French citizens from making cash payments over 1,000 euros.
The new regulations, introduced in the name of fighting terrorism, will also see cash deposits of over 10,000 euros during a single month reported to anti-fraud authorities.
Meanwhile, in the UK, HSBC is now interrogating its account holders on how they earn and spend their money as well as restricting large cash withdrawals for customers from £5000 upwards.
Back in America, purchasing Amtrak train tickets with cash is being treated as a suspicious activity as part of a number of behaviors that are “indicative of criminal activity”.
Banks are also making it harder for customers to withdraw and deposit cash, with Chase imposing new capital controls that mandate identification for cash deposits and ban cash being deposited into another person’s account.
you can get a LOAN for $5,000,
but cant use your OWN SAVED MONEY. omg that makes a helluva lotta sense. smh
Stop using banks, problem solved. People make things alot more complicated than they really are. Eliminate the need for banks, they will eventually go broke and shut down its that simple. They are a business just like any other.
What a shame!
The DOJ and Banks are more crooked than the Mafia!
Time to get a nice fire safe for the house.
DOJ can shove it
If they do, I will withdraw $5000 and deposit it the next day and withdraw it the day after again, just to mess with them and waste their time. And I’ll do it in a black hoodie, too. I already have several white vans. Bwa haa haa haa haa haaaaaa….!
before it wa $10,000 now it’s $5,000? Like cops don’t have enough to do? How about suspicious transactions instead of all?!! They’ll be calling every home owner on a monthly basis at that level of business and how about small businesses that deal mostly in cash?!!! The DOJ already knows which accounts (foreign and domestic) that are let’s say questionable. Watch those and the money trail of those! Another aspect to this is the IRS to make it harder for those with cash on hand to make it harder to not use a bank. They can seize your assets you haveban nk but not the cash they don’t know about. That nonsense about the thrice $100 redesign, the $20 too is to get the hoarded bills turned in…, which would take forever to exchange without raising eyebrows.
So everyone who can afford to take $5,000 out of their account is a possible terrorist. The government is watching the citizens of this country more than the real terrorists.
So does this apply to politicians and IRS and the muslim in charge? Probably not, they make the rules but don’t abide by them.