US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is responding to allegations that the US government and more than a dozen financial institutions worked together to spy on the transactions of US private banks.
The House Judiciary Committee recently released a memo accusing the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of urging banks to monitor their customers’ transactions and flag a list of keywords “without legal proceedings” as part of the investigation into the January 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill.
Now, in new testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, Secretary Yellen has answered a direct question about whether FinCEN has emailed search term suggestions such as “MAGA” and “Trump” to financial institutions.
“I am now aware that communication has taken place. I believe that in some cases financial institutions suggested this group of search terms that they had used and that had been helpful in identifying potential perpetrators of January 6…
It is a way to narrow the scope of the search for individuals who, based on other information available to the financial institutions, may have engaged in illegal behavior.”
Secretary Yellen says the search — which reportedly involved searching bank customers’ Zelle payments and messages — took place after the riots, but before President Biden was sworn in on January 20, 2021.
Ohio Republican and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan tells the Daily Mail that the searches were conducted without any warrants or pending charges against specific individuals.
“Through our work at the Weaponization Committee, we have discovered that financial institutions are sending U.S. information directly to the FBI, without warrants.
The FBI and FinCEN use banks to participate in fishing expeditions without any connection to criminal behavior. This should concern everyone regardless of party, and Secretary Yellen should reject this practice.”
According to the Daily Mail, a total of 13 financial institutions assisted the Treasury in the search, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Truist, Charles Schwab, HSBC, MUFG, PayPal, Santander, Standard Chartered and Western Union.
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