sierratimes.com
"Who’s Minding your Money?
By Wayne Hicks
Published 05. 27. 02 at 8:24 Sierra Time
Americans who send and receive money, even as part of day to day business procedures, are subject to far more scrutiny by the Federal Government than ever before, under the USA PATRIOT Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, and other so-called “anti-money-laundering” laws.
Money laundering is the attempt to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of illegally obtained money. Unfortunately, an accusation of money laundering is not an easy one to defend against, no matter how innocent you may be… and a number of innocent Americans have already been placed under surveillance or arrest, simply because money they send or receive appeared “suspicious” to a clerk at a store or bank, without any evidence to support that suspicion.
This is because Money Service Businesses (MSB’s), as well as Banks and other financial institutions, are now required by law to make such reports anytime you use cash to send money, or exceed certain limits on the amounts you send or receive. The fines and penalties these businesses are threatened for non-compliance are so severe that most of them admit that they prefer to err on the side of caution, filing such reports on most, if not all, of the transactions they are involved in.
In other words, they don’t care how innocent you are… it’s safer for them to finger you as a possible criminal and let Federal Authorities investigate (read: threaten, intimidate, harass, arrest, possibly shoot) you, than to take a chance that you might have been exactly what you appeared to be: somebody sending some money to help out a friend or relative. ..."
"...In addition, the clerk cannot even tell you that a report is to be filed! Federal law makes it illegal to disclose to you that the money order you just purchased will result in a Suspicious Activity Report!
Implicit in that last paragraph, and in the sections on “structuring” are a hidden potential for disaster: since you now know that certain transactions will result in your financial business, and possibly your entire life, being placed under scrutiny by the Federal Government, you are automatically suspect… if you use conventional MSB’s for sending and receiving money, but never send or receive any amount designed to trigger such a report, then you may be subject to having a SAR-MSB filed simply because your activity is not suspicious enough! ..." --more--
Regards, Don |
