Lawless Holder "Justice" Department Running Wild
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Two Alarming Examples
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Tech Companies Refusing To Keep Quiet On Subpoenas (for your accounts)
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Red State ^ | May 1st, 2014
The low level griping about law enforcement subpoenas requesting user information and instructing companies to not tell the subjects of the subpoenas has burst into full fledged rebellion.
From the Washington Post:
"This increasingly defiant industry stand is giving some of the tens of thousands of Americans whose Internet data gets swept into criminal investigations each year the opportunity to fight in court to prevent disclosures. Prosecutors, however, warn that tech companies may undermine cases by tipping off criminals, giving them time to destroy vital electronic evidence before it can be gathered."
Now Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Google have joined Yahoo in saying they will notify anyone whose accounts are the subject of an investigative diploma unless they receive a judicial gag order.
As citizens rely more and more on technology to communicate and store personal information, the abusive use of investigative subpoenas has become endemic.
Often investigators request enormous amounts of information and bully ISPs, etc., into keeping quiet about the subpoena denying the subject the opportunity to challenge the request in court.
As the Post notes:
"As this position becomes uniform across the industry, U.S. tech companies will ignore the instructions stamped on the fronts of subpoenas urging them not to alert subjects about data requests, industry lawyers say. Companies that already routinely notify users have found that investigators often drop data demands to avoid having suspects learn of inquiries.
“It serves to chill the unbridled, cost-free collection of data,” said Albert Gidari Jr., a partner at Perkins Coie who represents several technology companies. “And I think that’s a good thing.”
Naturally, the government is not amused that their backdoor to the Fourth Amendment has been taken away.
“These risks of endangering life, risking destruction of evidence, or allowing suspects to flee or intimidate witnesses are not merely hypothetical, but unfortunately routine,” department spokesman Peter Carr said, citing a case in which early disclosure put at risk a cooperative witness in a case. He declined to offer details because the case was under seal.
In other words, its secret and if I told you I’d have to kill you.
It is a sad state of affairs when we’ve come to the point that law enforcement is no longer assumed to be acting in good faith and the abuse is so widespread that virtually all the major technology players have ceased cooperation.
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'Operation Choke Point': Way Out of Control
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William M. Isaac APR 22, 2014
americanbanker.com
The Justice Department's "Operation Choke Point" is said to be targeted at online payday lenders that lend into states that prohibit payday lending. But the operation is being pushed far beyond its stated objective of targeting online payday lenders violating state laws and is having potentially devastating impact on lawful check cashing and small loan businesses. This in turn will cut off tens of millions of people from much needed access to money to meet emergency needs.According to the Washington Post (" Banks to payday lenders: Quit the business or we'll close your account," Danielle A. Douglas, April 11, 2014), one large bank informed a small financial firm in Minneapolis to get out of the payday lending business within 30 days or the bank would discontinue providing banking services to the firm.
Another much larger diversified financial firm — let's call it "FinCo" to protect the innocent — received the following letter from another large bank earlier this month:
Providing quality service to our clients has been one of the keys to our success at [Gotham Bank]. Toward that end, we are committed to understanding, and satisfying, the needs of our clients. Unfortunately, difficult decisions are sometimes necessary in order to accomplish these important goals. Gotham Bank has made the decision to exit the business of providing commercial banking services to check cashers and related businesses. ...
Based on the foregoing, please be advised that we are exercising our right ... to terminate your account relationship, effective July 30, 2014.
Please make arrangements to close the accounts listed on the attached schedule, and have any direct deposits and/or automatic debits re-directed, by the Termination Date. ...
Also, in conjunction with the above, we are hereby notifying you [that the Treasury Master Service Agreement between your company and Gotham Bank] shall be terminated as of the Termination Date. The Gotham Bank officer signing the letter added a personal handwritten note to the chief executive officer of FinCo: "[John] — I am so sorry that we have made this change. I have always enjoyed working with all the folks at FinCo. ..."
No matter what your personal view may be of payday lending or check cashing services, Operation Choke Point should be both alarming and repugnant. It is a direct assault on the democratic system and free-market economy that have made the United States the most powerful and prosperous nation in world history.
Without color of law and based on a political agenda, unelected bureaucrats at the Department of Justice are coordinating with some bank regulators to deny essential banking services to companies engaged in lawful business activities.
Bankers operating under the yoke of an oppressive regulatory regime are being cowed into compliance.
If lawful payday lenders and check cashers can be driven out of the banking system because someone in the government doesn't like them or what they do, what lawful businesses are next?
Thankfully, 23 members of Congress (Democrats and Republicans alike) have co-signed a letter to the Department of Justice expressing their deep concerns about Operation Choke Point driving lawful businesses out of the banking system. According to American Banker, state banking commissioners are adding their voices in opposition to federal agencies attempting to deny essential banking services to lawful, state-licensed firms.
It's time for the rest of us to get involved in this battle before we lose the freedoms that have made our country the most successful nation — with the strongest and most vibrant banking system — in the world. The place to debate whether payday lending or any other business should be allowed to operate and have access to the banking system is in the halls of Congress and state legislatures, not in the backrooms of government bureaucracies.
It doesn't seem to count for anything at the Justice Department, but Congress debated payday lending during the Dodd-Frank deliberations and concluded it is a service utilized and needed by millions of people, so it should not be eliminated and should be regulated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Mr. Isaac, a former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., is senior managing director and global head of financial institutions at FTI Consulting. Mr. Isaac and his firm provide services to many clients, including some short-term lenders.
Comments (22)
Bravo Bill Isaac. While Bill and I often disagree on issues, he nails it on this one and we are of one accord. DOJ's "Operation Choke Point" is more appropriate to 1930's Germany than to 2014 America. The only thing this DOJ operation is choking is the freedom of millions of Americans. More thought leaders need to stand up to this dangerous and misguided policy.
Posted by commobanker | Wednesday, April 23 2014 at 8:23AM ET
Thanks for standing, Bill Isaac. Defacto law making by out of control, politically oriented regulatory agencies must have the bright light of due process intensely focused on the abuse of power and position at its core.
Posted by AllThingsUnderbanked | Wednesday, April 23 2014 at 9:08AM ET
Thank you Mr. Isaac for going on the record. If only these bureaucrats would get on the receiving end of phone calls from consumers in desperate need of emergency financial help - fixing their car, paying a utility bill, filling a prescription for their medicine - they would allow Congress and the States and their constituents to determine the best course of action in regards to small dollar lending availability.
Posted by Jer Trihouse | Wednesday, April 23 2014 at 4:32PM
@Commobanker -- We always appreciate your passionate comments but please be judicious when making historical analogies. Operation Choke Point raises troubling questions about prosecutorial and regulatory zeal and due process, as Bill Isaac ably describes. Comparing it to Nazi Germany is a little over the top, though, and potentially offensive to Holocaust survivors, who endured much worse than petty bureaucrats. One can criticize without demonizing. Regards, MH
Posted by Marc Hochstein, Executive Editor, American Banker | Thursday, April 24 2014 at 2:00PM ET
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