A confidential source of Data Republican (Small-r)'s reveals that a PATRIOT Act provision meant to track terrorists' funds could prove to be a goldmine of information about NGO funding — and that might be the real reason Washington is so afraid of Elon Musk and his DOGE boys.
"One of the lasting impacts of the PATRIOT Act," Data R posted her source informed her, "is its requirement for financial institutions to report all transactions over [$10,000 (listed as $3,000 in Data R's original post but quickly corrected)] to the U.S. Treasury—a threshold that has never been adjusted for inflation."
The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is in charge of processing all that data and going after the bad guys or whoever. But that's where things get weird, according to Data R's source.
Stick a pin in that thought for a moment because you need to know a little more about how reporting works.
It's also a crime to "structure" deposits and transfers to get under the $10,000 cap. If Ahmed al-Terrorlover makes several $9,900 wire transfers, that could be construed as a financial crime — even if the transfers are 100% not terror-related. Ahmed could be buying Puppy Chow for homeless dogs and still be guilty of structuring. Banks look for suspicious activities, however innocuous they might be, and report them to FinCEN. So it's always been my assumption that reporting includes anyone with more than just a checking account that approaches zero right before payday.
With that in mind, Data R's source explained that the data-sharing framework between the banks and FinCEN, "originally intended to track illicit financial activity, also allows financial institutions to share transaction insights with each other under absolute legal immunity."
Creepy? You betcha. But there might be an opportunity here for DOGE to hoist the Deep State by its own petard.
Since the banks are already doing private police work, they have "a comprehensive, real-time view of global money movements," Data R wrote. "While regulatory safeguards exist to ensure this data is used strictly for financial crime enforcement, it's highly likely that the Treasury’s vast database holds key records on NGO funding flows."
Oh my. Do you see where this is going now?
And Another Thing: Data R's source also noted "a growing concern that Treasury itself isn’t actively monitoring this data—outsourcing the heavy lifting to financial institutions instead. Whether due to oversight or intent, this leaves critical financial crime data untouched at the federal level." So whatever those privacy-busting regulations are doing, it might not be what they were intended to do. Surprised?
Data R's source concluded, "Maybe this is why everyone is so keen to keep DOGE out of the Treasury systems. It isn’t about Social Security checks, it is more about people rooting through the FinCEN database" and getting an unimpeded, inside look at where our money has gone.
"FinCEN’s data still deserves serious analysis."
Oh, hell yes, it does.
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