Senator calls for probe of mass surveillance tool used by U.S. law enforcement

Euronet Worldwide

18/01/2023 22:05

Jan 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden on Wednesday
called for the Justice Department inspector general to
investigate federal, state and local law enforcement access to a
database of more than 150 million money transfers, citing
concerns it disproportionately affects minorities and low-income
individuals.
    Law enforcement agencies have routinely accessed the vast
trove of money transfer records without court oversight, Wyden
said. 
    The Democratic senator's office has been investigating the
mass surveillance program for a year and has found that hundreds
of law enforcement agencies have access to the money transfer
database, which is housed inside an Arizona nonprofit known as
the Transaction Record Analysis Center (TRAC).
    The TRAC database was created as part of a 2014 money
laundering settlement between the Arizona attorney general's
office and Western Union  WU.N .
    Wyden's letter to Justice Department Inspector General
Michael Horowitz also alleged that the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) and one of its sub-units, Homeland Security
Investigations (HSI), hid key elements of the surveillance
program from him during a February 2022 briefing.
    A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not
immediately reply to a request for comment. TRAC could not be
immediately reached for comment.
    The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, DHS and Arizona
attorney general's office have all asked for data from money
transfer companies and directed them to send data to TRAC, Wyden
said.
    Western Union, MoneyGram International  MGI.O , Viamericas
Corp, and Euronet Worldwide  EEFT.O  are among the companies
that have shared customer data with TRAC in bulk, he added. 
    "This unorthodox arrangement between state law enforcement,
DHS and DOJ agencies to collect bulk money-transfer data raises
a number of concerns about surveillance disproportionately
affecting low-income, minority and immigrant communities,"
Wyden's letter said. 
    Wyden announced in March that HSI issued custom summonses, a
type of subpoena, for millions of money transfer records between
Mexican residents and people living in four U.S. states.
    Wednesday's announcement regarding the surveillance was
broader than previously known. It listed 22 countries and one
U.S. territory involved in the relevant transfers, including 
Columbia, Bolivia, Ukraine, Hong Kong, Costa Rica and Venezuela.
 (Reporting by Suzanne Smalley
Editing by Bill Berkrot)
 ((suzanne.smalley@thomsonreuters.com;))