Questions for DHS Inspector General on Secret Surveillance Program

​PPSA recently reported on an unorthodox surveillance scheme in which the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) collected bulk data on Americans’ money wire transfers above $500. This data was shared with a non-profit, private-sector organization, which in turn shared it with hundreds of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
 
In the last week, disturbing facts have emerged about this program, as well as the need for answers to basic questions.
 
This program arose out of a surveillance effort by the Arizona attorney general’s office with the cooperation of two companies, Western Union and Maxitransfers, going back at least to 2010. Money-laundering settlements in 2014 by these two companies with the Arizona AG’s office somehow led to the creation of a non-profit entity, the Transaction Record Analysis Center (TRAC). Since then, the companies have sent their data from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico to TRAC, which has shared it with agencies from coast to coast.

• Despite the inclusion of Mexico in the collection of money transfers, PPSA has learned that many of the captured transfers were purely domestic, from U.S. citizen to U.S. citizen within the United States.

 

• Among the more than 6 million money transfers captured were some that involved targets in U.S. states beyond the four participating states. 

 

• The custom summonses used to order the two wire transfer companies appear to have no legal basis as probable cause warrants.

 
Sen. Ron Wyden, who revealed this program fresh on the heels of a somewhat similar collection of Americans’ bulk data by the CIA, is asking DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to investigate how this program originated and how it operated.
 
PPSA suggests the Inspector General’s investigation should also answer the following questions:

• How many and which federal, state, and local agencies accessed this data from TRAC?

 

• For what stated purposes did these agencies access data about money transfers between American citizens inside the United States? Was any of that data used as evidence to indict or convict U.S. citizens, and if so, were the defendants informed of the origin of this evidence?

 

• What guidance did DHS give internally about the legal authority to create a warrantless surveillance program of Americans? Did DHS base this program on Executive Order 12333?

 

• Why did DHS suspend this use of custom summonses to monitor money transfers around the time it briefed Sen. Wyden about the existence of this program?

 
As Sen. Wyden presses for answers in Washington, perhaps a state leader, say California Attorney General Rob Bonta, might want to launch an investigation of his own.