By: Thomas Prieto
The Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act of 1970, better known as the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, requires banks to create and keep specific records, which the government can search, often in attempts to detect and prevent money laundering. In the past, enforcement of the Bank Secrecy Act has been relatively lax, but there are indications that enforcement is on the rise.
The three major requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act for financial institutions, according to the below linked article, are 1) “implementing an anti-money laundering program, 2) reporting suspicious transactions, 3) conducting due diligence for private banking and correspondent bank accounts involving foreign persons.” The Bank Secrecy Act empowers the Treasury Department to examine all these records it requires.
It should be interesting to see whether the government’s increased enforcement may once again raise the issues in United States v. Miller. In that case was whether the plaintiff’s bank records were seized illegally in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The Court held that Miller had no right to privacy in his bank records. The documents subpoenaed were not ‘private documents.’ Rather, they were the bank’s business records.