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These are KYC checks so the information is very interesting if you're the average joe. the US Bank Secrecy act prohibits you from ever knowing the details of a

These are KYC checks so the information is very interesting if you're the average joe. the US Bank Secrecy act prohibits you from ever knowing the details of a SAR, or suspicious activity report. there are criminal punishments if a bank were to tell you a SAR had even been filed against you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspicious_activity_report https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspicious_activity_report if this agency does not capitulate to the demands of hackers, then 5.3 million people would suddenly know their SAR/KYC status. it would do quantifiable harm to the prosecution of financial crimes globally.

radlad 2y ago
From your link: > A 2020 Bank Policy Institute study found that American SARs elicited a response from law enforcement in a median of 4% of reports, and that a tiny subset of those responses resulted in arrest and conviction, suggesting that 90% to 95% of SARs reports were false positives of unlawful activity.[5] Anecdotally, I've heard of many people having issues with this system. I find the claim that "it would do quantifiable harm to the prosecution of financial crimes globally" technically true (it is quantifiable), but to be overall exaggerated as to its actual harm.
- kube-system 2y ago
  That's not surprising. There are plenty of suspicious things that aren't illegal. Moving $10k in cash around can often be legal, but could trigger a SAR. SARs aren't just supposed to catch illegal things. They catch suspicious things, and illegal things will be a small subset of those.
  - FireBeyond 2y ago
    Is it just cash? I was doing some freelancing and as I invoiced each month, I'd often generate a cashier's check from my business checking account to my personal checking, that varied between 9-12K a month. I was "warned" by my credit union about this and that there could be flags raised, but my response was, "what am I meant to do? That number is derived from my consulting hourly rate and the work I put in each month."
    - kube-system 2y ago
      No, I just picked one example, there are a lot of things that could trigger it
    - reaperman 2y ago
      I believe the way to avoid SAR here is to file for an LLC, then create a business account, then pay yourself whatever wage via direct deposit for 1099/W-2/capital divestment payments. I'm not saying that you should have to do that, but I believe it's the best way to avoid SAR.
      - panarky 2y ago
        When you own a company, you can direct that company to pay you. There are many names for the payments to owners, such as "dividend", "loan", "draw", etc. None of these payments are suspicious if both you and your business account for them properly. You don't need to disguise payments to owners as wages or 1099s, but you're free to do so if for some reason it's advantageous. But don't do it just for the appearance of legitimacy.
        reaperman 2y ago
        There are some rules that kind of establish a minimum amount you need to pay yourself for your own labor (either W-2 or 1099), I don’t think you can take 100% as capital divestments, but otherwise yes totally agree with you. I meant paying yourself however is most advantageous for your earnings/tax/savings situation.
FireBeyond 2y ago
KYC checks have in the past resulted in me being unable to open a bank account due to a "discrepancy" between my SSN and my DOB (due to me being an immigrant). The flip side of your comment is that 1 in 60 (including minors) people in the USA are on a watch list for financial crime. I think more worrying as a society is not the risk to prosecution of financial crimes (this list being uncovered does not erase evidence of previous or current financial crimes in progress) is how those 1 in 60 people got to be on such a list in the first place.
- kube-system 2y ago
  That doesn't really sound like a lot, in the scheme of things. Almost 1 in 3 Americans (adults) have been arrested for a felony crime. (edit: have a criminal record)
  - marcosdumay 2y ago
    > Almost 1 in 3 Americans (adults) have been arrested for a felony crime. That one is absurd. How do your governments (on all spheres) keep up? Do they even know who is arrested?
    - kube-system 2y ago
      They... keep records? It's not like they have to memorize it lol
      - marcosdumay 2y ago
        The keep searchable records so that criminals get to see a judge when their sentence finishes? Or they keep local records that nobody looks at or know if they are correct? Because if it's the first one, kudos for whoever created that system. Plenty of countries fail with way less prisoners/inhabitant.
        t-3 2y ago
        Every arrest is logged into a database run by the FBI, along with the data (ID, fingerprints, description, arrest records, etc.). I don't think all states/jurisdictions are part of the information sharing program, but the majority are at least, and some of that data is even shared internationally when people go through customs IIRC.

radlad 2y ago

From your link: > A 2020 Bank Policy Institute study found that American SARs elicited a response from law enforcement in a median of 4% of reports, and that a tiny subset of those responses resulted in arrest and conviction, suggesting that 90% to 95% of SARs reports were false positives of unlawful activity.[5] Anecdotally, I've heard of many people having issues with this system. I find the claim that "it would do quantifiable harm to the prosecution of financial crimes globally" technically true (it is quantifiable), but to be overall exaggerated as to its actual harm.

kube-system 2y ago
That's not surprising. There are plenty of suspicious things that aren't illegal. Moving $10k in cash around can often be legal, but could trigger a SAR. SARs aren't just supposed to catch illegal things. They catch suspicious things, and illegal things will be a small subset of those.
- FireBeyond 2y ago
  Is it just cash? I was doing some freelancing and as I invoiced each month, I'd often generate a cashier's check from my business checking account to my personal checking, that varied between 9-12K a month. I was "warned" by my credit union about this and that there could be flags raised, but my response was, "what am I meant to do? That number is derived from my consulting hourly rate and the work I put in each month."
  - kube-system 2y ago
    No, I just picked one example, there are a lot of things that could trigger it
  - reaperman 2y ago
    I believe the way to avoid SAR here is to file for an LLC, then create a business account, then pay yourself whatever wage via direct deposit for 1099/W-2/capital divestment payments. I'm not saying that you should have to do that, but I believe it's the best way to avoid SAR.
    - panarky 2y ago
      When you own a company, you can direct that company to pay you. There are many names for the payments to owners, such as "dividend", "loan", "draw", etc. None of these payments are suspicious if both you and your business account for them properly. You don't need to disguise payments to owners as wages or 1099s, but you're free to do so if for some reason it's advantageous. But don't do it just for the appearance of legitimacy.
      - reaperman 2y ago
        There are some rules that kind of establish a minimum amount you need to pay yourself for your own labor (either W-2 or 1099), I don’t think you can take 100% as capital divestments, but otherwise yes totally agree with you. I meant paying yourself however is most advantageous for your earnings/tax/savings situation.

FireBeyond 2y ago

KYC checks have in the past resulted in me being unable to open a bank account due to a "discrepancy" between my SSN and my DOB (due to me being an immigrant). The flip side of your comment is that 1 in 60 (including minors) people in the USA are on a watch list for financial crime. I think more worrying as a society is not the risk to prosecution of financial crimes (this list being uncovered does not erase evidence of previous or current financial crimes in progress) is how those 1 in 60 people got to be on such a list in the first place.

kube-system 2y ago
That doesn't really sound like a lot, in the scheme of things. Almost 1 in 3 Americans (adults) have been arrested for a felony crime. (edit: have a criminal record)
- marcosdumay 2y ago
  > Almost 1 in 3 Americans (adults) have been arrested for a felony crime. That one is absurd. How do your governments (on all spheres) keep up? Do they even know who is arrested?
  - kube-system 2y ago
    They... keep records? It's not like they have to memorize it lol
    - marcosdumay 2y ago
      The keep searchable records so that criminals get to see a judge when their sentence finishes? Or they keep local records that nobody looks at or know if they are correct? Because if it's the first one, kudos for whoever created that system. Plenty of countries fail with way less prisoners/inhabitant.
      - t-3 2y ago
        Every arrest is logged into a database run by the FBI, along with the data (ID, fingerprints, description, arrest records, etc.). I don't think all states/jurisdictions are part of the information sharing program, but the majority are at least, and some of that data is even shared internationally when people go through customs IIRC.