USA PATRIOT Act 314(a) Progress Report (February 2003? October 2003)

USA PATRIOT Act 314(a) Progress Report (February 2003 ? October 2003)

Under Section 314(a) of the USA PATRIOT Act, FinCEN issued a rule which established a system to enable law enforcement officials, who were investigating terrorist financing cases as well as major money laundering cases, to relay targets of investigation to thousands of financial institutions for real time responses. Following a brief moratorium from November 2002 to January 2003, which suspended all Section 314(a) activity, the System resumed operation in February 2003. From February through October 20, 2003, FinCEN submitted 167 Section 314(a) requests to financial institutions on behalf of 11 individual Federal law enforcement agencies. The agencies only submitted 314(a) requests in the conduct of the following significant criminal investigations?Terrorism (60) and Money Laundering (107).

The 167 cases submitted included 962 subjects of interest. Through October 20, 2003, 6,397 positive responses were received from financial institutions, which were forwarded to the law enforcement requesters by FinCEN. A total of 2,136 related to terrorism cases and 4,261 related to money laundering cases. Of the 6,987 total responses received from financial institutions, 338 were inconclusive.

Law enforcement requesters were asked to provide information about the utilization of the financial information received from the first quarter 314(a) requests. About 60% of the requesters responded with the following results as of September 2003:

• 586 new accounts located;
• 24 new transactions identified;
• 216 Grand Jury Subpoenas served;
• 11 Search Warrants executed;
• 6 National Security Letters issued;
• 16 Administrative Subpoenas/Summons issued; and
• 2 individuals arrested.

Law Enforcement Feedback
Following the moratorium, the feedback from law enforcement 314(a) requesters has been overwhelmingly positive. An ICE25 Officer wrote, ?314(a) information provided by the FI was pivotal to the investigation.? An IRS Special Agent said, ?314(a) information helped the case tremendously. Accounts not previously known were identified and points of contact at the bank were established.? Another IRS Agent said, ?314(a) process is great and valuable. The information request identified domestic account activity previously unknown.? The agent said he would definitely use the process again. An FBI agent said, ?I think the system is fantastic. In all my government years, I really haven?t seen a system work this efficiently. I was able to identify over 40 accounts for my subject. I don?t think I would have been able to identify some of these accounts without this mechanism.?

Excerpted from SAR Activity Review Issue 6, page