Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WASHINGTON — 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.
The center's database was created as part of a 2014 money laundering settlement between the Arizona attorney general's office and Western Union.
Wyden's letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz also alleged that the Department of Homeland Security and one of its subunits, Homeland Security Investigations, 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. The center could not be immediately reached for comment.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Homeland Security and Arizona attorney general's office have all asked for data from money transfer companies and directed them to send data to the Arizona center, Wyden said.
Western Union, MoneyGram International, Viamericas Corp, and Euronet Worldwide are among the companies that have shared customer data with the Transaction Record Analysis Center 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 Homeland Security Investigations 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.
