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Guest Post: The Long Arm Of Uncle Sam Just Got Longer
Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man
The Long Arm Of Uncle Sam Just Got Longer
This one's hot off the presses. Just yesterday, our friends at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a press release on its latest ruling related to foreign 'money service businesses (MSBs).'
An MSB is a private company that provides certain financial services like check cashing, money orders, title pawn, payday loans, travelers' checks, prepaid stored value cards, tax refund payments, etc.
Frequently, traditional MSB clients tended to be individuals without bank accounts or access to credit. But increasingly, the US government is looking at companies engaged in electronic payments, crowdsourced funding, and even microcredit finance as money service businesses.
The implication? They should all be regulated. Even if they're not even US companies.
That's right. FinCEN's latest ruling suggests a foreign MSB may now be subject to US regulations AND CRIMINAL PENALTIES "even if none of its agents, agencies, branches or offices are physically located in the United States."
FinCEN goes on to say that foreign-located MSBs must also comply with US anti-money laundering regulations and submit 'suspicious activity reports', i.e. assimilate into the US financial system and become yet another unpaid spy of the US government.
Further, foreign MSBs must register with FinCEN AND appoint a person residing in the United States as a legal representative in matters of compliance. If not, foreign MSBs risk severe civil and criminal penalties.
Needless to say, FinCEN came up with this 'rule' all on its own. There was no legislative process, no Congressional debate. Quite simply, a bunch of bureaucrats decided to create a new rule that, amazingly enough, has the same weight and gravitas as a law.
This is the way society is ordered today. There's one set of rules that Congress creates-- the laws. Then there's another set of rules that the President creates in his sole discretion-- executive orders and the occasional treaty. Then there's a third set of rules that are created by enforcement agencies like FinCEN-- regulations and policies.
This is the part that's truly extraordinary. Despite the 'free and democratic society' that most of us live in, these agencies are accountable to no one. They are not elected officials, they have no checks and balances, and there is little (if any) judicial oversight.
From the FBI's "administrative subpoenas" that gives the agency nearly totalitarian authority to commandeer the information of private companies, to the Justice Department's "policies" on civil asset forfeiture, to FinCEN's "rules" subjecting foreign companies to US criminal penalties, this is getting completely out of control.
With nearly 100% certainty, as you read this sentence right now, you are in violation of probably several such rules and regulations that you've never heard of. Even if you're not in the United States, as the FinCEN case clearly demonstrates.
Each of these rules has been conjured without your knowledge, put into effect without your consent, and tied to the most ridiculous civil and criminal penalties imaginable. You can't even fill out a passport application anymore without being threatened with a $10,000 fine.
In his comprehensive annals of the reigns of Tiberius and Nero, Roman historian Tacitus wrote, "corruptissima re publica plurimae leges." This is most often mistranslated as "the more corrupt a society, the more numerous its laws."
In truth, Tacitus was referring to Rome's history, and a more accurate translation is "laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt."
Future historians will likely look back and say the same thing about our society. Except that we're not talking about laws. We're talking about the 'rules' of autonomous enforcement agencies that have extensive (and growing) police powers.
A better quote comes from a 1969 speech from William T. Gossett, then president of the American Bar Association:
"The rule of law can be wiped out in one misguided, however well-intentioned generation. And if that should happen, it could take a century of striving and ordeal to restore it, and then only at the cost of the lives of many good men and women."
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Got to control capital movement....... one of the key signs that a government is in trouble and its money is on the verge of worthlessness is the overreaching by government to control its citizens savings and prevent them from fleeing to 'safer' locales (are there ANY 'safe' locales left in this screwed up world?)
An entity may now qualify as a money services business (MSB) under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) regulations based on its activities in the US.
A foreign MSB with activities in the US, ie., any NY-cleared USD business, is a "financial institution" and has to register with FinCEN. Registration with FinCEN entails implementation of onerous compliance controls that have the added feature of driving potential customers away. AML controls have become the financial equivalent of gate rape by the TSA. Customers have had enough. Comply = lose business. This is the cost of living on the USD Plantation. Unlike in the US, international customers have a choice. USD business can still be conducted through Hong Kong and Singapore (which have local USD clearing, established for getting USD-priced oil to China) without the FinCEN monkey on your back. Singapore is especially attractive because it has banking secrecy enshrined in section 47 of its Banking Act. This is not the bullshit US "Banking Secrecy Act" "secrecy" that has turned your banker into an unpaid government spy but real secrecy that criminalizes disclosure to anyone absent a court order (remember the 4th Amendment?). Further Singapore does not even recognize tax evasion as a money laundering predicate. All in all, a civilised system. For now. And when Singapore is commanded to change its law, there will still be Bitcoin or its successor, an invisible electronic hawala. In fact, why wait? Fuck the fascist FinCEN. Fuck it in the mouth.
The government has become an agent and enforcement arm for the bankers. They are gearing up for massive financial repression and getting all the pieces in place. The exits are being sealed up. Get hard assets and opt out as best you can.
The CFPB is the new money police, run out of the FED and by the FED, and they want to know where your money is in real time 24/7 so they will know where they can get it.
Financial firms abroad: Bend over and submit to U.S. authority!
Favored domestic financial firms: Please continue the looting with total impunity...
And the beat goes on.
I think this ruling was created specifically to target Bitcoins.
The major Bitcoin exchanges are located off-shore.
It sure is nice living in a country that has the ability to tell the US to fuck off with its ever increasing bullshit
I also have a belief that we need to look forward (referring to the institution of justice) as opposed to looking backwards - Barack Obama
http://www.emptywheel.net/2012/02/09/conferring-immunity-from-justice-ba...
In other words, the institution of justice needs to be forward looking. In doing so, in one fell swoop, the concept of redress is abolished.
Along about the same time we got this gem from a long time Obama associate and key figure in formulating administration judicial policy who spoke directly to the incremental approach to justice pursued by every recent American administration.
Prosecuting government officials risks a “cycle” of criminalizing public service, [Sunstein] argued, and Democrats should avoid replicating retributive efforts like the impeachment of President Clinton — or even the “slight appearance” of it - Cas Sunstein
http://jonathanturley.org/2008/07/21/obama-adviser-cass-sunstein-rejects...
So, what we have now is the essence of a policy of judicial exclusion wherein favored persons, organizations and business are excluded from ever having to face the bar of justice. A bar that is now forward looking in American governance.
Since these foundations were laid we have borne witness to some governance that is truly catastrophic to the very notions upon which American government and its institutions supposedly rest. Some of these have been well enumerated by Simon Black over time. However, the pinnacle to date would have to be found in the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 and the introduction of Enemy Expatriation Act.
If the Enemy Expatriation Act passes in its current form, the legislation will let the government strike away citizenship for anyone engaged in hostilities, or supporting hostilities, against the United States. The law itself is rather brief, but in just a few words it warrants the US government to strip nationality status from anyone they identify as a threat.
What’s more, the government can decide to do so without bringing the suspected troublemaker before a court of law
http://rt.com/usa/news/expatriation-act-citizenship-ndaa-737/
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:S.1698:
To continue operating in belief that the United States is a republic that holds forth its Constitution, Bill of Rights and all the rest as the governing force that underpins American society and its organs of governance are sadly mistaken. The ever popular conveyance of incrementalism has been successfully employed once more in world history. Employed to subvert a society and lay the foundations for a totalitarian model that has taken the former republics place.
The century of striving for restoration that William T. Gossett spoke to is now upon us as the concepts of timeless, citizenship, standing and redress no longer apply to American government and jurisprudence.
Funny Shiznit...
As someone mentioned:
1. Quit your job (Check)
2. Move abroad (Check)
Yep, and as an expat, I'll take that $180k'ish income exclusion (and housing deduction too). Thank you very much.
I just make up numbers that make me look poor. No way for them to prove anything anyways.
Sheesh! The predators DBA federal government of the USSA have zero jurisdiction over anyone outside the USSA. Frankly, they have no legitimate jurisdiction over anyone inside the USSA either, but that's a different issue.
IGNORE THEM.