Pubdate: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) Copyright: 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Contact: http://www.seattle-pi.com/ GROUPS PLAN CAMPAIGN AGAINST BANK SECRECY ACT Flush with their success in forcing regulators to drop proposed rules on tracking bank customers' habits, civil libertarians and other groups are organizing a big e-mail campaign to end reporting requirements for cash transactions. Law enforcement authorities, in response, are warning against any weakening of the Bank Secrecy Act. Officials of the Justice and Treasury departments and the U.S. Customs Service told Congress last week that the 1974 law is an essential tool for detecting and prosecuting money launderers and drug traffickers. They testified at a hearing of the House Banking subcommittees on oversight and financial institutions. For example, the Customs Service says it used about 80 suspicious activity reports filed by banks under the law to identify bank accounts of money launderers targeted in Operation Casablanca. That enabled Customs agents to locate suspects' assets that were seized and forfeited in the 1998 operation, the biggest drug money-laundering case in U.S. history. Far-reaching legislation pushed by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, would repeal the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to report customers' cash transactions of $10,000 or more, as well as suspicious activities. The law is designed to combat money laundering techniques used by drug traffickers and other criminals. But Paul maintains it violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure and that, at any rate, it has failed to help catch drug dealers, who he says "are smarter than most bankers." The Libertarian Party, the American Civil Liberties Union, privacy advocacy associations and other groups are mobilizing to generate support for Paul's bill. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake