[derefr]

All these cases always seem to boil down to what should be a very old precedent: is an officer of the law allowed to demand that you contact an associate to which you've entrusted a possession, and tell them to send it to you?

Assuming that the law has no legal power to compel the associate to co-operate, is it then legal for said officer of the law to detain you if said associate—just of their own accord—decides not to cooperate?

(For example: I put all my money in a Russian bank. An IRS officer demands that I retrieve it so they can tax it. The Russian bank says that its policies prevent it from sending money to people who are making requests under duress, and so nothing I could say or do at that point would ever make them send the money. The US has no treaty enabling them to go through diplomatic channels to put pressure on the Russian bank. What happens?)