[princeb]

> Long story short: 2 weeks later my account is unfrozen for no reason. I was never given a reason.

it is illegal for the bank to inform you of any AML investigation undertaken whether internally or the FBI or fincen or any of the other federal bodies. if you don't like the way this is done, i suggest you take it up to your congressmen.

[hakfoo]

That seems like absence of explanation is an explanation in and of itself.

If the bank can give you a straight answer, it's clearly not AML. If they start giving you no answer, it's presumably that. Id' expect if you were seriously in that game, that's one of the clear signs something's awry and you'd better start activating panic measures.

I'm also sort of confused about the concept of freezing accounts during an investigation. If it was late stage and they were saying "okay, shut it down, we'll be sending over the cops with the arrest warrant within an hour", that's one thing, but any sudden movement on accounts is likely to change the behaviour you're trying to monitor and document. The darkweb market seizures seemed smarter in that regard-- they let some of them run with no obvious changes so they could gather data, only taking it down once the case was completely built.

[simplecomplex]

I don’t even know what agency in the government did this. Or that I was part of an investigation. Or anything. Different people at different positions in the bank would say the same thing “the computer says your account is flagged” “the system says your social security number is flagged” etc. When I would ask what “flagged” means they would just repeat nonsensical shit. All they would really tell me is that they had no control because a government system had flagged it.

[simplecomplex]

> you don't like the way this is done, i suggest you take it up to your congressmen.

I wish they would listen. Everyone in congress right now supports an unconstrained federal government that does things like freeze your bank account without any reason or due process. Both parties are hellbent on expanding their power at the expense of liberty in the name of safety or security.

[lambertsimnel]

I think US politicians' failure to act effectively in the interests of US citizens is caused more by the concentration of political power than it is by bad people. The US isn't alone among developed countries in having this problem, but there are plenty of developed countries that manage to avoid it. The answer is more democratic accountability, in the form of measures such as proportional representation.

This Jennifer Lawrence video summarises some desirable reforms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfQij4aQq1k

See also Lawrence Lessig's "Our democracy no longer represents the people. Here's how we fix it": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJy8vTu66tE

[Mengkudulangsat]

Which is why some (e.g. Bitfinex) use warrant canaries [1]. I would love if we have a warrant canary button tied to all our accounts of any kind (banking, social media, netflix subscriptions etc.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary

[gowld]

The article you linked explains why warrant canaries aren't trustworthy.

[ur-whale]

> it is illegal for the bank to inform you of any AML investigation

Is this an actual law that was voted by congress, or just some regulation that the FBI pulled out of their ear one bright Monday morning ?

> i suggest you take it up to your congressmen.

That'd assume the answer to my first question is yes. Citation needed.

[lambertsimnel]

I think there's a third possibly: namely that Congress has somehow allowed the FBI to make such rules, but could reclaim control in the future.

As I understand it, a lot of things work like this in some unitary (as opposed to federal), parliamentary (as opposed to presidential) democracies. In at least some such countries all governmental power ultimately depends on the elected legislature, but it can be delegated to other bodies (including to the executive and to local government) as the legislature chooses. The legislature can reclaim its power, too, even from directly-elected local authorities.

[hndamien]

Or buy Bitcoin.