Ron Paul Dear Colleague that FATF Threatens Civil Liberties and Sound Money
Ron Paul Dear Colleague that FATF Threatens Civil Liberties and Sound Money
January 29, 1999
(J. Bradley Jansen was Ron Paul’s legislative staffer at this time for these issues)
“It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize
that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties
against despotic inroads on the part of governments.
Ideologically it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of rights.”
Ludwig von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit
FATF Threatens Civil Liberties and Sound Money
January 29, 1999
Dear Colleague,
If you like the Know Your Customer rule and the Bank Secrecy Act, you will love the other efforts of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Money Laundering (based at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). The FATF has demonstrated a frightening disregard for both civil liberties and sound money.
The FATF’s 1997-1998 Report on Money Laundering Typologies (12 February 1998), suggested expanding still further the reach of governmental police intervention–this time in the gold market. “The FATF experts considered for the first time the possibilities of laundering in the gold market. The scale of laundering in this sector, which is not a recent development, constitutes a real threat.
“Gold is a very popular recourse for launderers because of the following characteristics:
— a universally accepted medium of exchange;
— a hedge in times of uncertainty;
— prices set daily, hence a reasonably foreseeable value;
— a material traded on world markets;
— anonymity;
— easy changeability of its forms;
— possibility for dealers of layering transactions in order to blur the audit trail;
— possibilities of double invoicing, false shipments and other fraudulent practices.”
The FATF report continued, “Gold is the only raw material comparable to money.” While the FATF experts are clearly right in concluding that gold is money, we should steadfastly oppose the report’s consideration of an expanded governmental reach to control gold just as we must oppose its proposed Know Your Customer regulations.
Please stand firm for civil liberties and sound money. Oppose regulations of gold as money. Support the Know Your Customer Sunset Act, the Bank Secrecy Sunset Act, the FinCEN Public Accountability Act, and the Freedom and Privacy Restoration Act, HR 220.
Please contact Bradley Jansen by email or at 5-2831.
Respectfully,
Ron Paul