At 11:06 AM 8/26/97 -0400, Duncan Frissell wrote:

Another popular reason is privacy in general. US domestic accounts can be examined by any federal, state, or local government employee who can sign his name to a subpeona. Any lawyer can also examine account records in the course of discovery proceedings. There are some limits to the above powers but not very substantial limits. For all we know, FINCEN has a nice Win32- based point and click browser that can tiptoe through every bank and brokerage account in America. If they don't have one yet, I'm sure they are trying to get one.

If domestic lawyers or governments want the same sort of access to accounts in other jurisdictions, they have to spend many thousands of dollars and months or years of personnel time. Cuts down on their capabilities.

This is true to a greater or lesser extent of almost any foriegn jurisdiction. Even both countries are hostile to financial privacy and have cosy relationships with each other, it is still a lot more work for investigators in one country to get information from another. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd@echeque.com