seat17D

A bit of non-attorney insight on how the legal system works ...

The way it was explained to me ... unless and until formal charges are filed and the case has proceeded to the discovery phase, LEOs are not obligated to tell you what/who/why/where/when/how you came to their attention or were deemed worthy of active investigation.

So they don't tell you anything.

They ask questions and expect answers. And then they ask more questions, and expect more answers.

At some point they stop asking you questions. They don't have to explain why they stopped asking questions. So they don't.

In a post 9/11 world, they don't need to tell you that you are cleared. So they don't.

So I don't know what/who/why/where/when/how I came to their attention or was deemed worthy of active investigation.

I don't know if the LEO that contacted my family was the originator, the sole agency or just the agency that won the jurisdictional coin toss.

I don't know if I was the sole focal point of a special investigation or whether I was just bycatch from some other fishing expedition.

And they never told me I was cleared. And absolutely no one ever said they were sorry. All I know is one day I went online and my assets were no longer frozen.

Since it did not go to trial, it's never actually over.

I will say a few things that are more my opinion than absolute fact.

First, much of MS might seem very simple and straightforward to all of us. But think back to the first time you tried to explain it to your spouse. It's simple to us only because we swim in it, some of us for a decade or more. So when LEOs get involved their first thoughts are drugs or terrorism. Because that's their bias. And while you might not appear to be a drug lord or global terrorist, criminal front men look innocent, too.

LEOs also don't have CPAs, or MBAs or experience in ACH or the rest of the MS TLAs. So they can and do get confused. And in a post 9/11 world, AML is a space where it seems you are guilty until proven innocent. If that means innocent people get hassled, they get hassled. Such is the price of the war on terror.

There are elements of inanity and randomness similar to what happens with TSA at the airport. Except the TSA doesn't make house calls. That I know of.

I did not break any law, MS-related or otherwise.

Finally, there seems to be a code of silence amongst MSers who have received similar legal attention. I am hardly the only one who has won the LEO lottery. Seems I am the only one who has broken that code of silence. For some reason that is surprising to me.

Perhaps some of the others will be more willing to share their details.