Treasury Department officials fielded financial information requests on American citizens from the Russian government in the run-up to the 2016 election, Buzzfeed news reports.
The communications appeared to occur amid management and organizational issues at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Treasury’s illicit finance monitoring and prevention division. The communication with unofficial email addresses set up by Russia, as opposed to use of a secure network, was occurring without the knowledge of some officials at the Treasury Department, per Buzzfeed News.
“They are passing information that may have interest to the Russians for other reasons,” Buzzfeed cites a FinCEN official as writing to colleagues in March 2017. “One has to wonder what the heck is going on here.”
Buzzfeed reports that the Russian side was interested in information “on at least two dozen dissidents, academics, private investigators, and American citizens.” It’s not clear how much — or what — information was exchanged.
Read Buzzfeed News’ full report here.
