The US PATRIOT ACT could have serious consequences on your wealth.

Consider these serious questions, the answers to which could determine what happens to your cash, your investments and, ultimately, to you and your family:

If you are either a U.S. citizen or resident and have an account at a bank, do you know the name of your banker?

Do you know the name of any official who works at the bank where your accounts are kept?

Should all the cash in your bank account suddenly become frozen, do you know who to call? Would you know what to do? Do you know what you would have to do to get it unfrozen?

If you're like most Americans, the chances are that you don't have the answers to any of these questions. Even if you do happen to have a private banker whom you know well, what is about to be said applies to you. Even more so, since greater wealth is involved.

Your banker (whether you know him or not) knows everything about you. And both the banker and his staff are watching your every move. That’s because the U.S. government is now forcing bankers to act as spies, reporting on you to the federal money police at the U.S. Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCen).

You may ask yourself: how did this happen? What happened was a national crisis, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, immediately encouraged a 'do something' reaction in politicians of every stripe. Because of the severity of the crisis, the swifter -- and therefore more unthinking -- the solution politicians concocted.

A herd mentality took hold that overcame logic and reason, and this is a very dangerous political phenomenom. Just six weeks after the September 11th attacks, on October 26, 2001, a panicked U.S. Congress adopted the so-called 'USA PATRIOT Act.'
The PATRIOT Act became law with great haste and secrecy. In the name of fighting the 'war on terrorism,' Congress passed this questionable legislation, thereby giving the U.S. executive branch and its police agencies sweeping new powers that undermine both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The 362 page Act was passed with little debate by senators and congressmen, most of whom did not, and could not even read the bill, because when the final vote was taken, no printed copies were available.

This Act constitutes the greatest single governmental assault on personal and financial privacy in U.S. history. In fact, three U.S. district courts have already ruled that parts of the Act to be unconstitutional.
The Act is being used for purposes having nothing to do with the fight against terrorism but have everything to do with unchecked police surveillance, wiretapping and secret searches of homes and offices. Over 125 pages of the Act concern individual financial activities, as well as U.S. and offshore banking and finance.

Here is what is permitted by the the PATRIOT Act:

Secret FBI and police searches of your home and office

Secret government wiretaps on your phone, computer and/or Internet activity

Secret investigations of your bank records, credit cards and other financial records

Secret investigations of your library and book activities

Secret examination of your medical, travel and business records.

The freezing of funds and assets without prior notice or appeal

The creation of secret 'watch lists' that ban those named from air and other travel

If you think that you are immune from these radical police powers, undefined as they are, many innocent American have discovered have discovered that anyone can be caught in government's unthinking surveillance web, with little or no judicial review or appeal.
Last year, in the same week that the New York City Council voted to condemn the PATRIOT Act, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll found that while most Americans approve of the anti-terrorism ideas behind the Act, they are not only confused, but woefully ignorant of the provisions of the law and how it is being administered.

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