I recently had to confirm to a brokerage that I won’t be using the money I’m withdrawing for any illegal activities.

A sure sign of a legal team or possibly an entire legal system having lost the plot. Hopefully only the former.

wrs 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That’s simple CYA, and also ensures you’ve not only done the illegal activity, you’ve defrauded the brokerage and breached your contract with them, and they get a weak KYC defense as well.

Similar to the “Al Capone” instructions from the IRS:

>Income from illegal activities, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8z, or on Schedule C (Form 1040) if from your self-employment activity.

On the other hand, if you want to talk about these stickers all over Seattle saying you’re not allowed to conduct illegal activities on the premises…

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abustamam an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I'm curious if anyone has ever said yes to income from illegal activities. Moreover, I wonder if something like this would be protected under 5th amendment.

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janalsncm 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I still don’t understand the CYA though.

For the majority of banks, they do not want people to conduct illegal activity via their bank. For the minority of banks which don’t mind it, nothing stops them from adding the clause anyways. A cartel bank probably cannot use the existence of the clause as a defense if they’re still allowing illegal activity.

If the purpose is to allow the bank to terminate accounts suspected of illegal activity, my assumption is they can already terminate for much less than that.

	▲	stevage 2 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Having a clear clause to point to when terminating the account seems useful.
	▲	wrs an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It’s not just that they don’t want it, it’s that they’re liable for it themselves if they should have known it was happening. Asking you adds one more small layer of “we discouraged illegal activity and we didn’t know about any”.

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bombcar 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

For Good, not Evil, unless you're IBM™

https://gist.github.com/kemitchell/fdc179d60dc88f0c9b76e5d38...

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nickff 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is probably a meek attempt at demonstrating compliance with Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) laws and regulations. Lawyers will often suggest this sort of thing, because the only cost is a slight inconvenience to the client, and it might suggest 'good faith' in the case of a prosecution or enforcement action.

	▲	AnimalMuppet 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		So, the entire legal system.

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an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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josephg 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I won’t be using the money I’m withdrawing for any illegal activities.

My guess is that this is so they can ban any drug dealers from their site without consequence. "They violated our terms of service your honour!"

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4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]