The Center for Investigative Reporting v. United States Department of the Treasury

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 THE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE Case No. 19-cv-08181-JCS REPORTING, et al., 8 Plaintiffs, ORDER REGARDING CROSS MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY v. JUDGMENT 10 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF Re: Dkt. Nos. 29, 32 THE TREASURY, Defendant.

I. INTRODUCTION In July of 2019, Plaintiffs Aaron Glantz and the Center for Investigative Reporting (collectively, “CIR”) submitted a request to Defendant the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) for documents indicating the “real human owners” of residential real estate purchased with cash since 2016. After FinCEN refused to produce documents, CIR filed this action, and the parties conferred, FinCEN determined that virtually all responsive documents in its possession are exempt from disclosure, primarily due to a statutory exemption for “records of reports” submitted to FinCEN under the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”). The…