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

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 THE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE Case No. 19-cv-08181-JCS REPORTING, et al., 8 Plaintiffs, ORDER REGARDING CROSS 9 MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY v. JUDGMENT 10 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF Re: Dkt. Nos. 29, 32 11 THE TREASURY, Defendant. 12

13 I. INTRODUCTION 14 In July of 2019, Plaintiffs Aaron Glantz and the Center for Investigative Reporting 15 (collectively, “CIR”) submitted a request to Defendant the Department of the Treasury’s Financial 16 Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) for 17 documents indicating the “real human owners” of residential real estate purchased with cash since 18 2016. After FinCEN refused to produce documents, CIR filed this action, and the parties 19 conferred, FinCEN determined that virtually all responsive documents in its possession are exempt 20 from disclosure, primarily due to a statutory exemption for “records of reports” submitted to 21 FinCEN under the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”). The…