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CREDIT RISK, TERROR RISK?
Agencies Scan “Wanted” Lists
By Douglas Hanks III
dhanks@herald.com

 

Do you pay your bills on time? How much debt do you carry? Are you a terrorist?

 

Credit bureaus are asking a grim new question in drafting financial scorecards for apartment hunters, car shoppers, mortgage applicants and others undergoing routine checks of their fiscal trustworthiness.

 

Along with the standard searches of payment histories, bankruptcy records and civil judgments, the private-sector bureaus have started offering access to the government’s list of accused terrorists.

 

It’s a new feature for a new age of vigilance and paranoia – and one experts say is of little use, since the terrorist list is posted on the Internet and unlikely to snare anyone.

 

But the terror-check products come amid new efforts by the federal government to force companies into trying to root out terrorists among their customers. And with the FBI naming apartments as potential terrorist targets, credit bureaus are banking on the watch-list searches finding a receptive audience with landlords.

 

“It’s absolutely a competitive advantage at this point,” says Jeff Cronrod, president of Fidelity Information Corp., a California-based research and collections agency that in recent months added a terrorist search to its tenant screening reports.

 

Katie Mochan, who runs background checks on prospective tenants and buyers for clients of Land Cap Property Services in Kendall, waits about 20 seconds to see if an applicant is among the world’s most notorious outlaws. So far, so good, though the Fidelity searches still leave her unsettled.

 

“You not only have to check for felons, but you have to check for terrorists today,” Mochan said. “It’s a little bit scary, especially now that I have a child.”

 

Whether the new searches by Fidelity and its competitors in the credit-checking industry actually increase security remains in doubt. The companies run names through a list of more than 300 accused terrorists compiled by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

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The list catalogs individuals and organizations with alleged terrorist ties. Osama Bin Laden is on the list, as is Saddam Hussein, sons Odai and Qusai, and the rest of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis in the Defense Department’s well-publicized deck of cards.

 

Unlike the secret no-fly lists used by airlines to screen passengers, these rogues’ galleries are public and available at www.treasury.gov. So to be flagged in a credit check, a terrorist would have to use a real name or known alias and presumably be unaware of his presence on the OFAC list.

 

“Only if you’re under the influence of some foreign drug would you do that,” said Tom Cash, a money-laundering expert in the Miami office of Kroll, a security firm that operates nationwide. “There’s no question that persons of deviant behavior would know they’re on the list and use a second or third identity.”

 

Credit bureaus can’t lower the credit rating for someone who shows up on a terrorist-watch list, since they are only allowed to consider certain sources of financial information. But, like criminal background checks, bureaus are offering terrorist screenings as an add-on feature to the reports.

 

The American Civil Liberties Union has criticized the use of terror-watch lists to check the movements of average citizens, since the bad-guy rosters are based on government accusations, not criminal charges or convictions.

 

The USA Patriot Act, anti-terrorism legislation passed in October 2001, toughened those controls, requiring the institutions to look more closely at their customers’ backgrounds and financial dealings.

 

Federal officials are in the process of expanding the act’s scope to cover a growing list of industries, including casinos, insurers, real estate companies and auto dealers.

 

Though many of the rules are still moving through the approval process, the new attention has some industries exploring systems for screening against terrorists.

 

“I think dealers are increasingly looking into ways to check” the OFAC list, said Paul Metrey, director of regulatory affairs with the National Automobile Dealers Association. “I think a lot of them realize it’s important to have some sort of compliance program in place.”

 

The auto industry and others have protested their coverage by the Patriot Act, saying the requirements will increase costs without adding much to the nation’s domestic security.

 

Critics see OFAC screening in a similar why-bother light.

 

“It reminds me of the series of questions we used to get asked at an airport,” said Thomas Hudson, a Maryland lawyer who advises businesses on legal-compliance issues. “Remember that? Basically, ‘Are you carrying a bomb?’”

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Though he portrays the OFAC checks as mostly futile exercises, Cash, the security executive, said they are also promising first stabs at a new commercial front against terrorism.

 

“I think a lot of that psychological prevention has taken hold here: that we have the ability to trip and trap you, Mr. Terrorist,” he said. “It may be at your airport. It may be at your bank.... Taken collectively, they will perhaps make people think there are easier targets in other countries than in the United States.”

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