This is suspicious activity inside the FinCEN files. Episode 5, Political Will. This is our final episode.

We've spent the last few looking at the banks and the way they evade taking responsibility for the dirty money flowing through them.

This time, we're going to talk with someone who's been named repeatedly on those suspicious activity reports the banks file.

And with two people who've seen up close the way the government has failed to do its part to stop financial crimes.

One of those people is Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. He's the ranking member of the Senate Finance

Committee, which has oversight of the Treasury Department. Those faults in the system that the

FinCEN files have helped expose, Senator Wyden and others

on the Finance Committee have the ability to push for changes that could fix them.

And he agreed to get on a video conference call with us.

He was in D.C.

Ron Wyden, where are you?

And I was in my dingy basement where I've recorded most of this podcast.

My producers have told me the sound is good down here.

Oh no.

Wow, I did not know you were there, Sender.

Hi.

Hi.

I'm a Zee.

So if you remember back to the first episode of this podcast, the suspicious activity reports that BuzzFeed News has based its reporting on

were originally requested by Congress in August 2017 as part of their investigation into Russian

interference in the 2016 election. Senator Wyden was one of those members of Congress who wanted

them. He requested them as part of his work on another powerful Senate committee, the Senate

...