NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A well-known Arizona election denier says his group — working through a conspiracy-minded assistant police chief in tiny Millersville, Tennessee — gained access to a highly confidential federal database that tracks Americans’ banking transactions and other financial data.
Mark Finchem, who pushed lies about the 2020 presidential election and waged an unsuccessful campaign for Arizona’s secretary of state in 2022, made the stunning admissions during a series of recent interviews with far-right podcasters and in a “press conference” staged in Las Vegas to support Millersville Assistant Police Chief Shawn Taylor.
Taylor's department and residence were raided last month by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation following questions raised by an exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation.
"There's a system called FinCen where we're actually able to track money laundering," Finchem said two weeks ago in that “press conference” to which only other far-right podcasters and conspiracy theorists were invited.
FinCen is the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a database operated by the U.S. Department of Treasury that tracks otherwise-private financial transactions to help law enforcement counter money laundering and other financial crimes.
Public disclosure of FinCen data is a federal crime.
In a separate podcast interview in mid-September, Finchem repeated his claims about his group having access to FinCen's confidential financial data.
"Until we started raising a ruckus in Tennessee, we had access to FinCen — uh, legitimate access through law enforcement channels," he insisted. "But amazingly, we hit somebody and suddenly that access is shut off."
Far-right podcaster Pete Santilli responded, “Yeah, it’s called paydirt. You saw something they didn’t want you to see, right?”
“Right,” Finchem agreed.
The former Arizona state representative — and current state Senate candidate — promised public disclosure of the information gathered by Taylor "when we are ready."
“It's going to get really uncomfortable for some people because we already have the receipts — that's right, we already have the receipts,” Finchem claimed during the Las Vegas event.
Watch NewsChannel 5 at 6 p.m. to see the full investigation.
Neither Finchem nor Taylor responded to NewsChannel 5's request for comment.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates discovered Finchem’s remarks in videos posted on Rumble and other far-right platforms in the aftermath of TBI raids of the Millersville Police Department and Shawn Taylor’s home on Sept. 4.
Those raids followed a months-long NewsChannel 5 investigation that exposed Taylor’s many bizarre conspiracy theories and explored how those often far-fetched beliefs have affected the department’s approach to policing.
Millersville, with a population of about 6,000 people, is located just north of Nashville.
Finchem, who the courts sanctioned for his “groundless” efforts to overturn the 2022 election, introduced the assistant chief in Las Vegas as “lead analyst for the Election Fairness Institute to examine campaign finance fraud and public corruption." He has also described Taylor as “chief investigator” or “lead investigator” for EFI.
EFI is a nonprofit created by Finchem to push his election skepticism.
"It's a private-sector racketeering investigation basically that we've been engaged in now for, like I say, about two years," Finchem told another far-right podcaster. In an online post, he called it a "private-sector political money laundering investigation."
According to Finchem, Taylor was investigating why certain candidates lost political races where, in Taylor and Finchem's minds, those people should have won — for example, “races that just didn't seem to make sense when you look at polling that is one way and suddenly somebody wins by a half a point the other direction."
"It's awfully strange that, when we started trying to follow the money through FinCen, my agency was immediately cut off,” Taylor agreed during the Las Vegas gathering, where he and Finchem were joined by controversial pedophile hunter Craig “Sawman” Sawyer.
Back in August, Millersville Police Chief Bryan Morris revealed to another far-right podcaster that the TBI had cut his department’s access to the federal FinCen system.
The TBI has declined to comment.
Experts tell NewsChannel 5 that the Treasury Department routinely monitors the FinCen system for unusual activity, and those alerts can lead to an agency losing its access.
In fact, Mark Finchem’s recent claims — about how Taylor may have used his law enforcement credentials to tap into the FinCen data on behalf of Finchem’s group — raise questions about possible violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, those experts said.
"With private individuals, there are almost no circumstances under which that can be done — in fact, I can't think of anywhere it's legitimate," said consultant Eric Kringel, founder of SLK Compliance. Kringel has investigated financial crimes for almost 30 years, including seven and a half years with Treasury's FinCen program.
Federal law makes it illegal to disclose FinCen data to the public for a good reason, he told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
"The reports that come into FinCen from financial institutions contain all the kinds of personally identifiable information that we don't want out in the world about ourselves – account numbers, social security numbers, identifiers,” Kringel said.
“It is an enormous identity-theft risk for anyone who is the subject of a report."
For example, there are Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) where bankers are required to report certain unusual activity that might hint at anything from "bribery" to "credit card fraud" to "terrorist financing."
Those reports are intended for law-enforcement eyes only.
"It's a banker's concern about certain activity, and obviously, that could be both embarrassing or flat-out harmful to a person's reputation, their business and otherwise. So, we guard it very carefully," Kringel explained.
“So you have a banker saying, ‘this looks odd,’ but it could be entirely legitimate," NewsChannel 5 Investigates followed up.
Kringel agreed.
"That customer or that business that made the transaction may have had a particularly good quarter, may have branched into a new line of business. There may be good reason for a change in activity or for an activity that otherwise an outsider might not recognize."
"The unauthorized disclosure of Suspicious Activity Reports is not only a violation of federal criminal law, but it undermines the very purpose for which the suspicious activity reporting system was created - the protection of our financial system through the prevention, detection, and prosecution of financial crimes and terrorist financing. The unauthorized disclosure of Suspicious Activity Reports can compromise the national security of the United States as well as threaten the safety and security of those institutions and individuals who file such reports."
In 2020, former Treasury official Natalie Edwards pleaded guilty to illegally sharing FinCen data with a journalist regarding suspicious transactions involving former President Donald Trump's companies, as well as reports regarding his campaign chair, Paul Manafort.
Edwards was subsequently sentenced to six months in prison.
In Shawn Taylor's case, appearing on far-right podcasts when he was between police jobs, he has long shown an interest in tapping into FinCen data in pursuit of his conspiracy theories – for example, when Tennessee medical examiner Dr. Thomas Deering ruled that a death was not a homicide when Taylor suspected otherwise.
"Let's run a FinCen report on Mr. Deering and his family members and find out how much money he got paid. Let's do that. You know, that's where I'm at," Taylor said in a December 2022 podcast interview.
He expressed a similar attitude about Cookeville, Tennessee, District Attorney Bryant Dunaway’s refusal to pursue cases that, in Taylor's mind, should have been prosecuted.
"That wants me [sic] to go to FinCen and look up any SARs reports that may be on old Mr. Bryant Dunaway and his investment holdings company because that's the best way for him to launder money,” he said.
Taylor never produced any actual evidence that either Deering or Dunaway was involved in any illegal activity.
“Can a law enforcement person say ‘I'm really curious about where this politician gets his money. I want to look at the FinCen data?’” NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Kringel.
“No,” he answered. “One of the biggest concerns with a database like this is that people will just sort of follow their curiosity or their interests. That is prohibited."
Any such queries, the former FinCen insider said, must be specifically linked to legitimate law enforcement investigations.
Still, that’s not stopping the cop from a small Tennessee town and his friends from claiming — with zero evidence — that they have uncovered a huge conspiracy involving mortgage fraud, money laundering and child sex trafficking, implicating big names on the Left.
That conspiracy, Taylor insisted, stretches from Millersville, through the nation’s capital, to China and other countries.
“What we're looking at in totality is what appears to be blanket mortgages in the hundreds of millions, billions and possibly trillion-dollar amount that crisscrossed the United States in key states, key counties where they are creating a geopolitical shift by pushing out the generational family,” Taylor said at the Las Vegas event.
Finchem also claimed — again, with zero evidence — that the money “is fueling election campaigns for individuals like Letitia James, Fani Willis, other individuals who have persecuted President Trump.”
While it's unclear if Finchem and Taylor actually have any "receipts," as they claim, Eric Kringel said there is no law that prevents anyone from distributing illegally obtained Suspicious Activity Reports or other FinCen data, no matter how misleading it may be.
"Once it's in the hands of a private individual who doesn't have access to the FinCen database, there's not much that can be done to sort of unring that bell,” he added.
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Do you have information that would help me with my investigation? Send me your tips: phil.williams@newschannel5.com
Here is how this investigation has unfolded:
May 20, 2024: Meet Millersville's conspiracy cop. He imagines sinister plots involving some of the country's most prominent political figures. Taylor recently landed in Millersville as assistant police chief, promising to root out the corruption he sees there.
You can continue reading at this hyperlink.
May 22, 2024: The controversy over Millersville's conspiracy cop has now become the latest scandal rocking the tiny town just north of Nashville. Now, two city commissioners want a special meeting to figure out how Shawn Taylor landed his job.
You can continue reading Part Two at this link.
May 24, 2024: An attorney for Millersville conspiracy cop Shawn Taylor has told Millersville's city commission, whom he also represents, that they should not question the assistant police chief's bizarre theories or psychological fitness.
You can read more of this installment at this link.
May 28, 2024: New podcast video, uncovered by NewsChannel 5 Investigates, reveals how Shawn Taylor spread false and dangerous conspiracy theories about last year's Covenant School shooting that left three students and three staff members dead.
You can click here to review that story.
May 28, 2024: Anna Caudill agreed to watch the video of Shawn Taylor knowing there might be only so much she could handle. Among the three children and three adults killed that day was her friend, Katherine Koonce.
You can read more of Anna's story by tapping on this link.
June 3, 2024: First, he went after Millersville’s former mayor. Now, the town’s assistant police chief says his two critics on the city commission could be next. Shawn Taylor made those comments as he turned to a group of far-right podcasters to defend himself. Tap this link to read from those Taylor's accused.
June 4, 2024: Millersville officials are standing with their assistant police chief and his bizarre conspiracy theories regarding Nashville's Covenant School shooting. Read how this meeting played out at this link.
June 5, 2024: Bryant Kroll wears a lot of hats. He's the attorney representing the embattled City of Millersville. He also represents Mayor Tommy Long, who faces accusations of misconduct in an ouster suit. Plus, he's the attorney for Bryan Morris and Shawn Taylor. To understand the role he plays, you can read that here.
June 6, 2024: In Shawn Taylor's world — in the immortal words of Taylor Swift — "I'm the problem, it's me." I explain how we got here in this piece, which you can click on here.
June 18, 2024: Millersville's conspiracy cop now has his very own conspiracy-minded attorney. Now, our NewsChannel 5 investigation has discovered that Todd Callender's own theories are sometimes even more far-fetched than Taylor’s twisted view of the world. Click here to read more about Shawn Taylor’s attorney.
July 15, 2024: What happens when you give people with bizarre conspiracy theories a gun and a badge? Secret recordings from inside the troubled Millersville Police Department provide a sobering answer to that question.
Read more on this investigation by tapping here.
July 22, 2024: In an explosive new development that could bring new trouble for the already-troubled Millersville Police Department, a key player in a child-predator sting says the lead detective on that operation lied under oath.
You can read more about that by clicking here.
July 23, 2024: District Attorney General Robert Nash has asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to look into the Millersville Police Department's handling of a child predator sting, including possible perjury by the lead detective. You can read more about that by tapping here.
July 29, 2024: The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has expanded its probe of the embattled Millersville Police Department, now looking into allegations that officials may have used sensitive law enforcement data to investigate their political enemies.
Read more about that by clicking here.
August 5, 2024: With the Millersville Police Department now the focus of a TBI investigation, NewsChannel 5 Investigates has uncovered new questions about the stories that conspiracy cop Shawn Taylor tells about himself.
You can catch up on the investigation by tapping here.
August 12, 2024: In a perplexing pair of podcast interviews, the Millersville chief of police says the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has begun limiting his department's access to certain sensitive law enforcement data. Read more about this latest development here.
August 26, 2024: He has helped to fuel some of the wild conspiracy theories inside the troubled Millersville Police Department. He is a self-proclaimed pedophile hunter who believes America is controlled by what he calls "a satanic cult masquerading as Jews."
Read more about Craig Sawyer by clicking here.
August 27, 2024: Craig Sawyer’s response to my investigation illustrates how conspiracy theorists frequently use wild accusations and blustery language to avoid giving real answers about their bizarre beliefs. Tap here to watch as we dissect his 90-minute diatribe.
September 4, 2024: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents raided the Millersville Police Department and Shawn Taylor’s home, executing a pair of search warrants as the criminal investigation into the troubled agency enters a dramatic new phase. Read more about this new twist in the Millersville investigation.
September 10, 2024: “No, a TBI agent didn't pee in Shawn Taylor's tub, agency says in response to Taylor's latest claim.” The headline says it all. Click here.
September 19, 2024: QAnon-aligned voices of the far right are threatening retaliation against a judge, a district attorney and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents for their roles in the recent Millersville raids. Details posted here.