A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled that the Arizona Attorney General's Office may not force Western Union and two affiliates to turn over electronic data on wires transfers made to and from Nevada and Sonora, Mexico.
The Attorney General's Office wants the data to look for trends and money flows that will help them spot drug and human smugglers who use the companies' wire transfer services.
But in a ruling published Friday, Judge Kenneth Fields said that the request was overly broad, especially considering the amount of personal data of innocent people that would be turned over. The request, he wrote, was "unreasonable" because for the most part it was "without connection to a specific criminal investigation." He also said the Attorney General's Office had no jurisdiction to gather information on business conducted in Mexico and Nevada without an Arizona link.
The Attorney General's Office wanted Western Union to turn over the information on a regular basis. Western Union's attorney, Steven Wheeless said that was like "trying to force Western Union to be a subsidiary of the AG's Office, and Judge Fields said, 'no.' "
Assistant Attorney General Cameron Holmes said, "We're examining the ruling and will take up our next course of action."
According to Fields' ruling, the Attorney General's Office subpoenaed Western Union and two affiliated companies, Orlandi Valuta and Vigo, to produce databases of wire transfers in excess of $300 to and from Nevada and Sonora, Mexico.
"We call it a fishing expedition, they call it data mining," Wheeless said.
But Holmes also interpreted the ruling as only applying to those specific subpoenas.
"Ultimately we'll get the data we need," he said.
