The Cu Experience

I think 100s are harder to change and some places don't even take them at times

Structuring is covered in Title 31 of the United States Code, section 5324. It says that you are guilty of structuring if you break up transactions into smaller transactions to avoid triggering mandatory reporting of cash transactions greater than $10,000. If found guilty, structuring is punishable by a fine or up to five years in prison, or both. If you handle more than $100,000 in a 12 month period you can get 10 years.

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi...06&TYPE=TEXT

It is not just banks that are required to report cash transaction greater than $10,000. Car dealers, jewelers, etc must also report large cash transactions.

Something tells me that this so-called "structuring" is usually a charge that they add on when other charges that are easier to prove have already been made. Obviously, a person could very well take money out of their bank account based on convenience or need that could appear as structuring to someone... particularly someone who was looking for just that kind of activity... when it is not. If I need $5-8k from my account, for example, I need it for a reason. Typically, that would be because I was going to a coin or gun show and wanted it for buying merchandise. I did not get $10-16k from my account because that would be more than I needed for a single show and did not want to have that much money sitting around until the next show comes. So, is this structuring? Not in my mind. But is it in someone elses' mind?

It is unfortunate when someones' guilt or innocence can depend upon someone elses' opinion of what happened rather than what, in fact, did happen. I am sure that there are cases wherein nefarious activities are in progress and actual structuring is occurring. I just hope that such things are approached in a reasonable manner based upon the situation at hand and not in a one size fits all manner. Something like this smacks of "guilty until proven innocent". Not that this would be the only instance of this, of course. Some say that the IRS operates in this manner.

My personal opinion, as long as all of your income is above board you don't have to worry about structuring. Dealing in a large amount of cash may draw attention. As long as you can document how you got the money it isn't a problem. However, dealing in a large amount of cash when you don't seem to have any form of legitimate income is a red flag. That is when they will want you to prove where the income came from. Remember, they didn't get Al Capone for bootlegging, the got him on tax evasion.

As an example, last year I was a licensed auto dealer. Nothing big time but I bought and sold vehicles as a side business and worked only in cash. Before I went to the auction I would withdraw a lot of cash from my bank. When I sold a vehicle I deposited the cash from that sale. I'm sure those transaction were recorded but I'm not worried because everything was done by the book.

Indeed it is... as well it should be, IMO. Money laundering and drugs are very serious problems. I want the police to catch these people and the courts to punish them as severely as the law allows. At the same time, I also want that to be balanced with protection of our basic liberties. This is not an easy task but it would be very worthwhile to make the best effort at it that we can.



Yes, they did. Elliot Ness strikes again!



Yes, it would make me suspicious too if someone were doing $9999 or $9995 transactions all over town. The sum of all those transactions could be a considerable sum of money and the figures could indicate that they did not want to cross that $10k line.