Originally Posted by
polonius
You appear to have perfected the art of giving answers that are factually correct but nonetheless misleading.
It's a valuable skill set for a LEO.
Firstly, I don't see how you could legally obtain a passenger's itinerary without a warrant, but for the sake of argument, let's say that you could.
Easy. Consent.
Your reply suggests that an itinerary with an international destination would give you probable cause, but as I have posted before, the FinCen 105's own instructions indicate that it may be filed at ANY point prior to departure.
Not PC. More articuable facts.
So again, assuming that you can legally find out if this particular traveller is headed out of the country, there is most definitely no way for you to know (legally) whether or not he is planning to file his FinCen 105 on his way out of the country, or indeed whether or not he has ALREADY filed it.
Except a quick call to CBP.
It's not up to a citizen to demonstrate they are in compliance with the law, it's down to law enforcement to have reasonable grounds to believe that they are not.
This is easy - call down to CBP. The person has to file before leaving. If they're not trying to leave (on jet bridge) simply call down to CBP and let them know what you've found at let them handle it. That's what I would do.
Given that it is entirely plausible for someone to have cash AND be on their way out of the country AND have filed or be planning to file a FinCen105, having the first two pieces of information doesn't create probable cause.
No, but it creates enough to notify CBP and let them know what you've found. Then they can have a nice agent waiting on the jet bridge for the flight to make sure compliance has been met.
You might just as well detain such a traveller for Jimmy Hoffa's murder, given that you don't have any evidence that he WASN'T responsible for it. Information on a FinCen105 is subject to the same Privacy Act restrictions that a tax return is, it is shared with specific agencies, for specific reasons, which have a duty to protect that information from those with no need to know. An airport LEO has no need to know about confidential, private information shared between a traveller and the IRS, and cannot legally get access to it.
Incorrect. If the LEO has come across someone with monies and no form has been filed (or they refuse to answer whether or not it has been met) then they have every need to know what's going on. Not disclosing such monies is a criminal violation, and they're LEOs. Although the first option would probably always be a call to CBP to give them a heads up.