Originally Posted by
in4tar
Now I am not sure how I should dispose of the MOs - deposit more than 10K per month into one account? Open several accounts and deposit smaller amounts? The advise I get is often conflicting. I wish to avoid shutdown by my bank yet avoid "structuring" as well.
You should be concerned about the feds more than a bank closing down your account/s with them. So both, but I'd be more concerned about the feds.
To avoid raising structuring flags, some people do over $10K deposits per transaction on purpose (as opposed to, say, $7.5K one time and $3K another time a few days later), others just deposit the MOs as they come along (per MS trip/day, etc). Opening several accounts and spreading the deposits in an attempt to avoid being flagged would probably raise more flags with Feds (and possibly banks' own risk departments depending on what data they have access regarding outside accounts) on top of being more work.
I am not sure there is a solid advise out there on best practices to avoid trouble so to speak, and the situation would vary on our individual circumstances. A lot seems to revolve around MO being considered cash for reporting purposes in regards to structuring and similar suspicious activities. So are they? Some say yes some say no, some say it depends. From some online searching:
- This person makes the
argument MOs aren't raising flags as cash would regarding how most of us use them (VGCs > MOs > paying back credit cards).
- (with the obvious caveat of taking people's anonymous claims for what they are worth) This person
claims to have worked for the fraud department of a big US bank and supports the argument that banks aren't gonna worry much just because you deposit MOs totalling under or over $10K.
- This other person claims to have worked for a bank and seems to
advocate structuring-like behavior to avoid routine bank reporting on what this person consider innocent miles-related activities. My common sense tells me to absolutely not follow this advice. Structuring is its own illegal activity, you don't want to be in a situation where your best chance of not being prosecuted is for a specific law enforcement officer/entity to decide not to pursue the case because you don't seem to be doing other illegal activities in tandem with structuring, or at the time. You wouldn't want to attract that kind of fed investigative scrutiny to begin with.
- This person (see comments above the one linked)
claims to be a lawyer and former federal prosecutor and strongly advocates against structuring. They seem to make the point that feds will perceive something to be structuring if done seemingly intently, i.e. you have over $10K of cash or cash-equivalent at hand and don't deposit it all at once to avoid reporting. So it doesn't seem like it would be a problem if you deposit MOs at < $10K intervals within a few days if you didn't arrange it that way on purpose.
Also regarding whether or not MO is seen as cash in this context, this 2012
article says:
Cash is of course U.S. coin or currency. Cash also applies to currency of any other nation. Cash can also be a cashier's check, money order, certified check, traveler's check or bank draft if:
1. It is for $10,000 or less AND it is received by the business
2.in a designated reporting transaction such as the sale of a durable consumer good like a car or boat or for travel and entertainment that has a price over $10,000.
These monetary instruments will also be considered cash if the business has actual knowledge that the payer is trying to avoid the reporting of the transaction. That last is a sort of industry self policing requirement.