Originally Posted by
PoEntre
I don't doubt what you wrote is true to the best of your knowledge but this financial institutes' rational always came across to me as
insane troll logic (warning Tvtropes.org ).
In theory, I can walk into my bank and deposit with $75k cash /month with little issue. Cash has far less "parentage" than money orders. I can claim the cash is from any difficult to verify source.
Money orders have a receipt that includes the name of the vendor, address of vendor, cashier's name, amount, date, debit card's number, other trace and reference numbers. The money orders' stub includes the serial number and other trace information that binds it with vendors' receipts. The gift cards used to the buy the money order also had receipts when, presumably, the OP used their credit card to buy the gift card.
The parentage would look like this OP's credit card ==> buys gift card ==> gift card buys money order ==> deposits money order into financial institute.
Each step there is a paper trail of receipts and records proving and verify that the money is clean and not involved into any thing illegal. If the motivating fear is money laundering then shouldn't the government and banks encourage to use of money orders since they provide an traceable paper trail? Am I wrong?
It is most likely more expedient for the financial institution to drop a customer, than deal with more government imposed scrutiny that may come with having a customer deposit $75k in money orders a month.
I looked at your reference, but it made my brain ache
Your first incorrect assumption is that someone depositing $75K/month in cash isn't going to attract the compliance officers at any bank is, I guess, an example of insane troll logic. I can assure you that such behavior will be front and center in their sights, and they will be asking tons of questions as to the parentage of that cash. And once they are done, then the next group will be the Feds. And I can tell you that the person/s who are participating in such behavior better have good explanations of where that cash is coming from. As long as the source is legit (for example, you own 5 laundromats and deal only in cash) and the bank can assure itself of its origin, then things will be okay, but highly monitored.
On the other hand, no matter what the explanation is for depositing $75K/month in MOs (unless you have a strange business that accepts only MO), no bank compliance office is gong to tolerate the workload generated by some individual who is depositing a ton of MOs in the bank and then pulling cash out immediately thereafter. And you specifically, in your post, described the work necessary to verify the parentage of each MO. I am certain that if you were told to do that volume of work for no return, you would throw the depositor out the door as well.
Finally, the
consequences of messing up are draconian.