Originally Posted by member7777 (Post 22284021)

SARS will be reported on excess MO deposits-guaranteed. And the bank is required by law to report you-and not tell you about it under any circumstances.
edit
So if you are declaring the profits (if any) as income and do not have anything to hide during your IRS audit everything will be ok lol.

Originally Posted by happy9zz (Post 22280485)

"I use my prepaid giftcards to buy MO's at Walmart, then I use my MO's to deposit into my bank." Will I have a problem? I want to make sure before I tell the truth.

Originally Posted by Lemma (Post 22230908)

Quite apart from the structuring concerns which have already been discussed in this thread, this is another good reason to deposit all your MO at the same place rather than splitting them between multiple banks (and please, not Chase or Citi - some small local bank or CU where you don't want a CC). If you are the guy who always brings in MO and all the tellers know you, they won't be calling up moneygram to see if it is fake. Banks work on trust and they can't be calling up to verify every time someone deposits a MO, or any check for that matter. Transactions that fit a regular pattern for an account are much more likely to be legitimate, which is why you stop getting fraud alerts on your CCs when they learn you will be spending lots of money at drugstores. At my CU, any deposit over a certain dollar amount has to be confirmed by another teller coming over and entering their password before it will go through. One afternoon, there was a long line and only two teller windows were open, so the teller called some phone number to get the confirmation instead. I don't know what question the person on the phone asked about my deposit, but the teller replied that I was a regular who always deposited MO. At that point the person on the phone did something to make the transaction go through and my receipt printed out. As usual there was no hold on the deposit, which I think totaled about 12-13k, because my CU trusts me.

The people on this forum who have described opening accounts at different banks to deposit their MO so that they won't draw too much attention and become known by the tellers are never going to develop that kind of relationship and trust. I did not know about this delay in activating the MO, but I see no reason to change my practice of going straight from WM to the CU and depositing the MO within 10 minutes of purchase without any tedious validating. So long as the MO eventually clear and they get the funds, no one at my CU will know or care if a phone CSR at moneygram could confirm the MO was genuine the same day I brought it in or the next day for that matter. That being said, when I have gone to CU Service Center branches, or regular bank branches, while I'm out of state and they don't know me, they often don't even check the security features or ask any questions. So it's not as though you're guaranteed or even likely to have problems if you don't have a good relationship with your friendly paper recycling center. But if you do, you are pretty much guaranteed not to have this problem.

Are there a bunch of reports of checking account shutdowns due to too many MO deposits in some thread I'm unaware of? It's natural to get questions for such unusual activity but in my experience telling the truth about why you purchase and deposit so many MO works well. Why would they care about your MS? They aren't the bank issuing the CC, just the bank you want to deposit large sums of money with. It's in your mutual interest that they accept your MO. And if you were laundering money, you wouldn't be the guy brazenly depositing large amounts repeatedly at the same branch, you'd be the guy with multiple bank accounts that tries never go to back to the same branch too often.

Originally Posted by AnalystGuy (Post 22284176)

Not guaranteed.

A bank is required to file a SAR if they have reason to believe your activity is suspicious. Give them a valid reason and they won't.

Originally Posted by MsArbi (Post 22285014)

Sounds like structuring, and the burden could be on you to prove otherwise.

Originally Posted by AnInfrequentFlyer (Post 22287783)

I have an interest earning checking account through a credit union that I use as a primary checking account.

Fortunately, there are no branches within 50 miles of me, so my only option is to do ATM deposits through US Bank. They accept money orders via ATM but it freaks out if I do more than $5k or multiple high $$ transactions a day. I'm still not certain what the cutoff point is.

Because of this I'm forced to spread out my deposits over several days, or if I need access to the cash sooner I can deposit to another bank account like BofA or Chase that's close by.

So, in my case I'm forced by my primary bank to make my deposits in a way that might look like structuring but that leaves an ATM rejection record that shows I'm not trying to do it on purpose.

Originally Posted by member7777 (Post 22290272)

Well, let's think about that.

"I asked the money laundering drug cartel person about the money orders and he gave me a valid reason so I did not file a SARS."
"You are fired."

OR

"I asked the money laundering drug cartel person about the money orders and he gave me a valid reason so I did file a SARS to cover my ... and make sure the bank didn't get fined. Then compliance saw the activity and cancelled the checking account with no explanation"
"You are promoted"

I think the reality is if you own a business or have more at risk than checking acct/credit card closure you must not participate.

Originally Posted by AnalystGuy (Post 22290517)

First off, SARS stands for severe acute respiratory syndrome. SAR stands for
Suspicious Activity Report. If you have filed multiple ones they are referred to as SARs.

Front line employees almost never file SARs. They submit a ticket, coupon, voucher, etc to a back office BSA/AML specialist or team who reviews and makes the final decision. They then e-file the SAR with FinCEN.

Account shutdowns occur as a result of BSA/AML concerns but they also happen for other reasons such as fraud risk and profitability. For example, counterfeit MOs can be significant issue and the bank is often left with the loss at the end of the day.

Originally Posted by MsArbi (Post 22290555)

Sorry, I am not confused about currency transaction reporting vs suspicious activity reporting vs structuring vs record keeping. If you feel I have made incorrect statements, kindly refer me to the appropriate sections of the law or professional/court/agency opinions/papers to the contrary. I would like to be correctly informed.

Yes, it is always on the prosecutor to prove a violation of the law. But if the IRS decides to pursue the poster for structuring, then the multiple, broken MO deposit transactions under the reporting threshold on a single day across several branches and banks meet the definition in the law. Of course the poster's intent must also be proven, but the IRS can cause adverse action against the poster such as asset freezes while the case is pending. The effect is nearly the same as the defendant having to "prove" his innocence even if the constitution does not require it.

Originally Posted by member7777 (Post 22290577)

Sorry about the typo. Won't stop the SAR though.
And you are in the business so you know tellers are constantly being warned to report activity, so they do. Or get fired.

Originally Posted by kjgco (Post 22290712)

Could someone point me to an official source that specifically states that money order deposits (not M.O. purchases with cash) are in fact governed by structuring rules? I can't find any mention of this in the documents I've looked at to date (FinCEN, IRS).
TIA!