As noted, I'm not structuring.

And besides, even in order to structure, I'd have to have over $10k in deposits available on my person and purposefully deposit in separate banks to avoid reporting. I.E., $15k on me, I deposit $8k at Bank A and $7k at Bank B.

I never have that much in MO that I'm floating at one time. Paper trail would prove that. By the other logic, any business with decent cashflow (i.e., a restaurant that grosses $3k each day in cash, or $90k each month that daily deposits at two separate banking entities) would be guilty of "structuring" when that isn't the case - the restaurant is simply engaging in good business practice - depositing cash on day of receipt to maximize available cashflow and reduce risk of robbery impact.

Structuring is an incredibly gray rule that is not often prosecuted and there have been no reports that I am aware of where a person engaged in MS was charged - until I see someone actually tried for it, I'll keep going on with what I'm doing.

The topic was "structuring." I wasn't referring to "other issues" of lesser extent.

You said "Back in the US Mint days, cash was used and people operated much like they do with MO and there were no issues at all."

"No issues at all" means no issues at all which is not true in this case. Read FW. People were depositing the coins at multiple banks a few times a day. Big amounts of coins or MOs, almost the same thing. Structuring/suspicious activity.

The legal test for structuring is whether this was done to avoid the financial organization either doing the $3,000 internal reporting in its Daily Monetary Log or the $10,000 Currency Transaction Report. Most cases involve the $10,000 limit but the rules do apply to the $3,000 threshold as well.

Many of the people depositing $1,000 - $2,000 in dollar coins at different banks did so because that was all they could carry into the bank, especially if they worked downtown and did the deposits at lunch. Also, numerous banks asked depositors to not bring more than a certain amount, such as $1,000 over a set number of days, because there was limited vault space for coin storage. Those depositors needed to use several different banks for this reason. Quite a bit of difference between carrying heavy coins and light-weight money orders (although as Tuphat and others have noted, Structuring may not apply to the deposit of money orders)

Your posts try to treat Structuring like a law that can be objectively evaluated. It is a state of mind crime that is subjective. It turns on the reason someone did something, which is hard for someone else to judge.

There is a mountain of difference between getting a checking account closed - which happens to a fair amount of MSers at some point - and getting felony structuring charges filed against you.

Your example is quite off. You're depositing $60K+ in MOs and not cash. Restaurants don't take MOs from their customers.

Yes, intent is paramount.

I was talking about problems that could arise when you deposit huge amounts of MOs. $60K+ a month in MOs is suspicious and if you deposit it at a few different banks or branches it's also structuring. Account closure is nothing but having a black mark in the Chex Systems can hurt.

It is not structuring unless you are specifically trying to avoid reporting.

Lord, they're similar. If anything, cash deposits draw more scrutiny from banks and federal institutions because of lack of transparency and traceability.

But if it humors you, you can replace my restaurant example with a housing contractor who ends up being paid by check quite often. A MO is for all intents and purposes a check that is prepaid.

Multiple deposits at multiple banks is not in and of itself structuring.

^ "a customer may structure currency deposit or withdrawal transactions, so that each is less than the $10,000 CTR filing threshold; use currency to purchase official bank checks, money orders, or traveler’s checks with currency in amounts less than $10,000 (and possibly in amounts less than the $3,000 recordkeeping threshold for the currency purchase of monetary instruments to avoid having to produce identification in the process); or exchange small bank notes for large ones in amounts less than $10,000."
http://www.ffiec.gov/bsa_aml_infobas...al/OLM_107.htm

I'm going to make a killing on my Law School for MS program :cool:

Were you even involved in MS back in those days? Or are you just stating what you read.

I was and I did participate. Shutting down of an account or some other random oddity is far from a structuring accusation.

Again, no one that I know or anyone that they know that participates in this game has had any kind of legal issue beyond a bank account or credit blacklist.

I think its pretty safe to say that the "powers that be" are on to our game and can disseminate the good from the bad.

It doesn't matter what is structuring is/isn't as long as you know you get in trouble acting like one. And, there must be a lot of lawyers here. If it's IANAL thing, I wouldn't gurantee what is/what isn't.

Banks reports SARs if they feel it's necessary & the Fed decides. And, please, go ahead attract lots of attentions, so that the gov realizes how lucrative to tax cashbacks/redeeming points for airlines/hotels.

He could buy 3K with 6 $500 on one single transaction - that my friend, is NOT structuring.

The way he did it, has all the looks of structuring by splitting up the total amount into $500 total each. Not to mention he visited the same store multiple times a day - how could the store not take notice on such and then decides to do something that the regulations require the merchant to do? :rolleyes: