AFC CHALLENGES most convenience stores for a visualization of the prudent safety measures these businesses need to enact to protect their currency . This is the established norm and the reason that this rogue dealing in bulk currency , better known as structuring or smurfing , is suspicious and will rarely have innocent or licit motivation behind it .
Another major problem in the perceived simplicity of structuring is jurisdiction . The BSA recognized that crime is about money ; therefore , investigators should have the tools to follow the money . The problem here is that the individual LE entities had designed and focused their investigative strategies around the specific crimes under their specialized jurisdictions . The money trail , in many cases , is not always directly related or obvious . The Drug Enforcement Administration wants to investigate structuring cases if the currency is linked to illicit drugs . The U . S . Secret Service wants to investigate structured money if it is linked to fraud and other crimes under their jurisdiction but not if it is illicit drug money . The Internal Revenue Service has a follow-the-money investigation strategy as its primary investigative focus , but its limited investigative resources have been overloaded from the inception of the BSA with major tax cases . The very nature — and one of the purposes — of structuring currency transactions is to disguise the source of the currency . For AML / BSA purposes , this may define the placement aspect of money laundering , but it creates a paradox where no agency wants to initiate an investigation without something linking it to their jurisdiction . Yet , an investigation is often needed to establish that link . Meanwhile , potentially viable structuring-based SARs continue to pile up .
Conclusion
Beyond this paradox and disconnecting the investigations from any initial asset recovery or forfeiture considerations , structuring has always brought simplicity in identifying and exposing the money trail . Enforcement efforts that discount , ignore and try to work around it are detrimental to promoting and expanding financial investigation literacy . These compliance community concerns and debates should serve as a red flag to LE that structuring needs to be returned as an essential tool in the LE community ’ s AML toolbox .
Steve Gurdak , CAMS , manager , Washington Baltimore HIDTA , Northern Virginia Financial Initiative ( NVFI ), VA , USA , sgurdak @ wb . hidta . org
Disclaimer : The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not meant to represent the opinions of the W / B HIDTA .
1
“ Attorney General Restricts Use of Asset Forfeiture in Structuring Offenses ,” U . S . Department of Justice , March 31 , 2015 , https :// www . justice . gov / opa / pr / attorney-general-restricts-use-asset-forfeiture-structuring-offenses
24 acamstoday . org