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Smurfs, Money Laundering And The Federal Criminal Law: The Crime Of Structuring Transactions, Sarah N. Welling

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In 1970, Congress adopted a statute requiring financial institutions to report cash transactions over $10,000 to the government. Failure to report was a crime. In 1987, Congress made it a crime to structure financial transactions to evade this reporting law. Thus, for example, if Joe arranges his banking so the cash transactions are below $10,000 in order to avoid reporting, Joe commits a federal crime. What brought Congress to this point? Should we be alarmed at the extent of governmental intrusion into the arrangement of our financial affairs, or is the intrusion warranted? This article answers these questions and tells …