Need some information. If a customer or business deposits counterefeit currency to their account and the bank catches it, is against the law not to report this to the U. S Secret Service. Somebody told me it was.

Thanks

It is against the law to be in posession of counterfeit currency.

It is also against the law to return counterfeit money to the passer. It's "The Fake Buck Stops Here" principal. Take possession and send it to USSS.

This is from the Secret Service web site:

http://www.secretservice.gov/money_receive.shtml

I'm amassing ammo on this topic myself. A recent switch in some of our cash recyclers got me on the topic of how we have/would handle counterfeit currency (pretty rare in our area) and was given this response by our previous BSA person who is also in charge of deposit accounts and member service, so oversees all of our tellers.

"I understand your concerns. I can tell you that the police here only want to know about counterfeit money if its $100 bills or if its ALOT of $20s. If we get a $5, $10 or $20, just one randomly, they don't even want to know about it. That is why we offer the member the option. We ask them if they want it or we can turn it in to the police but I usually end up keeping them until we have alot. We haven't even had any in the past few years, so this really isn't an issue."

She did not respond to my insistence that we cannot return the bills once determined they are counterfeit, so now I'm going to gather my "evidence" and see if I can force some changes as a result.

Don't confuse the local police with the Secret Service. Counterfeiting currency is a federal crime, not a state or local crime. I don't have a lot of experience with counterfeit currency, but I do have experience with the Secret Service and I don't think they care about denominations of counterfeit currency. Just because all you have is a counterfeit $5 bill does not mean it is not a part of a larger ring. For what it's worth, counterfeit $5 and $10 bills do not get the scrutiny that larger bills get, that's why they are much easier to pass.

If you want the law, here it is. If you give the countefeit currency back to the customer, you are passing counterfeit currency and would be subject to 20 years in prison:

18 USC § 472 - Uttering counterfeit obligations or securities

Whoever, with intent to defraud, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or with like intent brings into the United States or keeps in possession or conceals any falsely made, forged, counterfeited, or altered obligation or other security of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

Perfect and very helpful. Thanks to you both.

I just received an email from our local police department indicating that if we receive counterfeit currency with a deposit, that we are supposed to give it back to the customer and they are to file a complaint with the police. The police dept. is saying that the business is the victim and the bank is just a witness and so the business needs to report the counterfeit. This doesn't sound right to me and is contrary to what Randy mentioned.

Your local police has no jurisdiction when it comes to counterfeit currency (see above), it is a Federal crime. That crime is under the purview of the U.S. Secret Service and I would not be following any advice on what to do with it from the local Barney Fife.