We have a customer who has come in on three different occasions between 12/8 and 1/27 and has withdrawn $9,900 each time. He has told the teller helping him the money is to pay his contractor as he remodels a cabin. Would this warrant filing a SAR? If so, would the SAR justification be "structuring - multiple transactions below CTR threshold"

Or because the transactions have been spaced out over a month and a half does it not warrant a SAR, rather just additional watch on the account?

It seems to meet the criteria especially if the builder wants to avoid the monies showing on his income statement.

That's what I was thinking too, but a senior officer said, why file a SAR when he's not doing anything illegal by staying under the reporting threshold and we don't have reason to believe the funds are being used illegally.

If the customer is structuring the transactions to avoid a CTR the SAR is required.

As Skittles stated, conducting transactions in a manner to avoid CTR reporting is a reportable offense itself. Whether or not you include the builder in the narrative for potential tax evasion depends on how your shop handles the often debated tax evasion/SAR filing issue.

Then again, if the builder's invoices are for $9,900 for each phase of the project (hardly likely, but i suppose a possibility nonetheless)your customer is simply choosing to pay in cash, and it would be the builder who is causing the structuring.

Devil's advocate aside, I would provide FinCEN's structuring pamphlet, file the SAR, and move on.

Showing the FinCEN pamphlet to that senior officer might help him/her understand that intentionally staying under the threshold is the "anything illegal".

"Can I break up my currency transactions into multiple, smaller amounts to avoid being reported to the government?
No. This is called “structuring.” Federal law makes it a crime to break up transactions into smaller amounts for the purpose of evading the CTR reporting requirement and this may lead to a required disclosure from the financial institution to the government. Structuring transactions to prevent a CTR from being reported can result in imprisonment for not more than five years and/or a fine of up to $250,000. If structuring involves more than $100,000 in a twelve month period or is performed while violating another law of the United States, the penalty is doubled."

the $9,900.00 withdrawals just seems odd to me & that would make me file the SAR - it seems suspcisious.

It is. I would file the SAR.

Anon #3: This is where the more questions the tellers are trained to ask, the easier the decision is. "Hey you were in here last week, didn't we give you enough? What'cha making anyway?" Give them a chance to explain. If it's innocent activity it will become easier to show. If it's not innocent - you'll get hesitation or irritation, etc. That choice is then made easier as well. Give them the Flyer in any case and tell them you give it to all customers who frequently handle large cash transactions.

Your Senior Official is sorely lacking in simple BSA Law. This basic concept is to be well-engrained.