Would you file or not?

Branch personnel is notified that a signer on a non-profit for a sports team/booster club made various withdrawals and used the funds for personal use. Law enforcement has been notified and charges are being pressed. The amount does exceed $5,000.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

If the amount exceeds $5M, you should file.
The fact that law enforcement is aware is not relevant to your decision making process.
IMO.

Just out of curiosity, how did you find out that the funds were used for personal use?

The original crucifixion for the failure to file SARs: Amsouth. If you read through the vignettes, it's clear that when bad things happen to customers via their accounts at your bank, a SAR filing is required.

Prime Time's implied admonition to verify your facts is appropriate. You do not file SARs because someone told you a story...

So, we were notified by a signer on the account who typically does not handle the banking transactions. His concern stemmed from an unpaid T-shirt bill. When looking a little further he claims there are some withdrawals made by the other signer that cannot be accounted for. The total withdrawals from the signer in question total over $5,000 however, we have no way of verifying which withdrawals were used for legitimate purposes and which ones were not.

You either go ahead and file on the transactions you have reason to believe were fraudulent, notwithstanding they total to under $5,000, or you probe your connection with the other signer to see if you can get a better measure of the total involved and then file.

An unauthorized signer on the account made a withdrawal.

So what? - how does that rise to the level of a SAR??

This is an internal issue and does not involve the bank.

If the signer misused their authority to misappropriate funds, that is theft, and would be reportable.

And the bank is the judge as to this based on what??

As with any filing, based on the findings of the bank's investigation.

True, but that would be a lot more than an authorized signer withdrawing a sum of money and some other involved person claiming to the bank that they spent the money for an authorized purpose. Unless you have something more, it is hearsay and the bank has nothing to add to the story by filling a SAR.

to me it appears that this is nothing more than an internal company dispute between two signers. since the transaction was signed by an authorized signer how would you know they were unauthorized or the person making the claim was mistaken or just causing trouble.

I would agree with Randy on this one.

Thank you everyone for your opinions and input. It is greatly appreciated :-)