Is this SARable?

"Customer brought in $99,920 in cash that had been in the ground. Customer said that he husband didn't want to put it in the bank. Money was from business/doughnut shop"

I don't think you have enough information here to make a determination. But you do have a sufficient need to ask more questions.

What do you know about the customer, the doughnut shop, the age/condition/appearance of the currency, the normal and expected cash use in your customer's region, any relevant demographic factors (age, national origin, etc.) that might explain the customer's inclination toward storing cash in the ground?

Once you have a complete picture of your customer, what is normal and expected, and what actually happened, you'll be in a good position to make a determination as to the SARworthiness of this transaction.

there is no law against burying money instead of putting it in the bank, hopefully it was at least in some type of container and not all funky from the earth.

file a CTR and move on would be my suggestion. or, if you feel that their answer of being from their donut shop is suspicious, file a CTR and SAR and move one.

I would file a SAR because I believe 10 out of 10 examiners would insist that it's suspicious and I would not want to devote any time to discussions about why I did not think it was.

I'm with Ken, we would file. The issue to me is not where the funds just came from (the ground, another bank, a safe deposit box) but where they originated. You have no clue and no verification and it's kind of a lot of cash.

interesting the number of times people found money buried in yards...if you're bored and looking for some lunchtime reading

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&...0k1.3eFPn64UmKw

Idle curiosity - was anyone able to review the bills to determine how old they are? In other words, if the bills were printed 20 years ago - that might make some sense, but if the bills were a recent mint, then the story doesn't hold true.

But as Ken said - you may as well file a SAR because you will probably never convince an examiner that it's not suspicious. The only troubling aspect is the resurgence of asset-forfeiture recently announced by the Justice Department. If this person honestly did bury him income in the backyard, the customer may be at risk of having that money confiscated. I guess we'll see if the house bill to restrict AF also passes the Senate in veto-proof numbers.