Thread Starter: Anonymous
Title: Re: Need some help with a SAR issue invloving Exec VP
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This situation occured just prior to Christmas. It had been the "tradition" at our bank that we receive a Christmas card from our CEO with a $100 bill inside as a Christmas gift from the bank.
I was in our main branch lobby talking with my wife on 12/23/08 when an executive VP at our bank approached the teller window, handed the teller a withdrawal slip and asked for $12,000 in crisp $100 bills. I thought that perhaps this was being done for the aforementioned employee Christmas gift. After that, I didn't think anything of it. No employee ended up getting the CEO Christmas card, but I just chalked that up to the state of the economy, etc.
Following the holidays, our bank's BSA officer approached our bank's legal counsel about an issue regarding the executive VP's withdrawal (which I had initially witnessed).
What I didn't know, because I had walked away from the teller window at this point, was that the exec VP, upon handing over the withdrawal slip for $12,000, was told that there would have to be a CTR filed due to the amount. The transaction was later reversed in our system. The exec VP then made one $9,000 withdrawal on 12/23 and a $3,000 withdrawal on 12/24.
The withdrawals were made on behalf of one of our bank's biggest and best customers (like we all haven't heard that line before) from a money market account.
Our bank's president is not a big fan of Reg D. Somewhere along the way, someone in the bank created a special transaction code to put on the withdrawal slips. This trans code, for anyone looking at it against a legend of what they mean, will indicate that the transaction was done in person at a teller window. In reality, what it means is that a customer called into one of our branches to request a transfer, withdrawal, etc., and a bank employee completes the transaction in the branch.
In the instance detailed above, this "special" trans code was used for both the 12/23 and 12/24 transactions.
It is readily apparent to me that our bank needs to file a SAR on these transactions because the withdrawals were obviously structured. The main issue is, who gets named on the SAR? We name the customer, but do we name the exec VP as well?
What are the potential repercussions to the bank and the exec VP personally if she is named on the SAR?
I would very sincerely appreciate any input or answers regarding this situation.
Thanks for reading.
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