SAR filing - possible garnishment avoidance

A customer received a large dollar ACH credit and removed those funds from the account immediately in cash. We suspect the customer is trying to hide the funds so that the state's child support office cannot garnish the funds in the account. What summary characterization would this fall under on the SAR form?

is this a one-time deal or something that happens often? (ACH in/Cash out). Frequency/amount?

What's the SARable offense here?

That is what I'm trying to determine. Is is reportable activity if the customer has told us that they are making a large cash withdrawal out of their account to avoid garnishment from the state?

One time - withdrew cash & converted balance to Cashier's Check - total $30,000.

I would consider filing for "Concelament of Funds". If they indicate this, more likely they are doing so.

“Chance favors only the mind that is prepared”. Louis Pasteur

So this was a one time ACH for $30k followed up a cash withdrawal and a CC purchase?

Definitely SARable in my opinion. Reason: avoiding garnished wages (for being a dead beat dad) and unreasonable velocity of large ACH-in followed by cash out/cc purchase.

Your only argument that a crime is involved here is the fact that the third party claim was for child support. In my home state, failure to pay child support is a crime.

Avoiding creditors and third party claims in general is not a crime. Any mandatory SAR involves activity that may be criminal in nature.

Ken-
Would the activity be "criminal" if the request was from the government for back taxes?

What if they just move the money into someone else's account (like their childs) to avoid a garnishment is that SAR reportable?

We have had several instances of customers withdrawing the majority of the balance in their account to keep in a cashier's check for the exact reason of avoiding a levy or a garnishment. Then those customers will come in and exchange the cashier's check for a lesser amount cashier's check and use the rest to pay bills. In my opinion, anytime someone is hiding funds, it is definitely SAR reportable.

If you can cite any law or regulation indicating that secreting assets in a civil proceeding is a crime reportable on a SAR please provide it.

If you know that a customer has emptied his accounts to purchase and hold a cashiers check, make certain your bank's attorney agrees that the cashiers check is not subject to the third party claim.

This type of activity is definitely "unusual." We report in these cases and explain that the activity is not the type that we would expect for the type of account and that we cannot identify a reasonable explanation for the activity.