昨天的一则新闻《著名导演英达涉嫌洗钱在美国被捕 或入狱10年》中提到了 Structuring 的罪名，跟在美留学生尤其是撸卡人士息息相关，因此借此机会科普一下什么是 structuring。在新闻中提到：
根据检方的指控书，英达现年56岁，居住在康州，2011年4月到2012年3月之间的11个月之内，他先后把46.4万美元存入他和他妻子的联名账户。为了为了绕过监控，他每次存钱额度都低于1万元，前后分50次存入。为避人耳目，他和他妻子在四家银行开了六个银行账户。
可能有人会有这样的疑问：存钱怎么就犯罪了呢？要怎么存才能不犯罪？且听我细细道来。
美国对于反洗钱的打击力度是相当大的。因为现金的流动不易追查，美国就制定了一个存大额现金必须填表备案的法律：只要一次性存$10,000以上的现金，银行就必须让你填一个 Currency Transaction Report (CTR) 以向IRS报告：
Who Must File. Each financial institution (other than a casino, which instead must file FinCEN Form 103, and the U.S. Postal Service for which there are separate rules) must file FinCEN Form 104 (CTR) for each deposit, withdrawal, exchange of currency, or other payment or transfer, by, through, or to the financial institution which involves a transaction in currency of more than $10,000. Multiple transactions must be treated as a single transaction if the financial institution has knowledge that (1) they are by or on behalf of the same person, and (2) they result in either currency received (Cash In) or currency disbursed (Cash Out) by the financial institution totaling more than $10,000 during any one business day. For a bank, a business day is the day on which transactions are routinely posted to customers’ accounts, as normally communicated to depository customers. For all other financial institutions, a business day is a calendar day.
当然，聪明的犯罪分子肯定可以想到这一点：既然不能一次性存$10,000以上的现金，那就把钱分成几天存，或者分成几个不同的银行存，那不就可以逃避监管了吗？于是更聪明的法律制定者就又规定了这个罪名，Structuring：若故意分拆存款以避免填写 Currency Transaction Report (CTR)，即视作 Structuring。具体标准如下：
- Obtain the cooperation of the owners of the financial institution.
- Obtain the cooperation of an employee.
- Conduct transactions at a lower dollar amount to avoid any identification requirements.
- Conduct transactions at multiple agents of a larger financial institution. (An individual may go to multiple money transmitter locations that happen to be agents for the same company.) Note: If the company has a centralized computer system and aggregates transactions of all agent/branch locations and duly reports the currency transaction, this would be called “imperfect” structuring.
- Use multiple third parties as initiators or recipients of transactions to complete the transactions. Note: This practice is called “smurfing,” where transactions, such as money transfers, are conducted repeatedly in small amounts by third parties to avoid the suspicion of the financial institution(s).
- Conduct transactions at a number of different financial institutions. Note: This is called “perfect” structuring because while the total of the transactions exceeds $10,000, the total amount transacted at each financial institution on a single business day is under $10,000. Thus, no financial institution had a duty to file a CTR.
- Conduct numerous small transactions over a number of days.
这里明确规定了，如果有大于$10,000的现金要存，那么只要有分多次存、分不同银行存而又每次都低于$10,000的行为，就有可能被怀疑为 Structuring。这里补充一句，Money Order (MO) 也被视作现金，若用分拆的方法存 MO 以避免填表，一样可能被视作是 Structuring。
Structuring 是犯罪行为，轻则罚款重则坐牢，这可不是什么闹着玩的事情。咱们华人里有些人会因为某些原因持有大量现金需要存进银行，或者某些撸卡的人会买 Money Order (MO) 来制造消费，就需要对这个问题非常注意。若经常性的存$8,000或者$9,000这种数目的现金，就是作死行为。
那要如何存大额现金/MO才能避免犯罪呢？其实很简单，只要你的现金/MO的来源是合法的，就一次性存$10,000以上，然后填写表格备案即可。当然，有些银行可能是对洗钱过于敏感，一次性存这么多现金有一定概率会导致杀全家（Chase 我说的就是你），但是我们也一定不能因为这个就分拆存款。真的要存这么多现金的话，就要做好被该银行杀全家的准备，所以最好存到村里的小破银行里，以至于被他们杀全家也没有什么实质损失，大不了以后换一家小银行存。
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