NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED FEDERAL LAWYERS
What happens if you deposit $10,000 cash?
|Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. We’re a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek – with over 40 years of combined experience. You’re here because you have questions about depositing cash, and you need straight answers from lawyers who’ve defended clients in federal financial crime cases. We’ve handled cases that made national headlines – like the Anna Delvey Netflix series, the Ghislaine Maxwell juror misconduct case – and we understand what happens when the government starts looking at your bank account.
Depositing $10,000 in cash triggers an automatic report to the government. Your bank files what’s called a Currency Transaction Report with FinCEN – the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network – within 15 days. This isn’t optional for the bank, it’s federal law under the Bank Secrecy Act. The report includes your name, Social Security number, address, and the exact amount you deposited.
Most people think this is a tax issue. It’s not. The report goes to FinCEN first, and FinCEN shares it with the IRS, FBI, and other federal agencies. The deposit itself doesn’t create a tax obligation – but it does create a permanent government record that you had $10,000 in cash.
The Bank Has No Choice
Your bank will file the report whether you like it or not. Some clients ask us if they can prevent it, if they can request the bank skip the filing. The answer is no. Banks face criminal penalties if they fail to report cash transactions over $10,000, and those penalties include fines up to $500,000 and prison time for bank employees who deliberately ignore the requirement. No teller is going to risk federal prosecution to protect your privacy.
The $10,000 threshold applies to deposits, withdrawals, currency exchanges – any transaction involving physical cash. It also applies to the daily aggregate, which means if you make three deposits of $4,000 each on the same day, that’s $12,000 total and the bank must report it. Multiple smaller transactions that add up to more than $10,000 on a single business day trigger the same reporting requirement.
Structuring Is a Federal Crime
This is where people get into serious trouble. Breaking up a large cash amount into smaller deposits to avoid the $10,000 reporting threshold is called structuring – and structuring is a federal crime under 31 U.S.C. 5324. You don’t need to be laundering drug money or hiding income from illegal activity. Structuring itself is the crime, even if the underlying money is completely legitimate.
Federal prosecutors don’t need to prove you committed any other offense. They just need to prove you knew about the reporting requirement and intentionally broke up transactions to evade it. We’ve seen cases where business owners deposited their own legal business income in amounts like $9,000, then $8,500, then $9,800 – trying to stay under the radar. The government noticed. The government always notices.
In 2016, the IRS seized $43 million from 600 depositors suspected of structuring. Civil forfeiture lets the government take your money first and ask questions later. Criminal penalties for structuring include up to five years in federal prison. If the structuring is part of another crime – like tax evasion – the penalties stack.
When the Report Triggers an Investigation
A Currency Transaction Report sitting in a government database doesn’t automatically mean you’re under investigation. Millions of these reports get filed every year. Most of them involve legitimate transactions – someone selling a car, a small business making a cash deposit, a person withdrawing money for a large purchase.
But the reports get flagged when patterns emerge. If you’re depositing $10,000 or more in cash regularly, FinCEN’s algorithms will notice. If your reported income on tax returns doesn’t match the cash flowing through your bank account, the IRS will notice. If you’re making large cash deposits shortly after someone else in your network gets arrested, federal investigators will notice.
That’s when agents start building a case. They’ll subpoena your bank records going back years, not just the recent deposits. They’ll look at who you’re doing business with, where the cash is coming from, whether your lifestyle matches your declared income. Every inconsistency becomes evidence. Federal agents follow the money forward and backward – did you wire money out of the country right after the deposit, buy cashier’s checks, pay off debts to people with criminal records?
What You Should Do Instead
If you have $10,000 or more in cash to deposit, just deposit it. Let the bank file the report. The report itself isn’t an accusation, it’s just documentation. As long as the money came from a legal source and you’re reporting your income properly to the IRS, a Currency Transaction Report won’t hurt you.
Keep records of where the cash came from. If you sold a vehicle, keep the bill of sale. If it’s business income, make sure your bookkeeping matches the deposit. If someone repaid a loan to you, document the original loan and the repayment. Federal investigators can show up months or years later asking questions, and “I don’t remember” is not a good answer when your money is on the line.
Don’t lie to the bank about the source of funds. Tellers are required to ask where large cash deposits come from, and lying to a bank employee during a transaction covered by federal reporting requirements can be charged as making false statements. That’s a separate federal felony. And don’t take advice from your accountant or financial advisor about how to “structure” deposits to avoid reporting. The person who gave the advice isn’t going to prison – you are.
If You’ve Already Made Smaller Deposits
If you’ve already broken up cash deposits to avoid the $10,000 threshold – even once, even without knowing it was illegal – don’t make another deposit. Banks are required to file Suspicious Activity Reports when they detect potential structuring, and those reports go straight to FinCEN and federal law enforcement. Making more deposits just creates more evidence.
Talk to a federal criminal defense lawyer before you do anything else. Not a general practice attorney, not your business lawyer – someone who regularly defends clients against federal prosecutors. At Spodek Law Group, we have former federal prosecutors on staff who understand exactly how these investigations work, what evidence the government needs, and what defenses actually hold up in court.
The earlier you talk to a lawyer, the more options you have. Once the government files charges, your negotiating position gets weaker. Before charges are filed, there may be opportunities to explain the situation, provide documentation, and avoid prosecution entirely. That window doesn’t stay open long.
We’ve handled federal financial crime cases for years – wire fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, structuring. We know the prosecutors, we know the judges, and we know what strategies work in federal court. Our only loyalty is to you, not to maintaining good relationships with the government. If you’re worried about cash deposits you’ve made or reports that have been filed, call us. We’re available 24/7, and the consultation is confidential.