The reports over an amount are mandatory. But, if there is a reasonable legal reason for the cash, the Secret Service is not going to give it a second glance. They look for patterns.
ANY suspicious transaction can be reported. There is no minimum. There are mandatory levels. Hitting those is so common, the SS won’t look at them unless there is some kind of pattern.
I don’t like the reporting. From the bank side it’s a pain in the neck. But the “invasion of privacy” concerns really are overblown.
I watched a youtube video a few years ago where a completely legitimate business was raided by the feds. They took all their computers and all of their office employees (about six) were just left standing there. It was because of structuring. However, like so many of these cases, it was just a legitimate company putting in the cash part of their business at the bank, and the ammounts were mostly all in the %8-10,000 range.
But like when they arrested D’nish D’sousa, they come in with black Suburbans and the swat team. Simply because a legitimate company, making money, deposited it in the bank for an amount that causes them to show up on a chart.
That’s not freedom. You should need more than just the amount of he deposit as evidence. If I’m parking at my bank’s parking lot, that’s not proof I’m planning on robbing the bank.