Comment by throwpoaster
Comment by throwpoaster 3 days ago
In Canada any transactions over a certain limit require the regulated counterparty to file a Suspicious Transaction Report with FINTRAC.
FINTRAC is unable to establish a pattern in those reports and prosecute. Instead, when someone is charged with an indictable offence, their name and related entities are searched for STRs. Any financial crimes are then used to create additional charges.
The net result of this, because of lack of digitization and various privacy guarantees, is that it is almost impossible to be charged with financial crimes as a primary offence in Canada.
Source: former RCMP financial crimes consultant.
It is similar in the US, except we call it a currency transaction report [0]. Because the amount — $10,000 — is not indexed to inflation, these reports are extremely numerous, mostly automated, and are almost entirely useless — beyond conveying the ability to charge ordinary people with structuring [1].
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_transaction_report
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuring