Originally Posted by DGenBen View Post
CTRs & SARs get reported to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) not to the IRS. This is where structuring crimes come in.

Obviously the IRS can view them and regularly does, but usually only if something initiates it, like a tax evasion investigation.

W2Gs only get reported to the IRS. FinCEN can view these also as both FinCEN & the IRS are agencies of the US Treasury Department, but there is less overlap here than with the CTRs & SARs because FinCENs job is to investigate financial crimes & money laundering while the IRSes job is revenue.

Do people who get prosecuted for structuring usually start off being investigated for financial crimes and money laundering?

Or do they actually go after people purely for structuring in the first place? (I know that they can but I'm wondering if it actually works that way.)