Opinion ID: 695267
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ratzlaf v. united states

Text: 10 Under our previous case law, in order to convict a defendant for willfully violating the prohibition against money structuring, the government had to prove that the defendant was aware of the bank's reporting requirements and that he sought to evade these requirements by structuring his transactions. United States v. Brown, 954 F.2d 1563, 1568 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 284, 121 L.Ed.2d 210 (1992). Significantly, the defendant's knowledge that structuring was illegal was not an element of the crime. Id. This was the law of this circuit at the time of Vazquez's trial. 11 In January 1994, after Vazquez had been convicted, the Supreme Court issued Ratzlaf v. United States, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 655, 126 L.Ed.2d 615 (1994). 4 In Ratzlaf, the Court held that the willfulness requirement in the criminal enforcement provision, 31 U.S.C. Sec. 5322, requires the government to prove that the defendant acted with knowledge that his conduct was unlawful. Ratzlaf at ----, 114 S.Ct. at 657. The defendant in that case admitted that he structured his cash transactions in order to circumvent the banks' legal duty to file CTRs; he contended, however, that the willfulness language in Sec. 5322 required the government to prove that he knew that structuring was unlawful. Id. at ----, ----, 114 S.Ct. at 657, 659. The Supreme Court agreed and so held. Id. at ----, 114 S.Ct. at 663. 5