Opinion ID: 695267
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evidence of Vazquez's Conduct

Text: 30 The Supreme Court observed in Ratzlaf that a jury could find that a defendant knew his structuring activity was illegal by drawing reasonable inferences from the evidence of defendant's conduct. --- U.S. at ----, 114 S.Ct. at 663 n. 19; see also United States v. Macko, 994 F.2d 1526, 1533 (11th Cir.1993) (Circumstantial evidence may prove knowledge and intent.). But cf. United States v. Granda, 565 F.2d 922, 926 (5th Cir.1978) (explaining that proof of knowledge that one is required to file a report for bringing currency in excess of $5,000 into the country is almost impossible unless affirmative steps are taken by the government to make the laws' requirements known). 31 The government argues that a reasonable jury could infer from the circumstances surrounding Vazquez's behavior and banking practices that Vazquez knew his conduct was illegal. In particular, the government emphasizes the following facts established by the evidence: (1) Ms. Bermejo, a branch manager at Ponce de Leon Federal, told Vazquez about the reporting requirements for cash transactions over $10,000; (2) Vazquez subsequently transferred his bank account to Barnett; (3) Vazquez stated to a bank teller that he wanted to avoid a CTR for a particular transaction; (4) Vazquez's checks were all in amounts of less than $10,000; (5) Vazquez's general banking patterns were suspicious, particularly his making multiple deposits only minutes apart and with different branches during the same day; and (6) Vazquez often got other persons to make deposits for him. According to the government, a jury could infer from this evidence that while Vazquez knew about the CTR requirements, he did not realize that Barnett Bank would aggregate multiple deposits during the day. The government argues that a trier of fact consequently could reasonably conclude that Vazquez's many deposits were designed to circumvent the CTR reporting requirement. 32 Although we agree that this evidence is sufficient to prove that Vazquez structured his deposits in order to evade the CTR requirements, it does not in any way suggest what Ratzlaf requires--that Vazquez knew structuring was illegal. The evidence of Vazquez's conduct provides ample support for a finding that Vazquez knew that Barnett Bank had to file CTRs with the government for cash transactions exceeding $10,000 and that his deposits were designed to prevent the bank from filing these reports. Indeed, he concedes as much in this appeal. Evidence demonstrating that Vazquez wanted to evade the bank's reporting requirements, however, is not adequate to show that Vazquez knew the law prohibited him from doing so. See United States v. Oreira, 29 F.3d 185, 188 (5th Cir.1994) (The Government directs our attention to the considerable evidence of intentional structuring, but this is not necessarily equivalent to an intent to do something illegal.). But cf. United States v. Marder, 48 F.3d 564, 574 (1st Cir.1995) (explaining that defendant's use of three different banks to conceal his structuring went beyond mere avoidance of the reporting requirement and tended to prove knowledge of illegality). We would disregard the holding of Ratzlaf were we to conclude that evidence that establishes structuring also establishes knowledge of illegality.