Court Opinion

ID: 9474532
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:00:48.961313+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:09.856128
License: Public Domain

HILL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Contrary to the majority opinion, I find this case controlled by United States v. Denemark, 779 F.2d 1559 (11th Cir.1986), as opposed to United States v. Tobon-Builes, 706 F.2d 1092 (11th Cir.1983), and thus would reverse the convictions. In Tobon-Builes, Tobon and a companion acting on his behalf went to several banks and at each made virtually simultaneous cash purchases of pairs of cashiers checks, each check being for approximately $9000. The couple attempted to conceal their scheme by entering the banks separately and using a variety of false names. Though disguised as two transactions, we held the pairs of purchases in each bank were in fact only one transaction for purposes of the CTR reporting requirement as the purchases of the companion were merely the acts of Tobon through an agent.
Unlike Tobon-Builes, in the case before us appellants performed each transaction personally. Appellants can be credited with no transaction at any single branch exceeding $10,000. It is thus impossible for me to conclude that the appellants, who had structured their transactions so as not to become involved in the law requiring currency transactions reports, were put on clear notice that such structuring constituted a conspiracy to defraud the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Our admonition in Denemark is equally applicable here. “No one may be required at peril of life, liberty, or property to speculate as to the meaning of penal statutes. All are entitled to be informed as to what the State commands or forbids.” United States v. Denemark, 779 F.2d 1559, 1563 (11th Cir.1986) (quoting Lametta v. New Jersey, 306 U.S. 451, 59 S.Ct. 618, 83 L.Ed. 888 (1939)).
I do not question for a moment that this country is entitled to be, and ought to be, aware of large cash dealings. As I have previously observed, currency is the life blood of organized crime. United States v. Arends, 776 F.2d 262, 265 (11th Cir.1985) (Hill, J., specially concurring). What the appellant here has done is clearly contrary to the wishes of the government. However, one of the things which sets this nation apart from so many others is that no one may be convicted of a crime merely for acting contrary to the wishes of the government. Before conduct may be held to constitute a crime, that conduct must be the subject of a criminal statute which “define[s] the criminal offense with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited and in a manner that does not encourage arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement.” Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S 352, 357,103 S.Ct. 1855, 1858, 75 L.Ed.2d 903 (1983). The applicable Treasury regulations do not satisfy this definiteness requirement with respect to the transactions here in question. Perhaps *1554the Congress or the Secretary or both ought further to address this problem.1
Based upon its particular facts, Tobon-Builes is in my view a unique case. As already noted, it was found that at each bank there had been only one cash transaction, involving more than $10,000, accomplished by the defendant acting himself and, simultaneously, through an agent. The transaction at each bank thus should have generated a CTR and Tobon, through his actions, caused each bank to fail to file the required CTRs. Tobon-Builes thus constitutes a narrow holding and ought not to be extended to cover separate transactions which were deliberately not covered by the Treasury regulations merely because the separate transactions probably accomplished something contrary to wishes of the Secretary, no matter how beneficial to the country it would be if those wishes were abided.
In Denemark, supra, we refused to hold that an individual who had conducted fourteen cash transactions with fourteen different banks during the same day could be pulled within the purview of the CTR reporting requirement by having all the cash transactions considered as a single exchange. In light of the applicable regulatory language cited by the majority, I would apply a similar rule where the transactions occurred at different branches of the same bank. Accordingly, I DISSENT from the majority opinion.

. I, recognize that there has been a recent amendment to 31 C.F.R. § 103.22(a) which in the future may or may not be sufficient to pull transactions such as those in this case within the purview of the CTR reporting requirement.