Fired due to bank account Structuring

struct

New Member
Jurisdiction
North Carolina
I work a major bank.

My brother was visiting from overseas and owed me money, ($11000.00) Since he had my bank account he made a cash deposit of 2 amounts of $5500.00 each. This was flagged by the bank structuring of cash transaction. Note the deposit was made by my brother not me.

The bank investigated and terminated my employment with them. Since this deposit was made by my brother without me knowing, can my termination be unlawful ?


Please Help.
 
why not. Please explain, I did not deposit the cash myself.


You were an AT WILL employee.

As such, an employer could fire you without notice, warning, or explanation.

You have no RIGHTS to continued employment as an at will employee.

You are free to consult with lawyers in your county or state.

You are lucky the US government has not contacted you.

Your actions or involvement might have violated federal banking laws related to terrorists and terrorism.
 
You can be fired legally for this because there is not a law that says you can't be fired if your brother makes large deposits to your bank account. It really is that simple.
 
Since this deposit was made by my brother without me knowing, can my termination be unlawful ?


why not. Please explain, I did not deposit the cash myself.

First of all, there's certainly more to this situation than you have shared. I'm not saying you have intentionally withheld relevant information, but there must have been something about your brother depositing the money into your account that your former employer didn't like. By itself, your brother's act of depositing money into your account is innocuous and not something that should have concerned your former employer.

However, none of that is relevant. Most employees in the U.S. are "at will" employees. What that means is that the employee may legally quit at any time and for any reason. Likewise, the employer may fire the employee at any time for any reason that is not expressly illegal. Assuming you were an at will employee, your brother depositing money into your account is not an illegal reason to fire you. Absent some explanation why this bothered your former employer, it certainly sounds like a stupid reason to fire you, but firing an employee for a dumb reason is not illegal.
 
"Banks that get deposits of more than $10,000 have to report those deposits to the federal government. A person who purposely tries to evade these reporting requirements is guilty of a crime known as "structuring" (or "smurfing.") ... If the IRS even suspects you're guilty of restructuring, it can take your cash.Oct 28, 2014"

As a banking employee OP should have known that. I suspect it is an employee handbook or training. (Heck i know this and I've never been in banking)

Why his brother had direct access to his bank account number (might also be another issue against employees of the bank) is another issue if the brother's name was not on it.

So even if OP inadvertently allowed his brother to do so, he was part of the issue.

And I totally agree even if all of the above was untrue, they could still terminate based on "at will".
 
I agree. The fact that the total was separated into two amounts is what makes it suspicious. If one deposit had been made for $11,000 it would have been reportable. Although the deposit was made by the brother, the employee gave the account information to the brother, therefore the employee was a party to it. Banks have to be very careful, they are under a lot of scrutiny.
 
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