At the end of Episode 7, one agent says "He made a lot of cash deposits just under $10,000"
Our hero responds "Is that legal?"
What the hell? Why wouldn't it be? And why would a senior CIA agent even ask that question? It's insane. (I know - bad writing)
Why do you find it insane? Although a cash deposit itself is always legal, banks do have to report certain amounts. In the USA it seems to be $10,000 and in other countries it's a different amount.
Also a bank has a moral responsibility to report any deposits that might raise suspicion. This is cause of money laundering, terrorism funds and tax evasion. Trust me, if you deposit an amount of 10K every single month to a European bank, it will be reported and it will be investigated.
Let's say the agent had said "He deposited $15,000 every month"
The appropriate reaction from someone else familiar with financial crimes would be "Was it reported?" or "Why wasn't it reported?" not "Is that legal?"
Depositing under $10,000 regularly, the reaction should be either "And since it was under ten grand, the bank didn't report it" or "Even though it's under $10,000, you'd think the bank would catch on after a while and file a report."
At no point would the question be "is that legal?"
I think she meant if it's legal to say split a $100,000 stash to ten $9,999 installments and thus avoid reporting to the IRS. Ames was convicted for tax evasion among others.
Fanboy : a person who does not think while watching.share
I can deposit $500,000 in cash all at once, or I can deposit it $2,999 a day to avoid all reporting - depositing cash is never illegal. The issue is about bank reporting - when do banks report and how. (There's even a form for banks to report "Suspicious deposit activity" when no limits are broken - like depositing $2,900 every single day)
I mean think through it - I walk into a bank with an amount of cash and hand it to a teller. Under what circumstance would you expect police to show up and be arrested?
Depositing cash - any amount, in any frequency, is never illegal. The IRS, Treasury, and FBI would like unusual patterns reported so they can investigate further to see if the odd pattern is indicative of criminal activity. It's the criminal activity you get arrested for, not for depositing the cash.
Maybe it's "baby agent" thinking, but really it's sloppy writing indicative of not understanding how the legal system works.