Dulles strictly enforces the bulk cash smuggling and structuring guidelines (to my knowledge, not publicly available and not published in CBP’s mitigation guidelines) that call for a hefty forfeiture of half – or more than half of the money even when legitimate source and intended use are shown.

The repeated denial of carrying more than $10,000, couple with the splitting of the money between two envelopes in the carry-on bag is enough for customs to infer an intent to evade the reporting requirement; the concealment of the money in envelopes in the carry-on baggage is enough to infer an intent to conceal the money from the view of CBP.

That means this man heading to Serbia is about to lose, at a minimum, $11,000, for not properly understanding the the cash reporting laws and for not being (anywhere near) truthful to CBP at the time he was asked to report how much money he was traveling with.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Office of Field Operations (OFO), at Washington Dulles International Airport seized nearly $23,000 from a Serbia-bound U.S. citizen on Sunday for violating federal currency reporting regulations.

During an outbound inspection, the Serbia-bound man declared, both verbally and in writing, to a CBP officer that he possessed $9,000. CBP officers discovered $700 in U.S. dollars and 190 Euros (about $211 in USD) in the man’s wallet. CBP officers then discovered an additional $22,000 split between two envelopes in the man’s carry-on bag.

CBP officers seized $22,911 in total. Officers then provided a humanitarian release of $723 plus the 190 Euros to the traveler, and advised him how to petition for the remainder of the currency. Officers released the traveler to continue his journey to Serbia.

“Customs and Border Protection officers afforded this traveler multiple opportunities to truthfully report his currency, and he chose not do to so. Travelers who refuse to comply with federal currency reporting requirements risk severe consequences, including currency seizure and potential criminal charges,” said Wayne Biondi, CBP Area Port Director for the Port of Washington Dulles. “The easiest way for travelers to hold on to their currency is to truthfully report it all to a CBP officer during inspection.”

Incidentally, the story says that CBP advised him “how to petition for the remainder of the currency”. We just wrote about taking legal advice from CBP — in short, you have a lot more options for getting seized cash back from CBP besides a petition, some of which are presented on the election of proceedings form.

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