Fairfax County Man Pleads Guilty to Structuring Bank Deposits

(Alexandria, Virginia) – Atilio Garcia, age 59, of Fairfax County, Virginia, pled guilty today to structuring deposits in order to avoid Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reporting requirements. Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, made the announcement after the plea was accepted by United States District Judge T.S. Ellis, III.

Garcia waived indictment and pled guilty to a criminal information charging a single count of structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements. Sentencing has been set for April 11, 2008. Garcia faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a fine of $500,000, or both. In addition, Garcia consented to the forfeiture of $22,077.35, which the government seized during its investigation.

The Bank Secrecy Act requires banks to report cash deposits and withdrawals over $10,000 to the IRS. The crime of structuring occurs when an individual breaks a cash deposit or withdrawal of more than $10,000 into smaller transactions to cause or attempt to cause a bank to fail to make such a report. In a statement of facts filed with his plea agreement, Garcia admitted depositing $383,400 in cash, broken into amounts of $10,000 or less in an attempt to cause banks to fail to report the transactions. The transactions were conducted in January through March 2006 and in March 2007.

This investigation was initiated by a specialized unit of the Northern Virginia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Financial Crimes Task Force, which consists of local police detectives from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department, Virginia State Police, Fairfax County Police Department, Alexandria Police Department, and Arlington Police Department, as well as federal agents from the United States Secret Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Postal Inspection Service, and Internal Revenue Service. Special Assistant United States Attorneys David Aaron and Jessica Wszalek prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.