Related Content
Press Release
TRENTON, N.J. – A Burlington County, N.J., woman was sentenced today to 12 months of home confinement and five years of probation for making cash deposits totaling more than $700,000 in amounts of less than $10,000 each in order to avoid having banks file a report on her deposits, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Sandra Mastoris, 58, of Chesterfield, N.J., previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano to an Indictment that charged her with structuring more than $700,000 in cash deposits from 2008 to 2009. Judge Pisano imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
By the beginning of 2008, Mastoris had accumulated a cash hoard of more than $700,000. Beginning in May 2008 and continuing in 2009, Mastoris deposited that cash hoard in amounts of less than $10,000 because she was aware that banks were required to report cash transactions that involved amounts of more than $10,000, and she wanted to avoid having the banks file such reports. Making deposits of cash in amounts of less than $10,000 in order to avoid having banks file Currency Transaction Reports constitutes the criminal offense of “structuring.”
Mastoris made cash deposits into 13 different accounts at five different banks. Between May 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2009, Mastoris made more than 200 cash deposits of less than $10,000 into accounts at JPMorganChase, Bank of America, PNC Bank, Sovereign Bank and Grand Bank. On Aug. 29, 2008, for example, Mastoris made cash deposits of $9,900 into an account at the Bank of America, $5,000 into one account at JPMorganChase, $4,500 into a second account at JPMorganChase, and $8,500 into an account at PNC Bank.
In addition to the home confinement and probation, Judge Pisano ordered Mastoris to forfeit $70,000.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of IRS–Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Shantelle P. Kitchen in Newark, with the investigation leading to today’s sentence.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bohdan Vitvitsky of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit.
13-100
Defense Counsel: Vincent P. Sarubbi Esq., Haddonfield, N.J.