I would assume it's only a crime if the money you are talking about was illegal to begin with. If it's your money that you have saved then what exactly is the problem if you take it out all at one time or 4 withdrawls a month? We wanted to buy a bulldozer so we just went to the bank and said we want to withdraw the money which was over 10K no problem. Every big purchase we make we pay cash and have never had a problem.

If I robbed a store and was shifting large amounts of money each direction they would be suspicious I guess because I wouldn't be able to show where my money came from - no job with W-2's, maybe not paying taxes - that is why this law was formed. I must be missing something here about why you would be concerned with taking your money out of the bank. What if you wanted to change banks? You would go to the bank, withdraw all of your money and close the account. Are they going to come and arrest you? Are you going to be taxed? No. You have done nothing illegal.