Barrett, J., dissenting
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 21–1195
ALEXANDRU BITTNER, PETITIONER v. UNITED STATES
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
[February 28, 2023]
Justice Barrett, with whom Justice Thomas, Justice Sotomayor, and Justice Kagan join, dissenting.
Alexandru Bittner, an American citizen, held as much as $16 million across more than 50 bank accounts in Romania, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein.[1] He acknowledges that the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and its implementing regulations required him to report his interest in these accounts to the Federal Government annually. Bittner also admits that he failed to comply with that requirement for five consecutive years. Because he failed to report 272 accounts, the Government concluded that he violated the law 272 times and assessed a penalty for each violation. Bittner, on the other hand, argued that he violated the law just five times—once for each annual form that he failed to file.
The Court agrees with Bittner and holds that the failure to file a legally compliant form is a single violation, no matter how many accounts a citizen fails to report. I respectfully disagree. The most natural reading of the statute establishes that each failure to report a qualifying foreign account constitutes a separate reporting violation, so the Government can levy penalties on a per-account basis.
- ↑ In 2007, for example, he held over $10 million across 61 foreign bank accounts. The pattern continued: $10 million across 51 accounts in 2008, $3 million across 53 accounts in 2009, $16 million across 53 accounts in 2010, and $15 million across 54 accounts in 2011.
