Barrett, J., dissenting
a … relationship,” “the legal capacity in which a participant” in a relationship “is acting,” and “the identity of real parties in interest.” §§5314(a)(1)–(3). Each listed item is account specific because its contents can vary for each foreign account held. And each failure to report an account thus deprives the Government of the account-specific information that the statute requires.
That is not all. Section 5314 authorizes the Secretary to impose a recordkeeping requirement in addition to a reporting requirement. Recordkeeping violations cannot occur on a per-form basis because keeping records does not entail filing a form. Instead, they occur on a per-account basis because records naturally relate to specific accounts. And if violations of §5314’s recordkeeping obligation accrue on a per-account basis, the same should be true of violations of §5314’s obligation to file reports. The duties are parallel: Each kicks in “when” a citizen “maintains a relation” with a foreign financial agency, and each requires a person to collect the same account-specific information. §5314(a). Parallel duties should be susceptible to parallel violations.
The civil penalty provisions in §5321 confirm this reading of the substantive obligations imposed by §5314. Recall that §5321 allows the Secretary to “impose a civil money penalty on any person who violates, or causes any violation of, any provision of section 5314.” §5321(a)(5)(A). The statute then proceeds to set the maximum penalty for nonwillful violations, provide a reasonable cause exception for those same violations, and set the maximum penalty for willful violations. §§5321(a)(5)(B)–(D). Throughout, Congress used the term “violation” in an account-specific way.
Consider the reasonable cause exception. It provides that “[n]o penalty shall be imposed … with respect to any” nonwillful “violation” of §5314 if (1) “such violation was due to reasonable cause” and (2) “the balance in the account at the time of the transaction was properly reported.”
