31 U.S.C. 5316, Reports on exporting and importing monetary instruments: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2024
Under 31 U.S.C. 5316, 43 of the 60 convicted federal defendants (72%) received a prison term on that charge, with a median term of 18 months. Of all 77 defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2024, 59 (77%) pleaded guilty, 17 (22%) had their cases dismissed, and 1 went to trial. That tr
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › 31 U.S.C. 5316
In brief: Under 31 U.S.C. 5316, 43 of the 60 convicted federal defendants (72%) received a prison term on that charge, with a median term of 18 months. Of all 77 defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2024, 59 (77%) pleaded guilty, 17 (22%) had their cases dismissed, and 1 went to trial. That trial ended in a conviction.
This post uses the Federal Judicial Center's records of 77 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2024. The series also draws on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 659,036 people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
Prison Terms Were Common on This Charge
A conviction under this section usually came with a prison term. 43 of the 60 people convicted (72%) received a prison term on this charge.
The median term was 18 months. That median counts only those whose term on this charge was 1 month or more. The median is the middle value when the terms are listed in order.
Every charge counted here was a felony: 77 of 77 (100%). No case was listed as a Class A misdemeanor or a petty offense.
The Statute and the Count
Title 31, section 5316 of the U.S. Code is headed "Reports on exporting and importing monetary instruments". The post uses that heading and nothing more to describe it.
The Federal Judicial Center records count each defendant whose case ended, including dismissals and acquittals. A defendant appears here when section 5316 was the most serious charge at the end of the case. The cases in these records ended between fiscal years 2016 and 2024. Federal fiscal years begin in October, not January.
Pleas, Dismissals, and the Single Trial
59 defendants (77%) pleaded guilty. 17 (22%) had their charges dismissed. Only 1 (1%) went to trial, before a jury, and the jury did not acquit.
In all, 60 of the 77 (78%) were convicted, by plea or at trial.
The dismissal label covers several kinds of endings. It includes charges the government dropped, for example after the person pleaded guilty in another case. The records do not separate those from other dismissals.
Did Dismissals Change Over Time?
Each fiscal year had between 4 and 11 cases end, so single years are small groups. The share dismissed was 9% in 2016, 36% in 2020, and 20% in 2022. In 2021, 5 of 8 cases ended in dismissal.
Changes this size in groups this small are not trends. The table lists each year for reference.
| Fiscal year | Cases ended | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 11 | 91% | 9% | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | 9 | 9 of 9 | 0 of 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 11 | 82% | 18% | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 8 | 7 of 8 | 1 of 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 11 | 64% | 36% | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 8 | 3 of 8 | 5 of 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 10 | 80% | 20% | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 4 | 3 of 4 | 0 of 4 | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2024 | 5 | 3 of 5 | 2 of 5 | 0 | 0 |
Counsel and Case Endings
The type of lawyer is the one recorded at the end of the case. Private (retained) counsel had the largest group, 37 defendants (48%). A federal public or community defender had 19 (25%). A CJA panel attorney, meaning a private lawyer appointed by the court, had 14 (18%).
Guilty pleas were about the same across the groups: 84% for the federal defender group, 86% for CJA panel attorneys, and 84% for retained counsel. Dismissals were 16%, 7%, and 16%. The one trial was in the CJA panel group and did not end in an acquittal.
These percentages describe groups of cases, not the quality of lawyers. Defendants who hire a lawyer and those who receive an appointed one face different charges and circumstances. The data cannot say whether a different lawyer would have changed any result.
| Type of counsel at the end of the case | Defendants | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal public or community defender | 19 | 84% | 16% | 0 | 0 |
| CJA panel attorney | 14 | 86% | 7% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| Private (retained) counsel | 37 | 84% | 16% | 0 | 0 |
Limits of the Data
No close court-martial counterpart for this statute appears in the approved crosswalk, so there is no military comparison here. The records count how cases ended. They do not show the amounts involved, the evidence, the plea agreements, or the reasons behind a dismissal or a sentence.
How We Counted
Every federal defendant whose case ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 and whose most serious charge at the end of the case (TTITLE1) was under 31 U.S.C. 5316, any subsection (77), Federal Judicial Center, counted as in the federal courts' Table D-4. Type of counsel is TCOUNSEL; labels from the FJC criminal codebook. Section heading from the U.S. Code as published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (release point 119-136).
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
Who is in each set of numbers. The federal sentencing numbers come from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They count only people who were convicted and sentenced in federal district court. People whose cases were dismissed or who were acquitted are not in them. The military numbers come from court-martial results, which include acquittals. To compare acquittal or dismissal rates, the federal side uses a different source: the Federal Judicial Center's case data, which counts every defendant whose case ended.
How "plea" and "trial" are counted. In the federal sentencing numbers, "trial" means the person was convicted after a trial, including people who pleaded guilty to some counts and went to trial on others. People acquitted at trial are not in these numbers at all (see "Who is in each set of numbers"). In the federal case data, the trial rate counts both convictions and acquittals at trial among all defendants whose cases ended, including dismissed cases. Military numbers count contested cases that reached a verdict. These denominators are not the same, and each post states the one it uses.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
Type of counsel describes groups of cases, not lawyers. The Federal Judicial Center records the type of counsel at the end of the case. Defendants who hire a lawyer differ from defendants who receive an appointed lawyer in their charges, criminal history, and circumstances, and some defendants change lawyers during a case. Differences in outcomes by type of counsel therefore cannot be credited to the type of lawyer.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- 31 U.S.C. 5324, Structuring transactions to evade reporting requirement prohibited: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 31 U.S.C. 5332, Bulk cash smuggling into or out of the United States: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- Appointed vs. Retained Lawyers in Federal Criminal Cases: How Cases Ended, 2016–2025
- Are Courts-Martial More Likely to End in Acquittal Than Federal Trials?
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.