The owner of a West Baraboo restaurant is in the Dane County Jail after he was arrested Friday for allegedly skirting federal law by cashing hundreds of thousands of dollars in checks loaned to him by a friend.

Ismail "Mike" Beciri, 53, owner of Kristina's Family Restaurant, was charged with four counts of structuring cash transfers to avoid federal reporting requirements.

Under the federal Bank Secrecy Act, banks must report currency transactions greater than $10,000 to the Internal Revenue Service to help curb money laundering and other crimes.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court alleges that Beciri cashed checks for $10,000 and under at banks all over south-central Wisconsin in order to avoid federal regulations.

Court records indicate that Beciri filed for bankruptcy in November 2007.

An affidavit by IRS investigator Mike Zeihen states that on May 14, federal investigators searched Beciri's home and business looking for evidence of bankruptcy fraud.

According to the affidavit: A friend of Beciri, Kenneth M. Heiser, said he loaned Beciri more than $700,000, all in checks that Beciri insisted be written in small amounts and with the payee space left blank.

Heiser said Beciri had claimed the small amounts were so he could use the checks to pay restaurant suppliers. Instead, Beciri and others drove to banks in Madison, Dodgeville, Lake Delton, Reedsburg and elsewhere to cash more than 60 checks from Heiser, worth nearly $450,000.

One entry on the chart states that Heiser cashed a check for $45,000 in Boscobel, then handed the cash to Beciri, who stuffed it into his coat. Beciri will remain in jail at least until a detention hearing set for Wednesday.