I don't think anti-money laundering laws apply to federal agencies. The SEC isn't hiding this payment from the IRS, in this hypothetical scenario they are just

I don't think anti-money laundering laws apply to federal agencies. The SEC isn't hiding this payment from the IRS, in this hypothetical scenario they are just hiding it from the bank employees. In reality, I don't think any bank employee is going to see if a customer got "more than $17M" and assume that they're a whistleblower and... do something with that.