More civil asset forfeiture outrage
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FBI sued after allegedly losing hundreds of thousands in rare coins during raid
Two Americans are alleging the FBI lost or stole their property after seizing it through a “shady” process.
“All we know is that their property was in a box and safe before the FBI broke into the box,” Joe Gay, an attorney with the nonprofit law firm Institute for Justice, told Fox News. “Once the FBI broke into the box, we honestly don’t know exactly what happened.”
“We don’t know if they lost it. We don’t know if somebody pocketed it and walked away,” he continued. “We have no way to know.”
The Institute for Justice filed two lawsuits Friday on behalf of clients who had property seized from their safety deposit boxes in a March 2021 FBI raid on U.S. Private Vaults, a Beverly Hills–based company.
After prevailing in court, and the FBI agreeing to return their property, both Don Mellein and Jeni Pearsons discovered some of their property was missing and suspect the FBI’s haphazard raid or sticky fingers are to blame.
“There’s literally been no explanation,” Pearsons said. “I think you have to assume that it’s the simplest explanation, and I think, unfortunately, the simplest explanation is they took it or lost it.”
Pearsons and her husband Michael Storc similarly rented a security deposit box in 2017 as a financial safeguard, storing around $20,000 in silver and $2,000 in cash.
Neither Mellein nor Pearson were charged with a crime.
The FBI had been investigating U.S. Private Vaults, which shut down following the raid and ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder drug money.
After the FBI seized their property along with 1,400 other customers, Mellein and Pearsons received a notice stating the FBI wanted to keep their property through a process known as civil forfeiture.
Jeni Pearsons said the FBI had "no explanation" for where the $2,000 it seized from her safe deposit box went. (Institute for Justice)
Jeni Pearsons said the FBI had “no explanation” for where the $2,000 it seized from her safe deposit box went.
Pearsons said she’d never heard of civil forfeiture before.
But after doing research, she discovered that one of the options to reclaim items presented on the notice essentially gave the FBI all rights to decide what’s done with the property.
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End it.
Now.
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I'm not trying to defend the FBI's behaviour here at all, it's terrible.
But isn't it a bit weird to keep your life-savings in a safe-deposit box? I know, people worry about banks and what-have-you, but in this case the paranoia seems to be almost a self-fulfilling prophecy
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@Doctor-Phibes said in More civil asset forfeiture outrage:
I'm not trying to defend the FBI's behaviour here at all, it's terrible.
But isn't it a bit weird to keep your life-savings in a safe-deposit box? I know, people worry about banks and what-have-you, but in this case the paranoia seems to be almost a self-fulfilling prophecy
I wouldn't, but don't underestimate people's goofy behavior...
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@Horace said in More civil asset forfeiture outrage:
At a bank, cash is against the rules in a deposit box. Though it’s not enforceable.
Thats weird. I wonder why that is.