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Posted on 04/09/2015 8:24:57 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
“I did not serve three combat tours in Iraq only to come home and be extorted,” Andrew Clyde, a US Navy veteran, told an oddly united House Ways and Means subcommittee in a February hearing.
Clyde is now a gun store owner near Athens, Georgia, a college town located roughly 70 miles outside of Atlanta. He told members of the subcommittee about his experience with the Internal Revenue Service, which seized $950,000 from his business’ bank account in April of 2013 through civil asset forfeiture.
The Bank Secrecy Act requires financial institutions to report cash deposits over $10,000 to the federal government. When it appears that a person or a business is trying to circumvent this regulation, the IRS can use civil asset forfeiture, a pernicious tool that gives extraordinary power to the federal and most state governments to ignore constitutional protects of due process, to seize property from those merely suspected of a crime, many of whom have not done anything wrong.
As concern about new gun control regulations grew in late 2012 and early 2013, Clyde Armory saw a tremendous boom in business. The business made deposits of less than $10,000 because of an insurance policy, but the pattern was reported to the IRS by his financial institution.
Clyde was never charged with nor convicted of a crime. But the money – which he and his employees worked hard to earn – was taken by the government. He was guilty until proven innocent, an egregious distortion of how the justice system is supposed to work.
After a long and difficult legal fight, the IRS agreed to give Clyde the money it wrongfully took from him – well, mostly. Though he did absolutely nothing wrong, other than unwittingly show up on the federal government’s radar, Clyde forfeited $50,000 to the IRS, which he describes as “a tactical retreat.” He paid another $100,000 in legal fees.
Clyde Armory is just one example of a legitimate business that fell victim to civil asset forfeiture. Clyde testified alongside Randy Sowers, a Maryland-based creamery owner, and Jeff Hirsch, who owns a distribution company in New York, at the February hearing. Both recounted similar experiences with the IRS and civil asset forfeiture. Their testimonies had the subcommittee – Republicans and Democrats alike – beside themselves with anger and frustration over the actions of the IRS.
The trio represents the tip of the iceberg. In a February report, the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest firm, noted that the IRS seized $242 million in some 2,500 cases in which “structuring” – frequent cash deposits under $10,000 – was suspected. In at least a third of these cases, no illicit activity was alleged outside of structuring.
“Nearly half of the money seized by the IRS was not forfeited, raising concerns that the IRS seized more than it could later justify to forfeit the cash,” the Institute for Justice explained.
Although the IRS announced in October that it would no longer steal innocent people’s money, it appears that some in the agency did not get the memo, which is why Attorney General Eric Holder, in one of his final acts in office, announced a significant policy change to rein in abuse of civil asset forfeiture by the IRS and federal prosecutors.
The Justice Department is in the midst of a review of civil asset forfeiture. In January, Holder announced new restrictions on the Justice Department’s “equitable sharing” program, through which the federal government adopts property seized by state and local law enforcement agencies. The federal government sends up to 80 percent of the proceeds back to state and local agencies.
Although the restrictions on adoption and equitable sharing are a good first step, it left open a substantial loophole.
The latest policy change related to structuring is grounded in common sense. It requires that criminal charges be filed before the IRS seizes bank accounts whose owners are suspected of structuring their deposits.
Obviously, these are welcome policy changes, but good policy should be codified into law. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) have introduced a bill, the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act, that would require a higher burden of proof and remove the profit motive that often comes with seizures of property. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is also working on a bill to curtail civil asset forfeiture.
With justice reform a high priority for many members, Congress must take steps to protect innocent Americans from abuse of civil asset forfeiture by overzealous federal agencies, prosecutors, and law enforcement at all levels of government.
“Atlas Shrugged” where Dr. Ferris explains: “Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed? ...We want them broken... We’re after power and we mean it... There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt.”
Who needs a vice-admiralty court in America’s New Age?
Or at least make the government agency responsible for paying the legal fees if they cant prove that something illegal was done.
The $10,000 reporting requirement was intended to discover illegal activity.
Now depositing less than $10,000 appears to be the only “crime” necessary for forfeiture.
I doubt that many Americans react to this statement as if it was shocking or new. The IRS needs to be scaled way back. It would be worth shifting from an income tax to a (revenue neutral) sales tax, just to reduce the corruption on one side and abuse on the other side of our current tax structure.
The concept of “Civil Asset Forfeiture” has no place in a free society.
(Public hangings do in some circumstances.)
I picture Stalin Mao and Hitler hanging out together in hell kicking themselves for not having come up with ideas like civil asset forfeiture and “structuring”.
Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act - I like it.
And it should be illegal for any confiscated funds to ever filter their way back to the departments that seized them. When that happens, the government agents become mercenaries and bounty hunters.
The only way to control this illegal activity is to do away with he IRS. Still all forfeiture must be declared illegal without the court issuing the attachment of anything including funds.
They should have to prove their case in tax court.
“The latest policy change related to structuring is grounded in common sense. It requires that criminal charges be filed before the IRS seizes bank accounts whose owners are suspected of structuring their deposits.”
Yeh now they have switched to going after cash withdrawals. If you can’t get it one way get it another.
congress should cease to fund this mafia known as the irs
“The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.”.........
If that be the case, why then does our gubmint not crack down on the thousands of gubmint employees (real criminals) who have NOT and continue to NOT pay their taxes? You and I are required to do so, then explain to me why they are NOT going after OUR employees, the gubmint workers?
HYPOCRITS!
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The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (or BSA, or otherwise known as the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act) requires financial institutions in the United States to assist U.S. government agencies to detect and prevent money laundering.
Specifically, the act requires financial institutions to keep records of cash purchases of negotiable instruments, and file reports of cash purchases of these negotiable instruments of more than $10,000 (daily aggregate amount), and to report suspicious activity that might signify money laundering, tax evasion, or other criminal activities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Secrecy_Act
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BushI, March 05, 1991 =>
Asset forfeiture laws allow us to take the ill-gotten gains of drug kingpins and use them to put more cops on the streets and more prosecutors in court.
In the last 5 years alone, the Justice Department shared over half a billion dollars in forfeited assets with State and local law enforcement.
http://bush41library.tamu.edu/archives/public-papers/2764
“IRS Agents are acting like thugs.”
It’s no act.
And why isn’t Lois Lerner in jail?
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