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If an asset was acquired illegally, how are we punishing the illegal owner if we take it away?

If it was acquired illegally, prove it. If it is subject to forfeiture because of illegality that seems obviously a criminal matter, not a civil one. There is a crime to prove, not a dispute or debt to settle.

An illegal owner is punished under criminal asset forfeiture laws, following conviction. But where do you get off calling someone an illegal owner, in effect accusing them of a crime, if no crime has been proven in a court? The whole thing rests on an unproven crime by a person, hiding behind the fiction of a "crime" by "guilty" property. What a buncha BS. Prove the crime or don't punish the crime.

"If it was acquired illegally, prove it."

We do prove it -- just under a different standard of proof.