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Posted on 06/23/2021 9:20:33 PM PDT by kiryandil
LOS ANGELES—Late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted a temporary restraining order that stops the government from using civil forfeiture to take the contents of safe deposit boxes seized in the FBI’s raid on Beverly Hills company U.S. Private Vaults. Jeni Pearsons and her husband Michael Storc, along with Joseph Ruiz and Travis May, teamed up with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to fight that unconstitutional seizure and the FBI’s attempt to take their cash and valuables forever.
In May, the FBI sent a 19-page forfeiture notice to the attorneys for U.S. Private Vaults, informing the company the FBI was seeking to forfeit the contents of hundreds of safe deposit boxes—including over $85 million in cash and millions more in precious metals, jewelry and other valuables. The FBI sent similar notice letters to many of the individual box holders.
Judge Klausner’s order finds those notices violated due process, explaining: “This notice, put bluntly, provides no factual basis for the seizure of Plaintiffs’ property whatsoever.”
“Hundreds of innocent people have had their lives turned upside down by the government’s $85 million cash grab,” said IJ Senior Attorney Robert Frommer. “This order squarely rejects the government’s ‘anemic notices’ as an unconstitutional attempt to take box holders’ property for no good reason.”
Civil forfeiture is a legal process that allows the government to permanently take property without charging anyone with a crime. Here, the government has indicted U.S. Private Vaults the company, alleging it violated federal law, but it has not charged (or even alleged) any crime by any of the individual box holders. But the FBI still moved forward to take almost 400 box holders’ property forever.
The order issued Tuesday halts the forfeiture process for the four box holders who are named as plaintiffs in IJ’s lawsuit. It prevents the government from forfeiting Jeni, Michael, Joseph and Travis’ property without first sending them “forfeiture notices that identify the specific factual and legal basis for the Government’s determination to commence civil forfeiture proceedings.”
“While the order formally applies just to our four clients, the reasoning of the order applies to every one of the hundreds of U.S. Private Vaults box holders in this situation,” said IJ Senior Attorney Rob Johnson. “If the government presses forward with these forfeitures now, it will be defying the court. We’re calling on the FBI and the U.S. Attorney to do the right thing, to follow the judge’s ruling, and to bring these sham forfeiture proceedings to a close.”
The property is already gone, that is why the civil forfeiture was being applied.
To cover their butts.
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What’s the back story here? These safe deposits are rented to individuals and the FBI is just trying to do a blanket seizure on all of them?
Okay, lets see them return it all. Now.
That is a very bad concept with no due process involved.
It is wrong.
Thank you. It appears the FBI should be brought up on RICO charges.
” We’re calling on the FBI and the U.S. Attorney to do the right thing, to follow the judge’s ruling, and to bring these sham forfeiture proceedings to a close.”
How is the Judge going to Enforce it ?
Do you think the Mafbia is going to give up their ill gotten gains ?
When the wrong people carry the badge.
The feeb suspected the safe deposit company of malfeasance.
The judge that signed the warrant specifically exempted the contents of the safe deposit boxes from seizure, only the company property materially connected to the suspected malfeasance.
So the feeb being the fine upstanding agency that it is...
..promptly seized the safe deposits and “catalogued” them, didn’t bother trying to contact most of the owners, accused those who contacted them about their property of being criminals.
Solicited bribes from some by way of “we will let you keep some of your money/property if you sign this and forfeit the rest to us in our benevolence”.
You know, the Abel Reyna method of dealing with seized property.
You know what they used to do with pirates and horse thieves...
Yup.
Sent a clear message too.
“When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you - you know your nation is doomed.”
-Ayn Rand
The FBI, huh!
Aren’t these the same people who blew the head off of Randy Weavers wife while she was holding her child, the same people who a month later drove tanks through a compound in Waco Texas before burning it down with children inside, the same group that tried committed treason by attempting a coup on a sitting president and the theft of an election? That FBI?
They also apparently stole tons of lost civil war gold from treasure hunters (and lied about it). And framed four innocent men for murder, etc.
the poor FIB need more child rape films for themselves
and they need more guillotines for their projects
to terrify CONSERVATIVES - as they continue
to attack to MURDER conservative Americans
again ... while PROTECTING known CHILD RAPISTS
and real TERRORISTS whom they long have trained..
Keep in mind that Eric Holder was an asst AG under Janet Reno.
Holder pushed for the aggression at Waco.
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