Posted on 12/07/2023 4:20:57 PM PST by george76
Civil rights attorneys argue FBI defied warrant by searching people's safe deposit boxes...
FBI agents cataloged Cartier bracelets, Rolex watches and stacks of cash as they combed through safe deposit boxes seized from a Beverly Hills business accused of money laundering. But the owners of many of those boxes were not accused of any crimes.
After hearing arguments from both sides Thursday, a panel of judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether the sweeping raid violated customers' Fourth Amendment rights.
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Agents took about $86 million in cash from the boxes, as well as a trove of jewelry, gold bars and coins, silver and other valuables.
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Civil asset forfeiture is the process through which the government seizes money or other property believed to be linked to a crime without ever charging the owner.
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attorneys from the Institute for Justice argued that the FBI "broke open hundreds of safe deposit boxes, and then it tried to civilly forfeit everything in those boxes worth over $5,000" after the raid without any probable cause.
IJ wants the appeals court to definitively state that the FBI violated individuals' rights and to force the federal government to destroy copies it made of customers' private documents — including medical records, wills and trusts —
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The warrant only authorized agents to seize business computers, money counters and surveillance equipment.
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Forfeiture generated more than $45.7 billion in revenue for the federal government alone between 2000 and 2019
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Part of the attraction of forfeiture for criminal justice agencies is that the results are usually treated as found money and assets exempt from normal budgeting processes. The result can be anything from special bonuses to agents to clear abuses like a police chief getting to drive a hot new muscle car as his “official” vehicle, 24/7.
It’ll disappear long before then
We are lucky they let us peasants keep ANYTHING.
(For now. Soon we will be allowed to “Own Nothing”)
The FBI is thoroughly corrupt. It’s become the American KGB
Someone we know got robbed by a cop in a small town in a southern state. Got a lawyer and sued for a lot more than the cop reported taking from him. He lost the lawsuit of course. But the cop lost his job and that was the real point of the lawsuit.
See what happens when someone’s budget gets cut?
Time to go back to burying your gold and silver. It’s that stage of the cycle.
Looks like it.
I’ve stored watches at the jeweller I bought them from when I wasn’t wearing them.
I guess for people in the USA that would also have the risk of this.
It is theft.
They’ll seize it now because it’s not in a bank.
Civil forfeiture is just theft.
Yet another stupid law for the war on drugs.
I hate drugs but the spying, theft, and murder by cops of innocents is worse. I could care less if a bunch of junkies die. They’ll take drugs no matter what you do. I shouldn’t give up my freedom to keep a worthless junkie from killing himsdlf.
FBI is a criminal domestic terrorist organization. Jury nullification against all FBI cases. The presumption is that FBI fabricated, bullied witnesses and violated defendants rights.
Vote no against FBI in all federal cases if on federal jury.
These FBI agents should really be in prison.
The warrant specifically said they were to inventory but could not confiscate anything in the boxes. Nothing.
They expressly DID NOT inventory and confiscated everything they could get their grubby mitts on.
They are now telling the owners that they can have some of their stuff back (because the FBI says they LOST it) if they will sign part of it over to the government.
However bad you think this was, it is far worse.
The FBI? How many believe 100% of the loot is safely in storage as opposed to having been pawed over, and some safely in private collections?
Yep, absolutely tyrannical. I saw a story about one guy, a marine veteran, who was moving from one state to the next and was driving down an interstate that was a known drug trafficking route. His crime, he went over the line, or so the cop said, and was pulled over. He consented to a search which should not have but they found 80K (his life savings) in cash which they promptly seized with no charge, I don't even think a traffic violation. It took him 3 years to get it back because he had to prove it out.
“Rank and file are good guys.”
There are no limits to tyranny...
There is no end in sight!
The FBI is one of the largest criminal organizations in the country.
Hard to believe this particular story hasn’t played out. I recall when news broke about them stealing the property of all these people. They made almost no effort at all to document anything. It was just simple theft. I wonder how much gold walked away in the thieve’s pockets.
In a couple of my social dealings with cops or district attorneys of my acquaintance back in the 90s, I learned that taking “nickel bags” or other seized property from the “evidence closet” was considered a perk, or a fund-raiser.
The ole 80/20 rule. 20% are corrupt unethical losers.
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