People who have had their property seized for forfeiture have the right to make a claim and demand the return of their property and should do so as soon as possible or the property will be forfeited to the government by default. Unfortunately, this process is subject to abuse and the victims are often law-abiding citizens. The government uses civil asset forfeiture as an important tool in the war on drugs to seize assets involved in the narcotics trade such as cash, weapons, vehicles and other property acquired from the proceeds of illegal drug sales or involved in facilitating illegal drug activity. In fact, to get seized assets returned, the owner - not the government - is usually required to prove that the assets are not connected to criminal activity. This means the defendant is the actual object the government is seeking to forfeit, and not the person whom the object was taken from.īecause civil asset forfeiture has a lower standard of proof than a criminal action, it is much easier to forfeit money without definitively proving it was obtained from criminal activity. These lawsuits are unique because they are actually brought against an object, such as a vehicle or currency, rather than an individual. As a result, this process is sometimes abused and the hard earned assets of innocent citizens are forfeited to the government because they are intimidated into giving up the assets.įirst, forfeitures are not criminal actions but civil actions. Under civil asset forfeiture laws, they are able to do this without ever charging the owner with a crime. Law enforcement agencies routinely seize and forfeit property and funds without any definitive proof of a crime or connection to criminal activity. If you find yourself in that situation, how will you prove that the money you have is legitimate? Will the police believe you and just give it back? How Does Property Unrelated to Any Criminal Activity Get Seized & Forfeited? However, it can become problematic because courts do not require direct proof of a known crime to forfeit property. Interestingly, in Texas, property subject to forfeiture is called contraband.Ĭlearly, the idea of depriving criminals of their ill-gotten gains is an honorable one. #STATE SEIZING ICASH CODE#In Texas, civil forfeiture is provided for in Article 59 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. In addition to federal forfeiture efforts, state government entities are also able to take assets if they were derived from illegal activity. 924, 981 and 982 as well as certain portions of Title 19 (Customs) and Title 21 (Drugs). The legal bases for forfeiture in the federal system exist in 18 U.S.C. It also has hundreds of millions of dollars. By the way, the Treasury Department has its own asset forfeiture fund known as the Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture ( TEOAF). In fact, administrative, civil, and criminal forfeiture recoveries have resulted in the growth of the DOJ’s Asset Forfeiture Fund (AFF) which had a net balance of more than a billion dollars in 2017. Obviously, forfeiture is designed to take away the motivating factor for crime, which is greed. In the alternative, it could allege that property, like a vehicle, is used to aid ( facilitate) a crime. There are two bases most commonly used to seize and forfeit property: First, the Government may try to establish that targeted property is ill-gotten gains ( proceeds) of crime. How Does Asset Forfeiture Work?įorfeiture is a judicial construct where the government pursues the outright taking of private property on the basis that it is linked to crime. Welcome to the world of asset forfeiture. Carrying a large amount of cash can result in asset forfeiture and seizure, even if you are not arrested for an offense. If the cash you are carrying was obtained through legal means and you are not on your way to or from a crime, should you be nervous? After all, it is not illegal to carry money that you legally obtained, right? Is It Illegal to Travel with Large Amounts of Cash?Įven though it is technically not illegal to travel with large amounts of cash, it is definitely suspicious to many law enforcement officers. You start to panic because you realize you have a large amount of cash in your vehicle. Imagine you are driving to make a big purchase - maybe to buy a new car or make a down payment on a house - and you are stopped for a minor traffic infraction. Innocently Carrying Large Amounts of Cash Can Result in Asset Forfeiture & Seizure
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