National Review
Jack Crowe

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol seized a 64-year-old Albanian immigrants’ life savings at an airport in October and never charged him with a crime, according to a federal lawsuit the man filed against the agency in Ohio this week.

Rustem Kazazi, a recently retired police officer who lives in the Cleveland suburbs with his family, was traveling back to Albania to fix up a family home, and potentially purchase his own vacation home, when customs agents at the Cleveland airport inexplicably seized $58,000 in cash from him. Kazazi claims he was traveling with cash because the American dollar has greater purchasing power than Albanian currency, which he says is generally considered less desirable in Albania and presents security issues when withdrawn from the country’s banks.

CPB seized the money through a process known as civil asset forfeiture, which empowers the government to take an individual’s assets without charging them with a crime, and which is so widely practiced that it netted the federal government $2 billion in 2017.

“You have the right to travel with cash in America, even when you’re flying internationally,” Wesley Hottot, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represents the Kazazis in the lawsuit, said in a statement. “But again, we’re encountering a situation where law enforcement sees somebody with legal cash, assumes they must have done something criminal, and they just take the money. It is disturbing how little respect federal agents show for the civil rights of American citizens.”

Under federal law, the authorities must initiate a civil forfeiture proceeding within 90 days after Kazazi’s response to their forfeiture notice to prove that the assets were associated with criminal activity. But that deadline passed on April 17 and no hearing has occurred. Instead, Kazazi’s only contact with CPB came in the form of the notice itself, which states “that enforcement activity indicates that the currency was involved in a smuggling/drug trafficking/money laundering operation,” without citing any corroborating evidence.

In a statement provided to the Washington Post, a CPB spokesman said that, “Pursuant to an administrative search of Mr. Kazazi and his bags, TSA agents discovered artfully concealed U.S. currency. Mr. Kazazi provided inconsistent statements regarding the currency, had no verifiable source of income, and possessed evidence of structuring activity.” (“Structuring activity” refers to the practice of making separate $10,000 ATM withdrawals to avoid reporting requirements.)

Hottot told the Post that CPB never mentioned any evidence of “structuring” prior to its most recent statement and denied that his client made any effort to conceal the cash while traveling. “I think what were really seeing here is some creative Monday-morning quarterbacking by CBP, trying to justify the unjustified,” he said.

The case comes amid an ongoing debate over the efficacy and constitutionality of civil forfeiture, which pits civil libertarians against proponents of the practice, such as Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who believe that it is an invaluable law-enforcement tool.

Link

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
The case comes amid an ongoing debate over the efficacy and constitutionality of civil forfeiture

Not much of a debate, IMO.

If I can summarize:

Fifth Amendment:

quote:

nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Taking the opposing side:
"Fifth Amendment....drool and sputter....But he has cash and we wants it, precious."

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
"Structuring activity” refers to the practice of making separate $10,000 ATM withdrawals to avoid reporting requirements.

Anyone know of a bank/ATM that allows the withdrawal of $10K at a time? My credit union certainly doesn't.

Yeah - because you should have to report withdrawals of your own "post-tax" dollars. Total BS.

they need to give him his money back, and they need to pay restitution in an amount of 10 times what they seized

My understanding of asset forfeiture laws is basically: "We think your money is bad, so we're seizing it."

"Oh, you want it back because you aren't a criminal?" "Well, we never said you were a criminal, never charged you with a crime. Your $ OTOH, we can't charge the money with a crime and it can't have due process...so..."

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
"Structuring activity” refers to the practice of making separate $10,000 ATM withdrawals to avoid reporting requirements.

Anyone know of a bank/ATM that allows the withdrawal of $10K at a time? My credit union certainly doesn't.

The bank used by the idiot who wrote this doesn’t either. (S)he meant cash withdrawals.

Journalistic nonsense/malpractice.

My guess is this guy was surprised, who knows what he really told them, they can say he told them he was fencing meth or pain pills etc.

This is one of those tyrannies that erode confidence in government. The incentives are all wrong, and so it’s impossible to fashion a set of rules that protect everyone while accomplishing anything.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
they need to give him his money back, and they need to pay restitution in an amount of 10 times what they seized

I agree, times like this our POTUS needs to step in and get the money back and relieve some people of their jobs.

I agree this is bad policy overall, but if you're traveling with $58k in cash, you're a moron (and statistically, likely up to something less than legal).

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
I agree this is bad policy overall, but if you're traveling with $58k in cash, you're a moron (and statistically, likely up to something less than legal).

That is true, but one should have to worry about criminals, not the government.

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
I agree this is bad policy overall, but if you're traveling with $58k in cash, you're a moron (and statistically, likely up to something less than legal).

That is true, but one should have to worry about criminals, not the government.

I wish this was the only place we had to worry about government breaching the law and hosing us, but this is but one of a long list of atrocities against the American public by their government.

I know of an incident worse than this. They might try to say they had probable cause with the money. I am not sure if you can actually take that much out of the country?

In Lima, Ohio years ago a man got his house broken into. He shot at the man that broke in and called the police. Police come and ask why anyone would want to break into his house as the house was kinda run down. The man told the police that he had $300k plus in his safe as his life savings.

The police laid out his 7 or 8 guns that he owned onto a blanket in his front yard and reporters photographed them and plastered them on the front page of the news paper as an ARSENAL cache.
The police had the man open the safe and they took the money.
The FBI heard about the story and took it from the local yocals.
It took years before he got his money back. Everybody around town knew the man as a hardworking honest man.
This type of thing is wrong without any probable cause.

What's also disturbing is that according to the article the cash was found by TSA screening. Now the existence of TSA is a whole nother ballgame entirely, but they're supposed to be finding weapons and dangerous stuff. Which they're famously bad at to the surprise of no one. The last thing they should be worrying about is how much money someone is carrying.

quote:

“Pursuant to an administrative search of Mr. Kazazi and his bags, TSA agents discovered artfully concealed U.S. currency.

If I had any cash that wasn't in my wallet, I sure as hell would try to "artfully conceal" it from the TSA thieves.

Govenment gone off the rails taking a dump on the Constitution. It's child is civil forfeiture.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:
Anyone know of a bank/ATM that allows the withdrawal of $10K at a time? My credit union certainly doesn't.

My credit union in FL tried (unsuccessfully) to tell me that I could NOT withdraw 15K on a sunny day a few years ago. I said "Why not?"

Teller advised it was their policy. I responded that if they did not give me the 15K, that I would close the entire account that same day. Manager walked over and said "Please give Mr. Sigsense his 15K immediately."

I was against RICO when it was being discussed. The .gov said they'd NEVER use it against citizens. Suuuure...

Now asset forfeiture, the bastard child, is among us.

This is anti Constitutional and needs to be stopped with prejudice. All who take part in it - from the top down - need to be arrested.