As civil asset forfeiture surpasses criminal theft FBI now seizing millions from safety deposit boxes without warrants. Who are the real crooks?

In March of this year, the US Attorney in Los Angeles, California secured an indictment against a secure vault company, alleging the company was engaged in money laundering, drug trafficking, and hiding taxable assets. None of the company's employees or owners were indicted.

FBI agents spent five days turning US Private Vaults upside down. Agents apparently emptied every safety deposit box housed by the business. They did this in complete contradiction of the limits imposed on them by the FBI's own warrant affidavit. Here's Eric Boehm of Reason with some background:

[T]he unsealed warrant authorizing the raid of U.S. Private Vaults granted the FBI permission to seize only the business's computers, money counters, security cameras, and large steel frames that effectively act as bookshelves for the boxes themselves. Per FBI rules, however, the boxes could not be left unsecured in the vault after the raid had been completed, so agents had to take them into custody too.

The FBI could have taken custody of the boxes without opening them and sought warrants for those implicated by the investigation. Instead, the FBI agents emptied the boxes while still on the premises, engaging in dozens of searches not authorized by any warrant.

in apparent direct contradiction of the search warrant's limits and the FBI's own policies.

[T]he FBI is now trying to confiscate $86 million in cash and millions of dollars more in jewelry and other valuables that agents found in 369 of the boxes.

Prosecutors claim the forfeiture is justified because the unnamed box holders were engaged in criminal activity. They have disclosed no evidence to support the allegation.


Beyond the $86 million in cash, the FBI is seeking to confiscate thousands of gold and silver bars, Patek Philippe and Rolex watches, and gem-studded earrings, bracelets and necklaces, many of them in felt or velvet pouches. The FBI also wants to take a box holder’s $1.3 million in poker chips from the Aria casino in Las Vegas.

The items the government claims -- without facts in evidence -- are the result of criminal activity includes unemployed food service worker's life savings: $57,000 he obtained from lawsuit settlements stemming from a car accident in which he suffered a spinal injury and a successful claim against a landlord for chronic housing code violations.

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You read that right more money is stolen from the public by police and federal agents than all the burglaries, robberies,and criminal thefts combined....

This needs addressed and these "legal" crooks need to be prosecuted and neither the left or the right seem to grasp what needs to be done or else they are profiting too much from it to change it.

The only way to fix the law enforcement system is to demilitarize them, end civil asset forfeiture, stop the war on drugs, remove qualified immunity, abolish police unions, fire anyone with domestic abuse charges and make chiefs and captains ranks only through public elections can and jail all the crooks, redcoats, drug king pins, and spouse beaters. Also get rid of internal affairs and have a separate entity provide checks and balances not only when investigating wrong doing but to preform audits and random tests actively. Better training in civil liberties wouldn't hurt either and end chemical deterrents and gasses its not aloud in war per geneva convention it has no place on our streets deployed on citizens. We also need to disband every acronym alphabet boy agency they have no oversight or checks and balances and have impeded on civil right far more times than they have protected them. Everything from the corrupt FBI, CIA, ATF, BLM, EPA, FDA ect gone they exceed the constitutional bounds and restraints on federal government set by the framers and are repugnant to this democratic republic and the will and liberties of the people.

Anybody leaving their valuables and money in a bank at THIS stage of corruption is BEGGING to get wiped out.

The USA is a Banana Republic under these Leftist authoritarian demons.

Sad, but many people will have to learn the hard way.

If anyone was smart they would file a grievance through OPR. Agent would be fucked...