Civil Asset Forfeiture

That's right, if you deposit less than $ 10,000, the gov't can seize your financial assets even though you have not been accused of a crime because you may be involved in something illegal, mainly 'structuring', which means you are (obviously!) attempting to evade the $ 10,000 mandatory reporting requirement for deposits as per the provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act.

What, you say, "who is permitted to take your money before they prove you've done anything wrong?" The federal gov't and state gov'ts, that's who, by going apeshit with a law designed primarily to catch criminals such as drug traffickers and terrorists.

So, be aware of this onerous practice- the gov't can seize your funds without having to file a criminal complaint- and be prepared to spend some serious money for legal fees to force the IRS to return your money.

Do you consider this a violation of your Constitutional rights?

 

Stop slangin dope then foo

 

There's already a post about this in the Dungeon

Search on youtube for

"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Civil Forfeiture"

 

Ah, sorry…I don't get on here as much as I did in the past…the part about this issue that really got me pissed off was that the state and feds were seizing assets of regular working people who never broke the law...

 

Actually I don't care if they did break the law. Everyone deserves due process even criminals. They day people stop realizing it is the day due process fails. This is already occurring on free speech. Offensive idiots are protected or no one is, current trend is toward no one.

 

That was the gist of the recent article I read about this subject: the criminals (those actually charged) get due process, but the people who were not charged got no due process. And yes, the current 'trend' is the erosion of due process.

 

It scares me that they have such widespread access to your bank accounts.

 

They can pull dollar bills out of your ass if they want to.

 

Your money is safer under your mattress in the worst of neighbhorhoods

 

I have been giving serious thought to only keeping very small amounts of liquid cash in my bank accounts because of this. The events I hold generate prodominantly cash income in big chunks so I'm always scared of being flagged when making deposits. The main reason I do it is for keeping track of all of it for tax season.

 

What'a a 'small amount'? If you read about this subject, you'll see that the actual amount has nothing to do with it. It seems that when you deposit smaller amounts (i.e. less than 10 grand) you will also run into the tripwire. Could it be that some sort of IRS computer program gets to decide who becomes the next IRS target for asset seizure, and that other factors are involved (other than the amount of the deposits)?

 

Is there a correlation between these seizures and political donations/affiliations? Seems the trip wires are +/- $10k. Either way, you are penalized and it is a money grab by the IRS.

Stuart Varney commented this morning, "Is this America?" In the Obama era of using the IRS as a political weapon, I'd say this is the Obama America.

 

Wazzup, Doug.

From what i've read about this situation, it seems reasonable to assume that some sort of 'formula' is being applied, i.e., a computer-generated analysis, as contrasted to some sort of selective targeting of political activists or activist groups, as we have seen in the use of the IRS audits for political purposes (what else is new?).

 

Not much Charles, just plugging along. How are you these days?

Yeah, regardless of whose finger is on the government trigger I'd like to see less powers there. Things like this, the Gibson guitar deal, to the stupidness at the EPA are just prime example of either government over reach or could very well be illegal political targeting.

 

Thanks for asking, I'm peachy here as usual…

More than just gov't overreach, what is going on represents a radical departure from the norm, which for many years featured at least some sort of 'checks and balances' with the media playing its role as investigator and exposer of political wrongs. That seems to have vanished. The average Joe Citizen apparently does not give a crap about what happens, the young people are all giddy with their techy gadgets and taking pics of themselves, the media is no longer the guardian at the gate, and the courts have backed up suppression of Constitutional rights.

 

I agree. Especially with the media and how threatened they are by groups like the Tea Party.

 

Hell, the media has just about placed social media in front of actual reporting as a news source. We are toast.

 

Well, as we have seen in past couple of years, conviction in the court of social media, can be more damaging than anything the real courts dish out. The court of social media just makes the media's job easier to do from home. I mean, a reporter sitting at home can be an expert on anything around the world.

 

Sure, that's easy to see…social media is far more 'fun' than actual reporting or snooping around…why, someone 'important' might get pissed off if you snoop around too much…besides, the suppression of rights and development of a police state is good for you, it protects you against…yourself (just in case you might be thinking of doing something wrong).

 

Social media is a distraction. Let's start a hashtag campaign. Tweet for peace.