Asset Forfeitures Snag Innocent Bystanders
Asset forfeiture can help the government recover money for crime victims and deprive criminals of their fruits of their crimes.
But critics charge the practice also has a dark side, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. Sometimes innocent bystanders lose their property, and they face a tough fight to get it back.
Civil forfeiture laws require a showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the assets were connected to illegal activity, the story explains. Innocent parties can get their property back if it’s clearly separate from fraud, but generally they have to wait until the underlying criminal case is resolved. Some people whose money is forfeited have nothing left to pay a lawyer to challenge it.
New York businessman James Lieto says he’s one of the innocents. Lieto, the owner of a check cashing company, hired an armored car firm that became the subject of an FBI probe. When the government seized about $19 million from the armored car company in February 2010, the cash included $392,000 of Lieto’s money.
The government argued that Lieto’s money had been commingled with other customers’ money, giving him no greater right than fraud victims. Lieto finally got his money back in February after a vault manager testified in a deposition that Lieto’s money was kept in separate bags.
