Randy Sowers, owner of South Mountain Creamery, said he has vocally supported the end of civil asset forfeiture after his Middletown farm was unwittingly caught up in a federal case in 2012.
Under civil forfeiture, the government can seize and then keep or sell property, including cash and real estate, that may be associated with a crime, even though the owner may not ever be arrested, convicted or directly involved.
In Sowers’ case, he and his wife, Karen, were investigated for the financial practice of “structuring” after banking records showed they regularly made cash deposits in amounts just short of a $10,000 limit that triggers special paperwork by banks. Such deposits can indicate criminal activity such as drug dealing or money laundering.
But the Sowers family said they were depositing cash from their farm business and it was a bank teller who suggested they make smaller deposits, which would spare the teller the extra work, said Paul Kamenar, a lawyer who represents the Sowerses.
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I would say the IRS owes this man a significant amount of interest from 2012 to the present time on the money they unlawfully took from him.
ReplyDeleteCivil asset forfeiture laws need to be dismantled. They are unconstitutional because of the lack of due process.
ReplyDeleteTotally criminal government
ReplyDeleteI like the "MAY (emphasis mine) be associated with a crime".
ReplyDeleteThere is NOTHING in the Constitution that says the government can take from "we, the people" anything without charges or trial.
Whne will you people realiz that this government no longer "serves the people". They serve their own ends and don't care what laws they must violate (even the Constitutional ones).
And you just stop cheering.
Its unreal.
$30K. As if he had no expenses in trying to get it back.
ReplyDelete