Civil forfeiture laws represent one of the most serious assaults on private property rights in the nation today.
Americans are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but civil forfeiture turns that principle on its head.
In a civil forfeiture lawsuit, the government prevails by proving the alleged structuring by a preponderance of evidence.
If a timely claim is filed, government has 90 days to either indict the claimant or bring a lawsuit in federal court seeking a judgment of civil forfeiture of the property.
According to the civil forfeiture complaint, the funds constituted proceeds of operating an illegal gambling business that were deposited between January 2009 and May 2009 in an account at Goldwater Bank in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The other payment processor companies involved in the civil forfeiture actions were run by Brian Kenny and Javier Carillo, both of whom court documents say facilitated payments to Washington state residents derived from online poker play at UltimateBet.
Unlike criminal forfeiture, where property is taken after its owner has been found guilty in a court of law, with civil forfeiture, owners need not be charged with or convicted of a crime to lose homes, cars, cash or other property.
Instead, he is suing to have the Texas civil asset forfeiture law struck down.
Under Cafra, attorneys' fees in civil-forfeiture cases are at least partially payable if the claimant wins.
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Raul Stio, a New Jersey businessman, is caught up in the civil-forfeiture world.
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Even in states where local rules make civil asset forfeiture hard, police can get around that problem by calling in the feds.
In 2008, Congress passed the PRO IP Act, which for the first time allowed the use of civil asset forfeiture in copyright cases.
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The 2000 Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, or Cafra, put in protections for individuals, including increasing the government's burden of proof in many proceedings.
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Top federal officials are also pushing for greater use of civil-forfeiture proceedings, in which assets can be taken without criminal charges being filed against the owner.
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On June 18, 2012, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, hot off his victory against Wall Street insider traders, filed a civil complaint seeking forfeiture of Lenny.
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Civil and criminal asset forfeiture laws are often confused.
The Crown Office's Civil Recovery Unit (CRU) raised the action for the forfeiture of the money at Dundee Sheriff Court on the basis that it had been derived from unlawful conduct.
She, as ever, was acting on the advice of her prime minister who was acting on the recommendation of a shadowy Whitehall committee - the so-called forfeiture committee - chaired by the Head of the Civil Service.
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