FBI Accused of Defying Warrant, Searching People’s Safe Deposit Boxes, Say Civil Rights Attorneys
The FBI took $86 million from safe deposit boxes. (photo: google)
According to FOX News, when the FBI searched the safe deposit boxes at a business in Beverly Hills that they thought was moving money, they found $86 million in cash, Rolex watches, and Cartier jewelry. Even though those with many boxes have not been charged, the case will be looked at by a team from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to see if it violates anyone’s Fourth Amendment rights. Rob Johnson, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, is hopeful about the result because he is worried about the abuse of constitutional rights. It was in March 2021 that the FBI went after storage facilities connected to “unsavory characters” that were used to hide crime profits. The administrative seizure procedures that followed in May brought to light civil asset forfeiture, a controversial method by which the government takes property without charging the owner with a crime.
Money laundering is being blamed on U.S. Private Vaults, even though they haven’t been charged with anything new since October 2022. Representatives didn’t say anything about possible charges while a group that didn’t have to pay box fees sued the government for violating their rights under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. The Institute for Justice says the FBI’s search and efforts to seize property without a warrant were not legal. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is being asked to declare rights were violated and get rid of secret papers that were being looked at in a box. This comes after a lower court agreed with the FBI last year, even though it turned out that some information was left out of the search request. Plaintiffs say there were two reasons, but the judge says agents just did what the court told them to do.
Victor Rodgers, a government agent, said in court recently that the FBI tried to help return items taken from U.S. Private Vaults by doing things like putting up a sign saying “Retrieval” But judges didn’t think it was necessary to open the stolen boxes or have drug-sniffing dogs there, which could be a violation of the court’s order. The Institute for Justice says these acts were done to find evidence of crimes. In months, everyone will come to a choice. The FBI wouldn’t say anything because their job is to break up crime groups. The International Criminal Court (IJC) says that government capture income from 2000 to 2019 was more than $45.7 billion. The USPV raid led to several IJC cases. There are still worries, which shows how important it is to hold the government responsible.
