Unexplained Wealth Order and Civil Forfeiture

Unexplained Wealth Order and Civil Forfeiture – Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ Governments around the world have passed laws that allow them to steal people’s money and other assets. If you are traveling across the country and you get stopped by lawenforcement, they can seize any large sum of money without charging you for any crime. They will say this is drug money, and you have to go to court to get it back. The original idea for civil forfeiture was a good thing. It has been used to restore money stolen by fraud and other schemes by corrupt politicians. Civil forfeiture targetscybercrime, fraud, and scams in high finance at Wall Street, and money laundering on a global scale. It enables police to have sufficient power to “return money to crime victims” in instances of swindling or fraud. Civil forfeiture laws were helpful in enablingauthorities to seize and return swindled funds by the Bernard Madoff fraud. Civil forfeiture should have been heavily regulated because it is very open to abuse. If law enforcement lacks morality, civil forfeiture can be used as a valuable tool tosteal from people. I’ve written about Civil forfeiture before, and the problem is only getting worse. I found four cases where people had their money stolen by dirty cops. In some cases, people lose a large part of their money because of large fees to lawyers. I’m glad thefourth guys beat the system and won: A couple was driving from New York to Florida, and they were stopped by police because of a cracked windshield. During questioning, the officer decided that $32,000 cash inthe van was “probably involved in criminal or drug-related activity,” seized it, and shared it with federal authorities under equitable sharing. The victim hired a lawyer to get back the seized money, who urged them to settle for half of the seized amount.After the lawyer’s fees, the victim got back only $7,000. Matt Lee of Clare, Michigan, was driving to California with $2,500 cash when pulled over by police in Nevada, who seized almost all of the cash under suspicion that it wasa “drug run.” Lee hired an attorney who took half as his fee, leaving Lee with only $1,130 remaining. A New Yorker piece detailed abuses in Tenaha, Texas, where police would target out-of-state drivers using rental cars, often not issuing traffic tickets. Police sometimesask stopped motorists to sign “roadside property waivers,” which, unless signed, threaten criminal charges unless valuables are handed over; the waivers say, in effect, that victims will not contest the seizure in exchange for not being arrested. Javier Gonzalez was carrying $10,000 cash in a briefcase and got pulled over in Texas. Deputies handed Gonzalez a waiver that if he signed over the money and did not claimit later, he would not be arrested, but if he refused to sign the waiver, Gonzalez would be arrested for money laundering. Gonzalez signed the waiver, wondering if the officers were real “officers of the law” and wondering if he got robbed. He later sued thecounty, which lost and returned his cash plus paid him $110,000 in damages plus attorney’s fees. The dollar amount of the Civil forfeiture is actually rather small. A 2020 study found that the median cash forfeiture in 21 states which track such data was $1,300. In low-incomecommunities, the seizures are typically less than $500. Stealing money out of people’s wallets will only breed hatred for cops. There is now a new angle of attack by governments called the Unexplained wealth Order (UWO). It is a type of court order issued by the government to compel the target to revealthe sources of their unexplained wealth. UWOs were first introduced in Britain by the Criminal Finances Act of 2017. Persons who fail to account are liable to have assets seized after an enforcement authority, such as the National Crime Agency (NCA), needto make an appeal to the High Court. The power of UWOs in fighting money laundering lies in their reverse onus principle. Some drug lords have piles of money piled to the ceiling because they can’t put it ina bank. If they claim to be a farmer by trade, the courts would rule against them in a (UWO) case if they had $400 million in holdings. Gangster Al Capone was worth $100 million in today’s money, and perhaps as a joke, he claimed to be a used furniture dealer. UWOs work fine on a large scale, but they can be dangerous on a small scale. A rich friend may give someone an expensive car. When the person goes to register it, the governmentmay demand to know how he could afford such an expensive car. If his friend suddenly dies, the government gets a free car to auction off. These open-act highway robberies by governments and local enforcement are just one more reminder that this place is not our true home. Any treasure on earth is very unlikelyto survive the tribulation. “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20 ESV).