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The War On Cash Destroys A Small Entrepreneur
Submitted by Joseph Salerno via Mises Canada,
Lyndon McClellan is a small entrepreneur who owns and operates L & M Convenience Mart in Fairmont, North Carolina.
L & M comprises a gas station, convenience store, and a small restaurant serving hot dogs, hamburgers, and catfish sandwiches. One day last July, more than a dozen federal, state and local law enforcement agents swarmed Mr. McClellan’s business, including agents from the FBI and the North Carolina Alcohol and Law Enforcement agency—and they were “asking” for him. When Mr. McClellan arrived, he was escorted by two federal agents into his stock room for a private chat. The agents showed him paperwork indicating that he had made two cash deposits totaling $11,400 within a 24-hour period in his bank account at the Lumbee Guarantee Bank. They informed him that the papers also indicated that he had a history of “consistent cash deposits” of less than $10,000, which was a violation of the the Federal law against “structuring.” They also informed him that the IRS had seized all of the $107,702.66 in L & M’s bank account.
What Mr McClellan did not know was that it was against the law to make cash deposits of lessthan $10,000. Banks are legally obligated to report any deposit of more than $10,000 to the U.S. Treasury Department. But if an individual makes several cash deposits of less than $10,000 over an unspecified period of time that total more than $10,000, then he is presumed to be a money launderer or drug trafficker who is committing the dastardly crime of structuring, that is, seeking to circumvent the bank’s reporting requirement and maintaining the privacy of his financial affairs Thus banks are also required to file “suspicious activity reports” on cash deposits of less than $10,000. Based on these reports, if one is merely suspected–not convicted–of structuring, his bank account is seized by the IRS under “civil asset forfeiture” laws, which permits seizures of money or other property suspected of being related to a crime.
Government agencies have a financial incentive to invoke civil asset forfeiture laws because the law permits the seizing agency to keep the assets and use them to expand their activities without an appropriation from Congress. In its insatiable hunger for funds, the IRS even “deputizes” state and local law enforcement agencies to go through “suspicious activities reports” in exchange for a cut of the loot subsequently seized by the IRS. This is probably how a small entrepreneur like Mr. McClellan living peacefully in a sleepy hamlet was targeted for destruction in the War on Cash.
Months after the seizure of his bank account, the federal government offered Mr. McClellan 50 percent of his money back if he agreed to a settlement. He heroically refused and intends to pursue the matter in court. Unfortunately, under the oppressive and despotic “civil asset forfeiture” laws, he bears the burden of proving his innocence. But as he puts it:
It’s not fair to the American people who work for a living that one day they can knock on the door, walk in their businesses, and say, ‘We just took your money’ … I always thought your money was safe in the bank, but I wouldn’t say that now.
Neither would I!
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Kill them.
Nazi Germany didn't even do stuff like this.
Have Americans got no shame??
Nope. NONE!
When in history has it not ended up as the people versus the government?
You didn't launder that (but what difference does it make now?).
Destroying small business is a feature not a bug.
There goes the neighborhood poker game...
It has never been safe to keep your money in the banking system, but with the adults who lived through the great depression dying off society has forgotten.
Fuck the Feds! Freedom for the Carolinas!
(And hopefully this guy skips the "deposit" part altogether from now on!")
There is no time like the present to learn where we are headed...
Big changes are coming, for certain...
http://galeinnes.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-rapidly-changing-world.html
Pay your venders with bitcoin.
Hahahaha, Land of the Free home of the Brave...
Land of the FEE & home of the SLAVE
"wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom I'll be there
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me."
Fuck these idiot fucking criminal thugs, their fucking badges, their fucking costumes, and their fucking system.
Logically, were I a money launderer attempting to evade pry eyes of these criminal thugs in DC, I would only deposit in amounts over the threshold. These thugs are too fucking stupid to understand logic. Their judgement is clouded by "the law" and the fact that we let them have all the biggest guns. That is all they have.
How could any honest FBI or Government employee participate in this? Shame on you.
This law is ridiculously stupid and definitely disproportionate and even smacks of intended entrapment, a simple resolution is to change the law such that all cash deposits above 1000 USD are systematically reported to IRS with no bank teller discretion. This law as it is leaves way too much discretion in the hands of people that can be used prejudicially as it seems to be here and likely elsewhere. No big deal pl super simple law change to lower the limit and remove this horrible discretionary power.
I have a better idea. How about if nothing gets reported to the IRS? Ever. And while we're at it, let's rid ourselves of the criminal IRS, FBI, and so on.
Usually a local bank will not "turn in" a small business owner for "structuring" if there is a pattern of business which is legitimate and has historical precident. In the $5k-$9k range of deposits the bank has discretion on reporting.
The problem here is (IMO) someone wanted to ruin this guy and used the banking regs to do so. Maybe he got in a fight with a brother of a relative of the bank executive. Maybe he started displaying his conservative (or liberal) bent in the political arena, backed "the wrong" candidate, etc. Maybe he un-friended a sociopath on Facebook who had major influence. We will never know the real back story.
We do know the problem: exposure of assets to governmental authorities. They guy had a $107k honey pot sitting there like money in a sack on the side of the road.
Lesson here: do not expose yourself. Find a way to unexpose yourself.
On the other side of this, convenience stores can be outlets for "bath salts" and other shit like that. So, his business has a higher risk profile ranking in some database somewhere.
Because there are none.
Gotta love how instead of the burden of proof being on the state, you know have the burden of proving your innocence. There is no saving a government that acts like this or a country whose citizens tolerate it.
There is virtually no small buisness in America that can afford to keep $10,000 in unproductive funds laying around in their establishment.Keeping that kind of cash also makes them an increased robbery risk. All freedom loving men should lobby their lawmakers until this abomination is ended.
"All freedom loving men should lobby their lawmakers until this abomination is ended."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Some monkey troop member just had to down vote you.
They get paid per click
Damn TheReplacement sideway scrolling, that is old skool
Worked in banking and originally this was meant to capture drug lords who couldn't"t get their cash out of the country. Now, like everything else today, common sense is thrown out the window if the government can make money. Ever drive thru these states? Great scam where they have 70 mph speed limits then pull u over for doing 81 which is a misdemeanor and since they pull over out of state cars, they start the cop-attorney-court scam where u pay $300 to a shyster who gets it knocked down to 78 and u pay fine + court fees for a total bill of $650.
As economy deteriorates, look for governments to implement more of these "programs"
But do they have change on a 9mm?
yes yes it's a s/
KILL THEM
I second this motion
I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.jobs-review.com
$7k per month? Is that a single deposit? I smell terrorist.
He's no terrorist, he's a freelance entrepreneur with a desire for barbarous relics.
Let's turn this guy in. I'm tired of his shit...
Tyler got his back, eat it like you like it and shut up.
You do like reading ZH right?
Job tingy is a Tyler thingy, clikerdy click
This guy is a terrorist . Let's turn him in. I'm tired of reading his shit...
My webfooted Vietnamese amputee girlfriend makes 2.50 an hour performing sex acts with fainting goats down by the 7-11 ........so fuck you and your 7k a month............ I love that little web footed freak..........
Does that come with benefits?
So long as she is not being paid in cash she's got nothing to worry about . . .
You made me google "webfooted", ehm, "with toes that are joined by a piece of skin".
But the fainting goats........... tell me more
Kill j reuter!
talking behind a screen is not handing the weapon in situ.
everyday i walk in the streets, everytime i look at people, just because you have sunglass and cap, they lower the head as soon as they see you coming front.
population is scared, self centered.
Most small business owners do not deposit cash, they have no records of ever having received it. I guess he didn't know.
No shit, that's the funny thing. So many people don't keep records for because they don't want to pay taxes on cash sales, or only a small % of them. This poor sucker actually thought that if he followed all the rules, and didn't do anything wrong, the law was on his side and he would be safe. Not in the ussa, my friend. That'll teach him to trust a bank or government...
Yep, the fat lazy fucker got what he deserved.....
This guy needs to take a few lessons form the Paki convenience store owner down the block.
However, I take great solace in knowing that justice is meted out equally, and that this fellow gets the same treatment afforded to the likes of Blankfein, Dimon, Greenberg , et. al. This fellow was given the chance to forfeit 50% of his seizerd moneys, just like the afore mentioned pillars of the financial industy. Now that's what I call "just-us".
Free Jon Corzine!!!!
Re: "Nope, none"
Elegantly proven, by the insulting offer of half his hard earned money back.
.......I'm guessing they will take half of his depost as a tax payment, after all a one time withdrawal of that size is nearing the top marginal rate........
....... even a mouse will try to bite you when its cornered....... sad daze for amoricans .........sad daze...... it ain't that pretty at all.....
All fast food joints deposit cash daily.
Something not right here.
Libyan citizen under the Gadaffi regime, did not get that much trubble then US citizen today.
"At this point, what difference does it make?"
Occ Mort: "Nazi Germany didn't do this."
Yes, but after the Communists took over in East Germany, it was typical for the government to close down small businesses and confiscate all assets. I knew refugees from Eastern Europe who told me similar stories: "When the Communists took over, they closed down my father's business and he lost everything."
"When the Communists took over, they closed down my father's business and he lost everything."
Same thing happened to my parents, when we left Cuba in 1965..
So only the dates change ?
Thanks for the heads up, don't hold it don't have it, even then you have to defend it.
Goddamn tampons
The government now steals our hard-earned money and even abducts our children on any whim, and all the people do is write strongly worded letters. Utterly spineless.
Wahhhh!! Natzis!! They were the worst eva! And some are still around!
It really is the only way to get the message across!
This has happened before. Late 1700's if I remember correctly...
I would be very surprised if the result was the same.
Though, if you look at this from the long game perspective... the relevance of that little uprising has boiled down to... nil, nada, zilch.
What do you mean? That little uprising got us exactly where we are today. The Deep State.
And Netflix, there's that
It's fight club. You have a special homework assignment...
First, you had to get in a fight...and lose. Then, in project mayhem, trash a piece of corporate art and destroy a coffee shop.
Finally, wire the banks to blow. Better yet, wire a banker to blow.
Remember, a member of project mayhem that dies...DOES have a name.
"Then, in project mayhem, trash a piece of corporate art and destroy a coffee shop."
Why destroy a coffee shop? What is wrong with you crazy leftist anarchists who do the bidding of your big government Marxist masters by destroying the private property of innocent people?
Starbucks franchise mkay, never ever try to fuck up a DUTCH koffieshop.
You will regret that
How awkward for you that you have not seen the movie.
Erm... WTF!?
The money in the bank isn't your money. It's the bank's money. What you have is an investment in the bank and an agreement that they will return your investment on demand.
Be that as it may, it sure as shit ain't Uncle Scam's.
Oh, but it is! When you deposit money in a bank it is henceforth declared the property of said bank. Uncle Scam (I like that) is a wholly owned subsidiary of said banks.
So, on one level, you are correct, but since the banks own the government, you are completely wrong on the next.
Look up! Your enemy is plain to see.
Point taken--I wouldn't even try to dispute any of that.
Really? Do you have references? A link?
What sorta links would you like zero_wedge? I could probably bury you in links, but unless you pull your head outta your ass, it would be a wasted effort.
Really, what do you want to know?
Start here-
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&...
A stinker? Maybe YOUR head is in YOUR ass. I was clear in asking for proof that my deposit becomes property of the bank.
Thank you for the link. I will watch the vid now.
So, I've waited a few days- cos I knew that this was not simply a vid- it is a series of vids, and most don't have the attention span to breach them.
I'll tell ya' one more time- If your bank is a member of the Fed Res system, and most are, and even if they're somehow not, your money does not belong to you. It belongs to the ones who created it. Do ya' feel secure now?
Just google "us debt".
Edit: Yes, I down voted you. Oh, you don't like that? Suck it.
Wrong topic. not the same as my bank deposit.
You really put your money in a bank AND read Zero Hedge.
Fuck me i need a drink, or two.....
It's not the wrong topic, zero_wedge, it's that you haven't yet grasped the issue. Didn't like Damon Vrabel? Maybe Bill Still is more your speed-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDtBSiI13fE
Dearest ace, he is a 17 week newbie and is just beginning on the road to enlightenment. I was there too a while back. I, however, studied and read ZH for a year before commenting. Perhaps this is youthful impetuousness?
Zero_wedge. Just read the bank charter. You don't need any links where you may question validity. It is all there. When I saw my deposit was a promissory note to repay me I understood what was going on and that I had "no money in a bank". The scam works when all believe this. The truth will set you free.
Miffed
No kidding. A promissory note? That's crazy. Although, I must say that I have taken cash withdrawals from Wells Fargo. 2-4k for boat ballast. Each time, they questioned why I needed to withdraw my own cash. They even had A manager come talk to me. I was taken back just a bit.
A few months ago I took out 3k at the bank to go to Vegas. The teller asked what was it for. I looked her in the eye and said, "How is that any of your business?" She apologized and was very nervous after that. God knows if I actually won in Vegas I would not go back and deposit the cash, just spend it.
Bank tellers have the fear of god put into them over cash transactions. Everyone has to be treated as suspicious and you're told how you can go to jail along with the customer for not reporting their "suspicious activity." You can bet you ass that every large cash transaction (over a few grand) gets a report and your account is examined by a manager before approving it.
Miffed is correct, of course- and I was a dick to you, but what we're telling you is incontrovertably true.
It's not your money, whether you have it in your pocket or in your bank account is of little consequence. Take a dollar out of your pocket, and read it. What is at the very top of the bill (a bill is a debt, btw)? Does it say Federal Reserve Note? Yeah, it does.
If, as I assume, you are American, you've probably never thought much about that.
The reason WF put you through the third degree is that even though the branch managers and tellers (interesting they call them that, no?) don't know shit from shinola.
WF is a member of the Federal Reserve system.
I hope you watch the whole series of Renaissance 2.0.
Godspeed!
Your money does not belong to you, you are merely an authorized user.
That is, if you don't run afoul of the issuer.
My dearest Miffed; It could be youthful impetuousness, and it could be willful ignorance, and it could be a troll meant to derail the honest conversation.
This, my dear, is what I want to find out.
It usually makes itself apparent, eventually.
Uncle Scam is really the banksters pulling the strings.
Think about when the IRS was created. Right when the Federal Reserve was.
The banksters will keep shoving it in the peoples faces until either they revolt or loose all their freedoms and wealth.
Bingo......the bank is the gov and the gov is the bank........
welfare/warfare is by bankster design folks......wake the fuck up.......what the banks want the banks get.......
90% of this game is half mental yogi. Never forget that.
Oh, and my personal favorite-
Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded.
My translation of that goes something like this:
Used to be that real people, the actual people who do real shit in this world, went there. Then, the parasites began coming here looking for their next victims, so I quit going there. It's a real shame.
Well, if they HAVE it. Otherwise, you are correct!
What you have is a negative-interest-loan to the bank and an agreement that they might return your loan on demand.
ftfy
Red line the civil forfeiture-o-meter and don't be surprised when you get burned by the IRS. More Silver.
Better hide that silver since they'd probably seize that as well, characterizing it as purchased with proceeds from your criminal enterprise.
I think it is about time small business fought back against big bro and corporations.
Don't do business with a bank. Get a bunch of small businesses together, get a safe, put it in a guarded and safe place and put your cash there and take it out when needed ( you will need someone to keep track and dole out the coin and make sure he or she is honest) and when the jack boots come, call your small business buddies and tell them to bring their guns and show the jack boots out the door.
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
-- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Hey that's my post!
The only people who will fight back are tired old guys with old shotguns and ornery dispositions. Between our back pain, bad eyesight and poor mobility, they will kill us like so many squirrels. Dancing with the Stars will go on as regularly scheduled.......
Yep!
I often tire of hearing all the trumped up "beans and bullets" comments and all the derivatives (including those loudly proclaiming to take bankers lives) when all they are doing is sitting behind a computer screen typing a narrative.
Another quote that is pertinent along with the parents is the one along the lines of "first they came for..." ending in "and then they came for me, but there was no one left to.." The fact we have honest people going down left right and centre yet people are still doing fuck all shows nothing will ever happen. Just like you said.
Cheers.
With the benevoland hindsight of history,
Yes
The future will look differend than the past, bla bla bla jadda jadda jadda
the future is NOW*
*shit where is the phonenumber of that bumpersticker guy
The difference between America today and Stalin's Russia is that we are armed.
Like that matters
More blood
Yes
Difference
Mmm
Hawala or Hewala (Arabic: ??????, meaning transfer), also known as hundi, is an informal value transfer system based on the performance and honour of a huge network of money brokers, primarily located in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Indian subcontinent, operating outside of, or parallel to, traditional banking, financial channels, and remittance systems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala
legal - illegal - scheißegal!
http://www.shtfplan.com/experts/living-free-without-permission-building-...
Your owners have prepared for that possibility. Via the legislature and the courts, the medium of exchange has been declared legal tender.
It's not Lawful in any sense of that word, it is merely legal.
What does that mean, exactly? It means you can use the medium of exchange as long as you follow the rules set forth by the legal system, which is, of course owned by the banks.
The 'money' you have in your pocket is therefore not yours, it belongs to whoever issued it and they can do whatever they want (think Cyprus) with it.
The Law forbids this, but the legal system sanctions it.
I'm really not religious, at all. But when Jesus supposedly said, "Give unto caesar that which is caesar's, and give unto God that which is God's, what did He mean?
He meant that God owns the whole shiteree, including caesar. He most certainly did not mean that you have an obligation to pay a tax to an entity that represents anything other than your best interests.
Amen brother.
Kudos to you. I wished more Christians understod what Jesus meant too.
Lol Jesus was a JEW.
But i concur.
If humanity could only hold to one commandment
Thou shalt not kill
So easy and yet
Humans, i'm one, i did not kill but sometimes.........ahhhrrrr
now i have to balance the scale and watch galaxy quest, again
You don't even need a safe with a bunch of cash in it.
I once read a very old diary of a fairly average farmer in the late 1700s US. The guy farmed, dammed a small stream and built a tiny sawmill where he processed trees into lumber, and he used part of his dam to complete a bridge across the stream on his own land that shortened travel by a few miles, and he collected tolls on that.
He was almost never paid in cash, and of course banks weren't the norm at the time.
He, and all the other people in his area -- even as far as a state away -- maintained personal ledgers, so very seldom did actual money change hands. It was ledger entries in its place. Whie I've lost faith that bitcoin is a workable solution today, the idea behind it -- of some type of publcly shared ledger -- would still work, and isn't that distant in thought from what was done 250 years ago.
A bunch of small businesses could easily share a centralized ledger, and not even have any cash laying around that could be confiscated.
The system of real bills is I think what you speak of. That is, I promise you a hundred bushels of wheat for every side of beef you promise me.
If I default on my promise, you will refuse to do business with me next year- as you should.
Now, there can be extenuating circumstances, which both the farmer and the rancher can both see with their own two eyes.
Did they get all lawyered-up and try to take one another to task?
No, they didn't. For the most part, they still don't. They try to help each other through the rough spots.
Symbiotic, as it were.
gov't is obsolete
Yes g speed, it is.
Civilized, as it were.
You didn't beat down your neighbor because you knew that the same circumstance might eventually happen to you.
That connection has been lost.
Sad, ain't it?
So it was, and yes so will it be again, this pervertion of a monetary system we have today.
Digits
Unreal
This place is seriously flawed. Why would a drug dealer put cash in the bank? Really? They know they are being looked for, and only law abiding citizens are dumb enough to put cash in a bank from a legal business. It's all out war on law abiding citizens. That's all it is.
Banks handle billions in drug money, maybe over a trillion. In 2008 some UN guy said that without the drug money flowing through the banking system it would have collapsed. One Mexican bank had the teller windows at its various branches resized so that they could accept the standard sized box of cash used by a particular drug cartel.
HSBC was the bank you're referring to about the teller windows and from what I understand they were exactly the size of 250,000$ in $100 bills. In Colorado, some growers have started leasing ATM machines. They put their money in the ATMs then charge a fee. Customers use the ATMs, to buy weed....
Some low-level independent dealer making a few hundred a day on the streets, sure, he's not going to stick it in the bank. He's small fish.
But the big cartels work hand in hand with the big banks to get their drug money laundered.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-16/hsbc-bank-secret-origins-launde...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-07/how-many-billions-drug-laundere...
And real estate agents.
Why would the CIA work with real estate agents unless ISIS is representing Assad in the turnover of Syria?
It will get worse.
This shit started under Reagan. "Just say no"? Yeah, 'no cash for you!'
Oh, the IJ just won this case.
https://www.ij.org/north-carolina-civil-forfeiture-release-5-14-2015
Where's your proof libtard? No, this shit started under your Democrat dictator Obama.
He meant the so called "War on Drugs" that Nancy Reagan started. Now, it serves as a pretext to confiscate money from guys like the one mentioned in the above article.
Long on opinion, short on facts. I don't care for Obama, and absolutely despise AG Holder, but it is under this administration that changes have been made to reign in the IRS somewhat. Asset siezure has been going on for centuries, so no, it did not start under the Democrat dictator. It was brought back and dusted off as applied policy under the Reagan administration's war on drugs.
So, where is YOUR proof, or are you just an empty-headed partisan hack?
War on drugs (1980-present)[edit]Civil forfeiture activity increased substantially in the past thirty years.[7] It stepped up forfeiture during the war on drugs during the early 1980s and onwards.[5] It became harder for criminal organizations to launder dirty money by means of the financial system, so drug cartels preferred bulk payments of cash.[8] Illegal drugs are a big business; one estimate was that the annual profit from selling illegal drugs was $12 billion, according to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.[5] The initial intent, similar to methods used to try to fight alcohol trafficking and use during the Prohibition era, was to use civil forfeitures as a weapon against drug kingpins.[9]
According to journalist Sarah Stillman, a major turning point in forfeiture activity was the passage of theComprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984.[10] This law permitted local and federal law enforcement agencies to divvy up the seized assets and cash.[6] Civil forfeiture allowed federal and local governments to "extract swift penalties from white-collar criminals and offer restitution to victims of fraud", according to Stillman.[6] From 1985 to 1993, authorities confiscated $3 billion of cash and other property based on the federal Asset Forfeiture Program which included both civil and criminal forfeitures.[10] The methods were supported by the Reagan administration as a crime fighting strategy.
This story is a bit late. The IRS has already agreed to give the money back. Still horrifying, but ... dated. Why not have the update on the latest outcome, which came two days ago?
http://www.cato.org/blog/irs-folds-returns-100-lyndon-mclellans-money
Just read the story as provided and get pissed off like everyone else, sheesh........
Dude's already been raped. Sending flowers the next day isn't much of a consolation.
According to the linked article, the FedGov still refuses to pay the interest that the money would have earned had it not been seized.
Perhaps more importantly, it refuses to reimburse him for legal and accounting expenses related to the victim having to prove his innocence, which stands at $22,000, or about 20% of the total value of the money seized.
Perhaps most importantly, and disturbingly, here is the message from one of the government attorneys assigned to the case:
"Whoever made [the case file] public may serve their own interest but will not help this particular case. Your client needs to resolve this or litigate it. But publicity about it doesn’t help. It just ratchets up feelings in the agency. My offer is to return 50% of the money."
So let's not try to pretend that the money was returned out of the government's big heart or something.
Have those 12 agents who visited the convenience store pay the legal costs for the store owner, by deductions from their salaries. Maybe if the people involved in this criminal act of asset forfeiture lose some of their own money, they won't be so eager to steal money from taxpayers the next time they get assigned to a government robbery detail.
Excellent idea.
12 Agents, lol. See the picture of the guy? Guess they were expecting a group of Columbian drug soldiers in the bathroom and a big shoot out.
Cops love to play the victim. Their FEELINGS are being hurt! How can society not just understand their pain and give them more money and fewer work days?
Nice to see how menacing they are, even in their victimhood: after all, it is well known that people tend to lash out at those that hurt them, so this gov agent is warning us out of kindness, lest foolish serfs be surprised later at the beatings they'll get!
Give us half your savings, whenever we want it, and then shut up and smile about it, and things will be much better for you, in 'Merikkka!
Someone should go and steal that government attorney's assets and kick him out of work and we will see how he feels.
I see the sarc but crap dude... they took his money without so much as a charge. Pissed off is absolutely the right reaction. Oh, and did you read the cato story? How long will it take him to collect the money? Will he get interest, damages?
How many of us could have handled this as well as this guy did? I would absolutely fucking snap.
It's almost enough to make a man go from stocking to stalking.......
There are different methods of "Stacking"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Austin_suicide_attack
return of money, yes
no legal fees
no interest
over $20K in costs
nothing for stress, loss of business
and no apology
real fairy tale ending there
no blood no foul, huh?
Poor Mr. McClellan probably made a mistake somewhere. Maybe he's an NRA member, or possibly he donated to the RNC. Perhaps he posts on a tea party website.
I'm sure the Justice Department has many Mr. McClellans on their BOLO.
So the lesson learned is don't deposit your cash, keep it under the mattress.
Well I can't keep it up my ass, that space is already spoken for!
Gold, bitchez!
Bottom of a lake, dude, not your bottom.
Want my gold? from my cold, dead ass!
Keep it. Just kidding. Roll over.
Hw much gold does your ass hold?
I can't hold your gold too, if that's what you're asking.
Every man for hisself.
On the bright side, when cash is eliminated the local branch will be shut down.
Why have branches...everything can be done via server from here on out.
There's bonuses too. Lower operating costs for banks is just one. The implicit and explicit control the gubmint gets is another. Finally, without cash, guess everyone will need one of those smartphones, or some gubmint approved itracker, to carry around so they can buy that rocking chair at the garage sale.
Lots of power to be gotten from going cashless. I'd give it pretty good odds of moving forward.
Maybe time to start a bartering website.
and the financial transaction tax is in the making. This will be fun in a cashless society! Bitching about ATM fees now? Ain't seen nothing yet - there's a good old cornholing in the making, just wait.
You mean like Craigslist or Backpage or any of the multitudes of local barter sites?