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Guest Post: US Government Asset Seizures On The Rise
From Simon Black of Sovereign Man
US Government Asset Seizures On The Rise
The Wall Street Journal published a disturbing article earlier this week entitled “Federal Asset Seizures Rise, Netting Innocent With Guilty.”
You can already imagine the crux of the article.
In the United States, there are hundreds of regulations which authorize dozens federal agencies to confiscate private property– homes, cars, bank accounts, gold, company shares, and even personal effects.
Ironically, most Americans still think that they live in a country where you’re innocent until proven guilty. Nothing could be further from the truth, and it’s just another clear example of how the US Constitution has become a worthless piece of toilet paper for the federal government.
The Fifth Amendment states that “No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Tell that James Lieto, a New York businessman who was relieved of $392,000 when the armored car company used by his check-cashing firm was taken down by the FBI.
Lieto was innocent and not implicated in any wrongdoing, but the FBI took his money regardless as it just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Last October, another businessman named Raul Stio was suspected of wrongdoing by the Treasury Department. The government seized over $150,000 from his account, yet in the 10-months that followed, Stio has still not been charged with a crime.
According to Justice Department statistics, the total value of confiscated property exceeded $2.5 billion in 2010, more than double from five years ago. The average take per case? $166,000… and the vast majority of cases were non-criminal.
It’s truly staggering to think about how much can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye, all without any judicial oversight or right to a hearing.
The reason could be anything. Maybe you violated some arcane, meaningless regulation among the hundreds of thousands of pages of US Code (ignorance of the law is NOT an excuse!). Maybe you were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe they had no real reason at all other than mere suspicion.
One minute you have money, the next you’re completely locked out of your wealth and livelihood. They force YOU to prove to them that you aren’t guilty, but they take away any means you had to defend yourself.
Look, this is the new reality in America. The entire country has become a nation of criminals– there isn’t a single man, woman, or child alive who is not in violation of some obscure regulation or cannot be ‘suspected’ of wrongdoing.
This is really just a form of cannibalism– a government feeding on its own citizens in order to keep the party going just a little bit longer. They’ll raise taxes, seize assets, take over pension funds, erode freedoms, start wars and send people to die– whatever it takes to maintain the status quo.
I’ve long advocated for an internationalization strategy: diversifying various assets and interests overseas so that no one single government has total control over your livelihood.
Store your gold in Switzerland. Open a bank account in Hong Kong. Register your company in the BVI. Establish a ‘backup’ residency in Chile. Expand your business in Brazil. Get a better job in Singapore. Obtain a second passport in Malta. Open a brokerage account in the Cayman Islands.
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The final act of government is to loot the nation.
There is final act after looting - looted people go to build new roads/other infrastructure for small amount of food.
The only purpose of government is to loot the people and decide how to spend it and which cousin will get a little extra.
Excellent.
Part of the debate over seizures involves a potential conflict of interest: Under a 1984 federal law, state and local law-enforcement agencies that work with Uncle Sam on seizures get to keep up to 80% of the proceeds. Last year, under this “equitable-sharing” program, the federal government paid out more than $500 million, up about 75% from a decade ago. The payments give authorities an “improper profit incentive” to seize assets, says Scott Bullock of the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public-interest law firm in Arlington, Va. It’s a particular concern amid current state and local government budget problems, he contends. …Seeming abuses occasionally emerge. In 2008, federal Judge Joseph Bataillon ordered the return of $20,000 taken from a man during a traffic stop in Douglas County, Neb. Judge Battaillon quoted from a recording of the seizure, in which a sheriff’s deputy complained about the man’s attitude and suggested “we take his money and, um, count it as a drug seizure.” The judge’s order said the case produced “overwhelming evidence” that the funds were clean.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2011/08/23/steal-is-wrong-even-when-its-the-government-doing-it/
You seem to be the only guy here who "gets it" on this. By letting the various agencies profit from what they sieze, we've released them from what little control the electorate had over them via congress purse strings. So they have no reason at all to not sieze anything they can - worst case, they might have to give some back, but can't be penalized via budget cuts etc since that's no longer important to them. So unelected officials now have power that we rarely give to even the elected ones willingly.
Incentive with no accountability. A recipe for abuse of power.
Nobody is going to save us. Wake and smell the FEMA camp. I bet the Jews in Warsaw Ghettos thought someone would save them as well. Just dig in and know when it is time to cut loose. Know your line of demarcation. If not you will burn with anger that you did not resist when you are in a gulag with the other useful idiots.
Yep, that pretty much sums it up. There is no miracle coming, the country has been taken down, except for a few last moves such as seizing everyones wealth, and all that will take is the next big market plunge where everyone wakes up the next day to hear their retirements, funds, assets, have been unfortunately seized due to this unforeseen terrible national emergency.
Slumber on, USSA.
Could life really become that interesting that quickly? I'm almost ready for it but I'm not going to hold my breath.
Fat finger.
Very well said, 2big.
Do you remember who were shot last?
that was a beautiful post. I think about that every day when I look at my kids. My anger grows every day too but I hope to hell that I don't end up funnelling most of it at myself.
America, a plantation with Jim Crow and slave laws for everyone...
I should save my ZH comments (rants)....I predicted this was going to happen. Anyone trading fasict futures?
I believe the agency who retrieves the assets get a % of the take down. You should go into a US customs office, they are more plush than most business offices.
If you need an excuse, go in and register your firearms for overseas transportation.
.... our children will be looking outside of the U.S. for wages & opportunity now. it's going to be heartbreaking to watch them leave us behind in this shithole that we all once loved. so this is part of globalization.
So you guys vote unethical, unprincipled, socialist, fascist, warmongering wastrels into office - over and over and over - and your excuse is "globalization"?
We don't vote them in:
Tell me where the fuck do you live that this isn't happening to you?
And on top of this - the party machines choose who you're going to get to vote for and only choose pre-vetted guys who promise to toe the party line. So we have a "choice" between preselected non-choices at best. And then they don't do what they're say they're going to on top, though by now people should (but of course don't) realize that half the campaign promises made can't be kept legally with the power the office confers anyway.
This article is a ringing endorsement for Ron Paul. RON PAUL 2012
The stated purpose of this government from the beginning (USA) was to protect the propertied, with the faculties (privilege) of gaining more from those who hold no or little property. The average person who owns property can be assailed at any time by the propertied (through their franchise government) to take those who have little, to give to those who have more. It is as simple as raising a fee or duty (tax), or where hundreds of more powerful entities can attach to a property by a perceived offense or the inability to pay, etc (no matter what effect the powerful have invoked by almost bankrupting society). Average people do not hold property allodially (without fee or duty), as a king did in the past - that is because the power and type of ownership that average people have in essence means they own nothing under the correct circumstances, the concept of the kings property has passed to the moneyed elite (and this is what it ALWAYS reverts to sooner or later, because those with little property who think they are privileged become the duped fat around the midsection of the moneyed elite).
I live in Switzerland and guess what, if I hadn't a second citizenship(German) I could have not establish residency and open a bank account that easy, for EU citizens it's a little easier, for US citizens it's a nightmare, Swiss banks have to report all gains to the US IRS and send 30% withholdings each year, they don't get paid for this work so they don't want ANY US BUSINESS, some might still get in somehow, mostly with a lawyer in tow etc. SM aka SimonB is nothoing but another subscription guy! It is increasingly hard to find a place on this earth without ANY downsides at all, here in Swissie I do have some too but they are far less then elsewhere or the US! Almost weekly some 30K wealthy germans cross over...think of that! No tto mention the rich asians and moslems! You see quite a few lately on the streets in Zurich or Geneve! I live outside the city, one of those nice little towns pearled along the lake, nice, quite, peaceful, for how long(er)?!
I spent a day and night in Zurich. Seems to me the patrolling vans of police squads with machine guns harassing people in the streets is what keeps the peace there.
it's in obama's genetics to do what he was born to do...
....steal
The Labor Party in Norway was taking Anders Brievik's country from him. Since it is almost impossible to attack the politicians in a modern security state so he attacked their children. Of course he was a 'madman' but you can drive people mad and the wives and children of high public officials should not be immune from attack just because the official is.
Whoa! Glad to hear some good Stalinist arguments here, finally. By extension of this logic, their extended family as well as their Facebook friends should also not be immune. You can also extend that to their religion and creed if that suits your needs. Bravo!
And if the state takes your means to support your wife and children you should do what? Accept it ? Most do. The state will take care of your progeny... right after they 'take care' of you!
I give it ten years before crowds are demanding his release and proclaiming him a visionary. Who did he waste anyway? A bunch of wannabe EU beurocrates who would continue looting the good people of Norway - and like he says, THIS IS A WAR! They want to kill your children buying mortgaging off their futures, robbing them of education, forcing them to share a class room with floods of muslims who want to breed and breed so you can pay more taxes so they can live for free and if you complain its not because its simply theft, they'll tell you your a racist.
Soon, hopefully, what we'll start seeing on the internet, are lists of where officials live, and what they voted for. Say what you like about the Badder Minhoff group, they sure ruffled some feathers. We need to kill the people who are doing this!
Tell me I'm not right!
>Of course he was a 'madman'
Any evidence that he had psychological problems?
Perhaps he was just misguided?
Did you see the pix of that 'youth camp'? They were young adults practicing war games against Israel and painting anti-semitic slogans. It was like a scene from Hitler youth. I am sure there is more to this story than the lone madman theory.
simon, have you been taking your medication on schedule????
hey simon, i thought you said chile was a utopia. why are there mass demonstrations, riots and strikes in chile over utopian demands????? how are those chilean inflation protection bonds doing??
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2090151,00.html
Yes, life is much better here in Amerika where the citizens take it right up the ass and then patriotically say "thank you sir may I have another".
Yes indeed, you are better, braver and wiser than the rest of the world.
its ok low-iq, simon has a great 12 bedroom hacienda in the andean mountains for $100 bucks. just get in touch with simons peeps, they will take care of it for you. you can be assured they have only your interests in mind. good luck. peace be with you. dont forget your riot gear.
PM's just slumped back and somebody took a big bite out of silver. Guess they had to find more funds to purchase those treasuries and still prop the market up.......
Check this:
http://news.yahoo.com/jury-us-govt-rightfully-seized-1933-gold-coins-194...
Idiot owner turned all of them over to the mint for authentication.
No shit. Those people are indeed morons.
Sending pre-confiscation gold coins to the USMint would be like a drug dealer sending a couple of pounds of Sour Diesel to the FDA in order to have its potency measured.
Many more morons are about to have their wealth taken from them like an Iraqi fat kid taking candy from his friends. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy6xGWyJBtU
Thank god my $75 is still in my checking account. I got worried for a moment..
British government begins stealing its peoples’ bank deposits ahead of the global financial collapse, 8 August 2011, by PC (Presscore) http://presscore.ca/2011/?p=3598
I really do hope Ron Paul gets elected. I hope Jesus is his V.P, and the Virgin Mary gets a spot on the Supreme Court. Then MAYBE all of the diehards who are clinging to the idiotic hope that there is still a political solution to this disaster will get the message when it all comes crashing down anyway. As for private property, if you can't/won't defend it then don't even bother "owning" it.
A rental agent I know told me this week that a friend who deals with foreclosures now is operating behind bullet proof glass.
On the other hand, acquaintances of mine, who took out a “huge” second mortgage on their home at the top of the housing bubble and which is currently way underwater – not from what they paid 15 years ago but from their borrowing on its phantom value - are looking into filing for “bankruptcy.” Never mind that most of the money was used on trips to Hawaii, France, Dubai, Germany—etc., dining out routinely in top class restaurants (average bill over $400 every two weeks) with a couple they’ve known these past several years, and other entertainment. Lucky for them, though, they’ve no savings the taxpayers can “confiscate…”
It’s the two ends of the spectrum…
Well they'll always have Paris!
I heard a story like that too.
People who object to this kind of stuff hate freedom.
Aw come on whoever junked me, that was a pretty good one.
Lol. Some people don't recognize sarcasm, but that one was obvious.
Private property rights, the rights from which all others spring, are completely dead in the US.
Even though I "own" my house and property without debt, watch what will happen if I stop paying my property taxes.
Men with guns will eventually show up and I can either leave or die fighting...
I’ve long advocated for an internationalization strategy: diversifying various assets and interests overseas so that no one single government has total control over your livelihood.
Store your gold in Switzerland. Open a bank account in Hong Kong. Register your company in the BVI. Establish a ‘backup’ residency in Chile. Expand your business in Brazil. Get a better job in Singapore. Obtain a second passport in Malta. Open a brokerage account in the Cayman Islands.
-------yea there's a reason rich people don't put all their eggs into revolution, because they can leave. for the rest who cannot 'internationalize'.....you have no choice but to fight or accept slavery.
Abiotic, you're so right and it's disgusting that you are.
Lawyer,
I think the idea that you can diversify globally is a complete sham at this point. If they want you, they got you. Look how many times our FBI has simply snatched guys from other countries. Even ones we don't have the nice treaties with. All in the name of war on terror. Look how they reacted to wikileaks....one way or another, they get you if you don't stay well under the radar.
One of the funniest was the trial of DVD-Jon, brought by American Mafia (or the RIAA MPAA) for learning how to decode DVD's so he could play them on his machine. The trial went all the way to almost a conclusion with them winning, when finally the judge, who obviously "had a pair" noticed that what they brought him to trial for wasn't even against the law where he lives!
There are of course, many more boring examples -- like forcing the Swiss to reveal things about private accounts in their banks...and on it goes.
So, the xxAA's simply are forcing American laws on other countries. Time is short before they all toe the line. I submit that thinking that any one simple set and forget strategy for the future is going to do it is misguided. This is a global world now, and if it gets bad here, it's going to get bad everywhere right along with us.
Team America, world police -- enforcing our laws in places that don't even have them, coming to a country near you if its not already there.
yesterday i saw in the sf comical that a poor bastard who had cut a tree due to an order from agency X was being fined for doing so by agency y
i'm sure those little tree cutting fines aren't any worse than something you'd pay for getting clocked going 300m.p.h. in a school zone @ 8AM...
Ayn Rand ('Atlas Shrugged' 1957) "The evil of the world is made possible by nothing but the sanction [that] you give it." Ayn Rand ('John Galt Speech' 1957)
her's what's been happening in CA since tyler's fave year, 2008: Fiscally Desperate - CA has relied on unscrupulous seizures of safe deposit boxes (2008 article)
Just yesterday was an article: "Bitcoin: The Ultimate Offshore Bank Account"
http://economicsandliberty.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/bitcoin-the-ultimate-offshore-bank-account
Protection from Litigation: This falls under the rule of “what they can’t find they can’t get”. By moving your money into bitcoin and obfuscating its whereabouts you become virtually ‘judgement proof’.
Jurisdictional Diversification: Bitcoin can be hidden behind encryption and stored in cyberspace – making it everywhere and nowhere at the same time. What existing power structures cannot find they cannot steal.
So your solution is to go into a fully electronic fiat currency?
Nah...pass me some of that yellow metal that was created in a SuperNova 10B+ years ago. I feel much more safe with that than with electron patterns created mere seconds ago. One good EMP and bitcoins are in the bitbucket.
Good luck with that.
A tad OT, but, stilol taxpayer theft, never the less..........just a different group.
YOU cannot make this shit up.
<http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=45722 >
Oh I suspect this is just the beginning. We're fucked.
the united states is a criminal nation in need of regime change...the cases reported here are just as the ones at the airport....the tsa seizes property from fliers in order to enrich their private estates.....it has nothing to do with law or security - it is all about a bunch of trained thugs seizing your personal property for the enrichment of tsa employees....
Land of the free...!!!!!
I like the last paragraph
LOL