{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20141003000047/http://walberg.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=397409", "The Blaze: The Government Doesnt Need to Charge You With a Crime to Seize Your Assets and Property", "2014-09-30", "2014", "2014-09", "Republican", "House", "MI", "Tim Walberg", "W000798", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "Did you know you don\u2019t actually need to be charged with a crime for the government to seize your financial and property assets?\nUnder U.S. law, it can take only the suspicion of a crime to turn lives upside down and seize the property of innocent citizens.\nThe civil asset forfeiture law allows government agencies like the IRS or the Department of Justice to confiscate anyone\u2019s property without obtaining criminal charges against them.\nOriginally intended to seize the assets of money launderers and drug dealers, the law\u2019s low requirement threshold has allowed government agencies to incorrectly identify someone as a possible suspect in a crime take their assets. It can take more than a year for an innocent person who has had their business, property or finances seized to be cleared of wrongdoing, during which time they can lose everything, said Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), who is working to reform the law.\nWalberg has introduced the\u00a0Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, which would require the government to show proof that an individual was involved in criminal wrongdoing before it can seize property. Currently before the House Judiciary Committee, the legislation has several cosponsors but may have difficulty passing both the House and Senate.\nWednesday\u2019s new episode of TheBlaze TV\u2019s\u00a0For the Record, \u201cSeized,\u201d will reveal how\u00a0thousands\u00a0of people have become innocent victims of the government\u2019s forfeiture law and what they are doing to fight back.\n\u201cThis has a tremendous negative impact on our freedoms and the ability to carry on our government the way it\u2019s been established according to the Constitution,\u201d Walberg said. \u201cThat\u2019s not what government should be, in the place of being a fearmonger, a producer of fear in the peoples\u2019 lives and ultimately, using their power to extract resources for their own benefit.\u201d\nDavid B. Smith, an asset forfeiture attorney \u00a0based in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside the nation\u2019s capital, told TheBlaze that many small-business owners become targets of the government because they don\u2019t have a full understanding of the law. He said many small-business owners draw the attention of the IRS when they inadvertently engage in \u201cstructuring,\u201d a banking tactic often used by money launderers.\nStructuring is when someone makes deposits or withdrawals of less $10,000 to avoid having the bank file a currency transaction report with the IRS or the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Business owners, however, have told Smith they believed they were following the law when they made deposits or withdrawals of less than $10,000.\nSmith, who helped draft the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 and other federal and state forfeiture laws, said the banks don\u2019t warn customers that they will be targeted by the government if they make these types of deposits.\n\u201cThere are federal judges who don\u2019t know it\u2019s illegal. There are loads of lawyers who don\u2019t know it\u2019s illegal, even criminal defense lawyers, because very few people handle these types of cases,\u201d Smith said.\nBut it\u2019s not just seizing people\u2019s assets without proper cause that\u2019s a concern. According to the Institute of Justice, a civil liberties law firm and government watchdog group, allegations of overreach by law enforcement have included using\u00a0forfeiture\u00a0funds to purchase unnecessary and often outlandish items, including:\n\u2022 In Georgia, a district attorney\u2019s used forfeiture funds to buy steak, booze and to see CeeLo Green in Concert.\n\u2022 In Texas, a district attorney used $500 dollars of seized forfeiture funds to buy tequila, rum and a margarita machine to throw a party.\n\u2022 Another Texas district attorney spent $27,000 to attend a conference in Hawaii.\n\u2022 A Georgia sheriff\u2019s office spent $90,000 on a Dodge Viper for its D.A.R.E. program.\nBut it\u2019s what law enforcement officials themselves say that reveals how dependent the agencies have become on forfeiture funds. At a Columbia, Missouri, Citizens Police Review Board in November 2012, Police Chief Ken Burton\u00a0explained in detail\u00a0how his department uses the forfeiture funds, saying there are no real limitations on what the departments can buy.\n\u201cWe usually base it on something that would be nice to have,\u201d Burton. \u201cWe usually base it on something that would be nice to have that we can\u2019t get in the budget for. We try not to use it for things that we need to depend on \u2026 it\u2019s kinda like \u2018Pennies from Heaven\u2019 to get you a toy or something that you need is the way we typically look at it.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20141003000047/http://walberg.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=397409"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7059609051793814, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}