Los Angeles Forfeiture and Seizure Lawyers Lawyers

Los Angeles Forfeiture and Seizure Lawyers Lawyers

Sometimes your property or financial assets will be seized by the federal government. There are several reasons that this might happen. Most commonly, property is seized because the government claims that it has connections to criminal activity. This process is technically a civil one, but it tends to be related to criminal cases. The best way to get the property back is by hiring a seizure lawyer who can prove that the property was not related to the illegal activity.

Sometimes seizure will happen before a criminal investigation has concluded. Even if charges have not yet been filed against you, the government might seize property for use as evidence. In addition, the seizure process might also occur as part of a criminal trial process.

The civil aspect of the proceeding benefits the government because they do not need to prove as much as they would in a criminal process. In addition, there are cases in which the burden of proof instead falls on your shoulders. You are required to prove that you own the property and that it has not been stolen. If you cannot provide adequate proof, you may lose the property, even if you do own it.

Since the government doesn’t need to provide as much proof, the court might still hold onto your assets even if you are acquitted of all criminal wrongdoing. That means that you can be punished for a crime you didn’t commit, even if you’ve been acquitted of that crime. Because of this practice’s potential to be abused by law enforcement officials, it is very controversial. It allows law enforcement to take away your property without needing a trial verdict to do so.

Another ugly side of this is that the government can profit from your seized assets. This means that there is extra incentive for law enforcement to seize your items, even if you’ve never committed a crime. Once they do, the process to get the items back takes a lot of time and hassle. Despite all of this, the process of forfeiture and seizure has been expanded in recent years instead of banned.

The seizure of property happens most commonly when federal officials are investigating organized crime and money laundering. If the government suspects that certain income is from drug trafficking or racketeering, they may seize that income even if it’s documented and taxable.

There are also certain laws that have provisions allowing law enforcement to seize assets on a criminal level. This is the case for many white collar crimes, particularly racketeering. However, law enforcement can only make criminal seizures once you have been convicted. Civil seizures can happen prior to filing charges or during the trial process. Since criminal forfeitures have a stronger burden of proof, they are more rarely used. You can expect them to be used if you are convicted, but not prior to that.

Money laundering is a serious accusation that might be leveled if the government believes a criminal coverup is happening. With money laundering, a person falsely claims that their illegal income was actually legally made through different businesses. This allows them to pay taxes and use the income without raising red flags. If the IRS suspects someone is involved in money laundering, they may order an audit of that person’s businesses and taxes.

There are also laws that require banks and credit unions to make reports of certain financial transactions. If you use cash to make a transaction of more than 10,000 dollars, that will be reported to the government. You also can’t transport more than 10,000 dollars outside US borders without declaring it. This prevents people from evading tax laws or hiding their illegal income.

There are a variety of laws that allow federal officials to seize income they suspect is unlawful, even if they haven’t yet proved it. They can even go through with civil seizure proceedings if a person is never charged with an actual crime. If any property is believed to be stolen or part of criminal activities, they might seize it. That applies even to third parties who might not be aware that they are working with stolen property.

If the government wants to seize physical property like houses and land, they will usually need a warrant. But there isn’t any warrant required to seize currency or personal property. This is because it’s easy to destroy and move the evidence. But it means that federal officials can take your property without even needing the approval of a judge first.

Following the seizure of property, there’s a requirement that you be given a notification within the first 60 days. You can then file a claim to challenge this seizure. The government’s job is to initiate a civil forfeiture process, or they can choose to forgo this and release the property.