Suspiciously Small Deposits Trigger Legalized Bank Robbery - Hit & Run : Reason.com
Jacob Sullum|
The IRS seized $242 million between 2005 and 2012 based on allegations of "structuring."
The week before her confirmation hearings, Loretta Lynch, President Obama's choice to succeed Eric Holder as attorney general, quietly dropped a forfeiture case involving $447,000 seized from Bi-County Distributors, a family-owned business that sells candy and cigarettes to convenience stores on Long Island. Although there was no evidence that the money came from illegal activity, the IRS thought the way it was deposited, in amounts below the $10,000 threshold for mandatory bank reports to the Treasury Department, suggested that Bi-County was trying to evade that requirement, which is a federal crime known as "structuring." According to a new report from the Institute for Justice, which represented Bi-County's owners, the IRS seized $242 million based on suspected structuring in more than 2,500 cases from 2005 to 2012. During that period, the number of cases rose fivefold and revenue increased by 166 percent, but the gap between the amount seized and the amount ultimately forfeited also grew, suggesting the IRS has becoming increasingly reckless with the rights of innocent owners like Mitch, Richard, and Jeffrey Hirsch, the brothers who run Bi-County Distributors.
"Using civil forfeiture," I.J. says, "the government is increasingly treating legitimate small-business owners like criminals just because they make frequent cash deposits."
-go to link-
No comments:
Post a Comment