...and take back America!
(At least that's the way I read it... reading between the lines...)
* * *
* * *
For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out
Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant.
For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small
bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax agents knocked on her
door and informed her that they had seized her checking account, almost
$33,000.
* NO JUDGE. NO JURY. NO TRIAL.
* NO CIVIL LIBERTIES...
* NO CONSTITUTION, APPARENTLY!
The Internal Revenue Service agents did not accuse Ms.
Hinders of money laundering or cheating on her taxes — in fact, she has not
been charged with any crime.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Instead, the money was seized solely because she had
deposited less than $10,000 at a time, which they viewed as an attempt to avoid
triggering a required government report.
(*LITERALLY HOLDING BACK THE TEARS OF RAGE AND
FRUSTRATION*)
“How can this happen?” Ms. Hinders said in a recent
interview. “Who takes your money before they prove that you’ve done anything
wrong with it?”
* ANSWER:
The federal government does.
Using a law designed to catch drug traffickers,
racketeers and terrorists by tracking their cash, the government has gone after
run-of-the-mill business owners and wage earners without so much as an
allegation that they have committed serious crimes.
* THIS... IS... OBAMA'S... AMERICA...
* AND, FOLKS... I'LL BET RIGHT NOW - WITHOUT READING
ANOTHER WORD AHEAD - THAT THE LAWS DATE BACK TO AT LEAST BUSH! (BUT IF SO, SO
WHAT...?!?! OBAMA'S BEEN PRESIDENT FOR THE PAST NEAR-SIX YEARS! THE BUCK STOPS
AT HIS DESK!)
The government can take the money without ever filing a
criminal complaint, and the owners are left to prove they are innocent.
* AND...
Many give up.
* FOLKS... IF YOU DON'T ALREADY OWN FIREARMS... STOCK UP.
ARMS, AMMO, AND TRAINING. MAKE COMMON CAUSE WITH YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS. "WE
THE PEOPLE" ARE ON OUR OWN, FOLKS... IF THAT ISN'T CLEAR NOW... THEN I
FEAR IT NEVER WILL BE.
“They’re going after people who are really not
criminals,” said David Smith, a former federal prosecutor who is now a
forfeiture expert and lawyer in Virginia. “They’re middle-class citizens who
have never had any trouble with the law.”
* BUT THE FACT THAT THEY'RE "GOING AFTER THEM"
IS SECONDARY TO THE FACT THAT OUR PRESENT "ANTI-CONSTITUTION" FEDERAL
REGIME (AND STATE REGIMES WHICH COOPERATE OR EVEN GO OFF ON SIMILAR TRAILS ON
THEIR OWN) ALLOWS "THEM" TO GO AFTER... "US."
On Thursday, in response to questions from The New York
Times, the I.R.S. announced that it would curtail the practice, focusing
instead on cases where the money is believed to have been acquired illegally or
seizure is deemed justified by “exceptional circumstances.”
* "CURTAIL?" WHILE LEAVING THESE BLATANTLY
UNCONSTITUTIONAL LAWS ON THE BOOKS?! WHY... HOW GENEROUS OF OUR LORDS AND
MASTERS!
Richard Weber, the chief of Criminal Investigation at the
I.R.S., said in a written statement, “This policy update will ensure that C.I.
continues to focus our limited investigative resources on identifying and
investigating violations within our jurisdiction that closely align with C.I.’s
mission and key priorities.” He added that making deposits under $10,000 to
evade reporting requirements, called structuring, is still a crime whether the
money is from legal or illegal sources. The new policy will not apply to past
seizures.
* FOLKS. ONE IS ONLY GUILTY OF A CRIME ONCE ONE HAS BEEN
TRIED AND CONVICTED. THIS IS INSANITY. THE SYSTEM HAS RUN AMOK!
The practice has swept up dairy farmers in Maryland, an
Army sergeant in Virginia saving for his children’s college education and Ms.
Hinders, 67, who has borrowed money, strained her credit cards and taken out a
second mortgage to keep her restaurant going.
Their money was seized under an increasingly
controversial area of law known as civil asset forfeiture, which allows law
enforcement agents to take property they suspect of being tied to crime even if
no criminal charges are filed.
* THIS... IS... INSANE...!
Law enforcement agencies get to keep a share of whatever
is forfeited.
(*SNORT*)
* FOLKS... YOU DON'T HEAR JOHN BOEHNER NOR MITCH
MCCONNELL RAILING AGAINST THESE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION POLICIES, DO YOU?
* FOLKS... AGAIN... THE BEST THING INDIVIDUAL AMERICANS
LIKE OURSELVES CAN DO IS ARM OURSELVES AGAINST THE DAY WHEN...
(*SHRUG*)
* AGAIN... IF THE REALITY OF PRESENT-DAY AMERICA ISN'T
ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT WE'VE LOST... WHAT'S AT STAKE... THEN BELAY
THAT LAST SUGGESTION. PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THE AGE OF OBAMA IS JUST FINE AND
DANDY... I WANT YOU PEOPLE UNARMED AND HELPLESS. YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM!
YOU'RE TO BLAME!
Critics say this incentive has led to the creation of a
law enforcement dragnet, with more than 100 multi-agency task forces combing
through bank reports, looking for accounts to seize. Under the Bank Secrecy
Act, banks and other financial institutions must report cash deposits greater
than $10,000. But since many criminals are aware of that requirement, banks
also are supposed to report any suspicious transactions, including deposit
patterns below $10,000. Last year, banks filed more than 700,000 "suspicious
activity" reports.
* REMEMBER WHEN "SUSPICION" WASN'T ENOUGH TO
ALLOW THE GOVERNMENT TO DESTROY SOMEONE'S LIFE - AT LEAST WITHOUT A WARRANT...
WITHOUT A CHARGE, A TRIAL, AND A CONVICTION?
Owners who are caught up in structuring cases often
cannot afford to fight. The median amount seized by the I.R.S. was $34,000,
according to the Institute for Justice analysis, while legal costs can easily
mount to $20,000 or more.
* "SEIZED." JUST... SEIZED.
There is nothing illegal about depositing less than
$10,000 cash unless it is done specifically to evade the reporting requirement.
But often a mere bank statement is enough for investigators to obtain a seizure
warrant.
* "SEIZURE WARRANT." IF THERE WAS EVER A FINER
EXAMPLE OF MISUSE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
In one Long Island case, the police submitted almost a
year’s worth of daily deposits by a business, ranging from $5,550 to $9,910.
The officer wrote in his warrant affidavit that based on his training and
experience, the pattern “is consistent with structuring.”
* A COP. NOT EVEN A CPA. NOT EVEN A PROFESSIONAL
GOVERNMENT AUDITOR.
The government seized $447,000 from the business, a
cash-intensive candy and cigarette distributor that has been run by one family
for 27 years.
* NOT "FROZE." NOPE. "SEIZED." HOW
CAN THIS BE JUSTIFIED IN A FREE SOCIETY UNDER OUR SUPPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL RULE
OF LAW?
* ANSWER: IT CAN'T BE.
* AND YET... IT'S GOING ON.
There are often legitimate business reasons for keeping
deposits below $10,000, said Larry Salzman, a lawyer with the Institute for
Justice who is representing Ms. Hinders and the Long Island family pro bono. For
example, he said, a grocery store owner in Fraser, Mich., had an insurance
policy that covered only up to $10,000 cash. When he neared the limit, he would
make a deposit.
* DUH!
Ms. Hinders said that she did not know about the
reporting requirement and that for decades, she thought she had been doing
everyone a favor.
* IN ANY CASE... REMEMBER "INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN
GUILTY?" NOT IN OBAMA'S AMERICA! (FUNNY... THIS IS A NYT REPORT... BUSH
HASN'T BEEN MENTIONED ONCE... PERHAPS ALL THIS DID START UNDER OBAMA?!)
“My mom had told me if you keep your deposits under
$10,000, the bank avoids paperwork,” she said. “I didn’t actually think it had
anything to do with the I.R.S.”
In May 2012, the bank branch Ms. Hinders used was acquired
by Northwest Banker. JoLynn Van Steenwyk, the fraud and security manager for
Northwest, said she could not discuss individual clients, but explained that
the bank did not have access to past account histories after it acquired Ms.
Hinders’s branch.
Banks are not permitted to advise customers that their
deposit habits may be illegal or educate them about structuring unless they
ask, in which case they are given a federal pamphlet, Ms. Van Steenwyk said.
“We’re not allowed to tell them anything,” she said.
* SO MUCH FOR THE FIRST AMENDMENT...
Still lawyers say it is not unusual for depositors to be
advised by financial professionals, or even bank tellers, to keep their
deposits below the reporting threshold. In the Long Island case, the company,
Bi-County Distributors, had three bank accounts closed because of the paperwork
burden of its frequent cash deposits, said Jeff Hirsch, the eldest of three
brothers who own the company. Their accountant then recommended staying below
the limit, so for more than a decade the company had been using its excess cash
to pay vendors.
* MAKE SENSE!
More than two years ago, the government seized $447,000,
and the brothers have been unable to retrieve it.
* DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!
Mr. Salzman, who has taken over legal representation of
the brothers, has argued that prosecutors violated a strict timeline laid out
in the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, passed in 2000 to curb abuses.
* HMM... 2000... CLINTON WAS PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICANS
CONTROLLED BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS. (FOLKS... DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT WE'RE
DEALING WITH...?)
* ANYWAY... FORGET THE "DETAILS" OF THE LAW;
HOW IN GOD'S NAME CAN THE INSANITY SUPPOSEDLY PASS CONSTITUTIONAL MUSTER IN...
THE... FIRST... PLACE...?!?!
* ANSWER: CLEARLY IT SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO! NOT UNDER OUR
CONSTITUTION. NOT IN THE REPUBLIC I WAS BORN INTO!
The office of the federal attorney for the Eastern
District of New York said the law’s timeline did not apply in this case. Still,
prosecutors asked the Hirsch’s first lawyer, Joseph Potashnik, to waive the
CARFA timeline. The waiver he signed expired almost two years ago.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS CLEARLY OUT OF CONTROL.
The federal attorney’s office said that parties often
voluntarily negotiated to avoid going to court, and that Mr. Potashnik had been
engaged in talks until just a few months ago. But Mr. Potashnik said he had
spent that time trying, to no avail, to show that the brothers were innocent.
They even paid a forensic accounting firm $25,000 to check the books.
* GEEZUS...
“I don’t think they’re really interested in anything,”
Mr. Potashnik said of the prosecutors. “They just want the money.”
Bi-County has survived only because longtime vendors have
extended credit — one is owed almost $300,000, Mr. Hirsch said. Twice, the
government has made settlement offers that would require the brothers to give
up an “excessive” portion of the money, according to a new court filing.
“We’re just hanging on as a family here,” Mr. Hirsch
said. “We weren’t going to take a settlement, because I was not guilty.”
* FOLKS...
(*SIGH*)
* AND IN CLOSING...
Army Sgt. Jeff Cortazzo of Arlington, Va., began saving
for his daughters’ college costs during the financial crisis, when many banks
were failing. He stored cash first in his basement and then in a safe-deposit
box. All of the money came from paychecks, he said, but he worried that when he
deposited it in a bank, he would be forced to pay taxes on the money again. So
he asked the bank teller what to do.
“She said: ‘Oh, that’s easy. You just have to deposit
less than $10,000.’”
* THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING! DEPOSIT INTEREST
IS TAXABLE! UNLESS CORTAZZO DIDN'T DECLARE WHATEVER MEASLY INTEREST HIS
DEPOSIT ACCRUED...
(*SHRUG*)
The government seized $66,000; settling cost Sergeant
Cortazzo $21,000. As a result, the eldest of his three daughters had to delay
college by a year.
“Why didn’t the teller tell me that was illegal?” he
said. “I would have just plopped the whole thing in the account and been done
with it.”
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