Property Confiscation - Asset Forfeiture

Property Confiscation - Asset Forfeiture

Property Confiscation - Asset Forfeiture

 

I have lived in the US for almost a decade, during which time I learned about all sorts of different and weird things in American law. Of all these laws, there is a practice whose absurdity is so extreme, and anyone who works with cash in amounts typical of real estate transactions must be aware of it.

This is called Asset Forfeiture - what does it mean? Suppose you are in the US and you drive a car with cash, and a police officer stops you (and it does not matter what the primary reason) in many countries, the police officer has the authority to confiscate all the money on the spot if he claims he suspects the source of money is illegal. He does not need any real vision, it's just you in front of his word. If you want to get your money back, you must sue the state, * even if in the end you were not charged at all *

In aggravated countries you have to prove that the source of money is legitimate, in slightly less stringent states the country has to prove that the source of money is illegal, but the record of injustice is that even if you win, you will only get your money back, without any compensation for the legal costs (can be several thousand) And certainly not for any further damages you may have suffered. The procedure itself can take a year. In fact, there is no point in claiming in the event that the amount confiscated is relatively small and, as mentioned above, in larger cases, you still lose a lot of time and money.

In conclusion - we are used to the fact that in a reformed Western country there is a thing called a due process and the state can take money from you, but not arbitrarily. In this case, the police act as in a third world country. I'm not trying to sound like a rhetorician - I guess in Israel and other countries there can be dark corners in the law, and it's very important to be aware of them.

The easiest way to avoid this is to simply not travel with large amounts of cash. Robbery / loss are always options, in some areas of the US (mostly rural) the perpetrators are police officers.

I am attaching a clip on the subject, the speaker is an attorney in Michigan, dealing with cars, but as mentioned it is relevant to any matter

Link to the original post on the United States Real Estate Forum on Facebook - Works on a desktop computer:
http://bit.ly/2GdlRBR

The original responses to the post can be read at the bottom of the current post page on the site or in the link to a post on Facebook and of course you are invited to join the discussion

 

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Responses

  1. Attached is the link to the video on the subject. It really may not really be relevant to someone who never walks around with cash. But someone coming from a non-Third World country to the US assumes that there are legal / legal norms of a Western country, and in this case it is a practice of a corrupt republic in Africa. It may not be relevant in most cases but it is important to know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4TaJuRTJxg&t=584s

  2. I have to ask, in which constellation do you work with cash? And certainly large sums in the real estate world, I have been in the field for 7 years with many properties and transactions of all kinds and I have never worked with cash. Am I missing something?