News Roundup

• Police in St. Louis are moving in to a new headquarters in the coming weeks. The new building was purchased in 2011 with $2.7 in forfeiture money. “Asset forfeiture money means money we seized from criminal enterprises. So in this case, crime really did pay for the metropolitan police department” said Police Chief Sam Dotson. Though state law directs asset forfeiture money to a fund for schools, that hasn't stopped law enforcement agencies in Missouri from receiving more than $135 million in equitable sharing payments since 2000, more than $14 million of which went to St. Louis Metro PD.
• Mendocino County's District Attorney's office is donating $10,000 in asset forfeiture revenue to a local anti-gang program for schools.
• Newsday chronicles the use of asset forfeiture on Long Island. The article includes some interesting details regarding how forfeiture money was spent in 2013, including $1.3 million for vehicles, $136,000 in out-of-town trips, and $385,000 in weapons and gear.
• A reporter for the Witness out of South Africa details the troubles of the National Prosecutor's Office and its' asset forfeiture unit. An unnamed AFU official blamed the unit's ineffectiveness on the "protracted legal process" that follows a seizure, while others point to infighting within the unit as a source of inefficiency.
• Webpronews discusses the moral quandary of purchasing property seized by police. They close by suggesting "...maybe the Ferrari that you see in that late night ad was once owned by a drug kingpin who now wears an orange outfit and a number. But maybe your local police force pays its salaries with the folding money of innocent out of state travelers."
• MyRecordJournal.com has a piece on how law enforcement in Connecticut use asset forfeiture funds to pay travel expenses. Jonathan Einhorn, a former New Haven police commissioner, is criticizes using forfeiture for travel and says “...[S]tate police have created a slush fund for vacations and travel, and that is just not the purpose.”

News Roundup

• Police in Meriden, Connecticut used their asset forfeiture fund to purchase new mountain bikes and uniforms for a neighborhood patrol unit.
• The Taranaki Daily News has an article about New Zealand's uptick in asset forfeitures in since the passage of the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act in 2009. The bill introduced the use of civil asset forfeiture to New Zealand. Previously forfeitures were limited by the requirement for a criminal conviction.
• The Treasury Department's anti-money laundering unit FinCEN had to rescind 11 job offers and temporarily freeze hiring after an Office of Personnel Management investigation determined that the agency was illegally screening job candidates. Federal agencies can only screen job candidates by the criteria given in the job listing and FinCEN reportedly targeted lawyers for open positions without ever stipulating that the positions were open only to lawyers.
• Over at Business Insider, Ethan Burger suggests asset forfeiture could be used to add some bite to recent sanctions against Russia.
• Authorities in the Philippines are auctioning off assets recovered after 27 years of litigation. The properties, valued at over $5 million, are connected to two associates of former president Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos was removed from office in 1986 after ruling the Philippines for 21 years. The properties include several homes and a sports club.
• Rep Kendall Kroecker has announced that he will be running for re-election in the Wyoming legislature. Rep. Kroecker sponsored HB0076, which would have increased the standard of proof required before law enforcement could forfeit property. The bill passed in the House but failed to make it out of Senate committee.
• Police in Downey, California financed the construction of a new training room using asset forfeiture funds. The new facilities will be used to train officers "who have been accused of using excessive force" in lethal and non-lethal arrest techniques.
• The Department of Justice has filed a civil forfeiture complain the Central District of California in an attempt to recover $700,000 in corruption proceeds. The money was seized from the sale of house formerly owned by Korea's ex-president Chun Doo-hwan's son. Doo-hwan's son, Chun Jae Yong, allegedly purchased the home using proceeds "traceable to his father's corruption." The US is working on the investigation in conjunction with South Korea's Supreme Prosecutor's Office, Ministry of Justice, and the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office.
• The Inquisitr tells the story of the man who had $50,000 in casino winnings seized during a traffic stop in Nevada. Tan Nguyen was never charged with or convicted of a crime and had to sue the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office to recover his money.
• The Pttsburgh Post Gazette has an excellent piece on law enforcement's use of confidential informants. They note that the federal government spent more than $26 million in asset forfeiture cash in 2013 on confidential informants.  
• Authorities in Jamaica have spent nearly four years searching for  the assets of drug kingpin Christopher 'Dudus' Coke and have only been able to link a small fraction of assets to his criminal activity.

News Roundup

• Texas Lawyer (registration required) has a short write up on the impact of Kaley v. United States on defense attorneys, including several tips for mitigating the impact of the decision on a defendant.
• The federal government has filed forfeiture papers against former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. The money sought is connected to Nagin's conviction on corruption charges back in February.
• The Nassau County Police Department launched a new website developed with $300,000 in forfeiture proceeds.
• Police in Kansas have used a combination of asset forfeiture and grant money to purchase a 3d scanner for use in criminal investigations. The scanner uses a laser to scan and map crime scenes to determining bullet trajectories.
• President Pohamba of Namibia announced the formation of an asset forfeiture unit in his State of the Nation address.
• Suffolk County DA Daniel F. Conley is donating $5,000 in asset forfeiture cash to Operation LIPSTICK, a non-profit organization dedicated to "[p]reventing women from being used to buy, hide or hold guns for those who can't legally own them."

News Roundup

Another week of playing catch up...

• Police in Marietta, Georgia have purchased some new gear with the proceeds of asset forfeiture cases. They spent $10,000 acquiring and training in the use of an explosive alternative to the battering ram. Marietta Police Chief Dan Flynn describes the product as a "heavy duty tape" that contains explosives and can be used in doors, windows, and walls. The agency also used $28,000 for two automatic license-plate readers for two of their cruisers. The cameras can scan "thousands of passing vehicle tags per minute" and have drawn the ire of privacy advocates at the ACLU.
• The federal government's $1.2 billion windfall from its case against Toyota will be dumped in the federal Asset Forfeiture Fund. Toyota was penalized for misleading customers and regulators about their vehicles troubles with unintended acceleration. The News-Gazette also notes how much the forfeiture fund's fortunes rest on large fraud cases. Half of the fund's income in 2013 was related to 10 fraud cases and half of its income in 2012 was due to the $2.2 billion received as a result of the Bernie Madoff investigation.
• The San Juan, Texas Police Department spent $2,700 in asset forfeiture revenue to purchase a bomb detecting dog. Seventy-five percent of the cost of the dog was covered by an unnamed grant provided to the department. The department received $87,401 in equitable sharing payments during fiscal year  2013.
• The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (UK) is criticizing the use of recovered assets by the West Midlands Police Department. The agency received £1.9 million in seized criminal assets, but only £300,000 was used for community projects. The rest of the money is being used to "drive up performance on asset recovery". Half of the proceeds from criminal forfeitures in the UK is held by the government while the remaining half is split between the courts, the police, and the Crown Prosecution Service. The proceeds from civil forfeitures are split evenly between the government and the police force. 
• Prosecutors in the Phillipines are still battling for control of the proceeds of the so-called pork barrel scam perpetrated by local politicians.
• Jarrett Dieterle, a former intern at the Manhattan Institute's Center for Legal Policy, has published a history of the Lacey Act, the legislation at the heart of the Gibson Guitar Raid three years ago, in the Georgetown Law Journal. The article is available to download in .pdf format.

News Roundup

• Federal prosecutors are attempting to seize $25 million in assets from notorious mobster and FBI informant Whitey Bulger. This is in addition to the $822,000 already seized from Bulger's Santa Monica residence, with the feds contending that all proceeds of his illicit activities must be forfeit, not just his profits.
• A US District Judge has ordered the forfeiture of a building in New York City estimated to be worth between $500 and $700 million. The value of the property has soared since the government moved to seize it in 2008 and it is being billed as the “the largest real property forfeiture” in United States history. - Link to the Judge's Order
• Law enforcement agencies in Rhode Island are deciding what to do with an expected $230 million payday. The payments stem from Google's forfeiture of $500 million to the federal government in 2011. The award to the North Providence Police Department is 10 times its annual budget and the payment to Rhode Island's Attorney General is double its yearly budget. 
• Business Week details how federal agencies auction seized property.
• The Jacksonville, NC police department and the Duplin County Sheriff's Office received a combined $366,000 through the equitable sharing program.
• Agencies in the Philippines are seeking the forfeiture of money connected to the 'pork barrel' graft probe that lead to protests throughout the country.
• Two departments in Texas received a combined $699,000 in forfeiture proceeds connected to a case involving a web-based pill mill.
• The Mendocino county DA and Auditor-Controller are battling over the use of $315,000 in asset forfeiture funds. The Auditor's office is disputing DA Eyster's planned use of the revenue to "pay for basically all of his office expenses", which would be a violation of forfeiture spending guidelines.