{"id":1659561,"date":"2022-09-27T07:13:09","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T11:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1659561"},"modified":"2022-09-27T07:18:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T11:18:28","slug":"fbi-seized-86-million-in-raid-on-innocent-americans-safe-boxes-after-duping-judge-for-warrant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-seized-86-million-in-raid-on-innocent-americans-safe-boxes-after-duping-judge-for-warrant\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI Seized $86 Million In Raid On Innocent Americans\u2019 Safe Boxes After Duping Judge For Warrant"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffbi-seized-86-million-in-raid-on-innocent-americans-safe-boxes-after-duping-judge-for-warrant%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1659561&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>There is no denying anymore that our federal agencies have weaponized their power against the political adversaries of the left. But if you think the feds\u2019 abandonment of all standards only affects outspoken critics of the regime, think again. More allegations of FBI corruption and hubris are coming to light after a lawsuit last week revealed FBI agents misled a judge so they could illegally seize and withhold property from innocent American citizens. <\/p>\n<p>Agents took more than $86 million in cash, jewelry, and gold from 1,400 safe deposit boxes during the raid of a Beverly Hills vault company in March 2021. Lawyers representing a group of deposit box owners claim their items were illegally taken and not returned to them more than a year after the raid of the Beverly Hills, California, branch of U.S. Private Vaults. <\/p>\n<h2><strong>Seizing Innocent Americans\u2019 Assets<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This past March, a year after the raid, the owners of U.S. Private Vaults <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lamag.com\/citythinkblog\/beverly-hills-store-pleads-guilty-to-laundering-drug-money\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pleaded guilty<\/a> to conspiracy to launder drug money. However, the hundreds of citizens whose assets were seized by the FBI are not suspected of any crimes, according to court documents.<\/p>\n<p>Deposit box holders whose property was taken sued the bureau for violating their rights. Robert Frommer, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice, the libertarian, nonprofit law firm that filed the suit, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/fbi-accused-misleading-judge-for-86m-safety-deposit-box-raid-2022-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> in the court papers: \u201cWe brought suit on behalf of seven clients, but we were representing a class of at least 400 people. What we\u2019ve been trying to show for the past several months is that the government\u2019s actions violated the search-and-seizure protections of the US Constitution in the Fourth Amendment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lamag.com\/citythinkblog\/report-fbi-misled-judge-in-86-million-raid-on-beverly-hills-vaults\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According<\/a> to Los Angeles Magazine, federal agents \u201cmanhandled the personal belongings\u201d of box holders and \u201cmade video and photo records of customers\u2019 most sensitive documents: pay stubs, password lists, credit cards, a prenuptial agreement, immigration and vaccination records, bank statements and a will all made it into government databases, court docs show.\u201d The feds also found cremated human remains (\u201cwe presume of a legally interred person,\u201d LA Magazine notes) while snooping in one person\u2019s box.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer and Paul Snitko were two of those people who kept items at the Beverly Hills U.S. Private Vaults. The couple <a href=\"https:\/\/ij.org\/case\/u-s-private-vaults-seizure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">placed<\/a> wills, backup hard drives, old family watches, and Paul\u2019s flight log in their deposit box until their personal possessions were seized during the raid. The couple kept their valuables in the vault because they live in a fire-prone area and worried they could miss taking some of their important belongings during California\u2019s frequent fire evacuations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<div class=\"row justify-content-center g-0 mt-10\"><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=31XBx_AbmqM\">Institute for Justice\/Youtube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Jennifer and Paul are just two of many people who had no idea that U.S. Private Vaults might have been breaking the law since the establishment had been open for years and was a member of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce. <\/p>\n<p>After the raid, the feds demanded that box holders submit to an investigation before having their possessions returned. \u201cIt was scary to learn that we had to submit our personal information,\u201d said Jennifer with tears in her eyes. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do anything wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Minutes after Jennifer and Paul announced a lawsuit with the Institute for Justice, an FBI agent reached out, saying their belongings would be returned. However, other box holders have still not received their property back. And as the Institute for Justice points out, the government had no right to seize their property and force them to prove their innocence in the first place.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>FBI Misleads Judge <\/strong>Kim t<strong>o Obtain a Warrant<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Agents appeared to have gotten their warrant to raid the vault by neglecting to tell U.S. Magistrate Judge Steve Kim, who signed the warrant, that they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lamag.com\/citythinkblog\/report-fbi-misled-judge-in-86-million-raid-on-beverly-hills-vaults\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">intended<\/a> to keep all the assets found in every safe deposit box containing $5,000 or more in cash and valuables.<\/p>\n<p>The failure on the part of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in Los Angeles to reveal the plan to confiscate private citizens\u2019 belongings in the warrant application was <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/qjfJT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revealed<\/a> in FBI documents and depositions of agents in the aforementioned lawsuit.\u00a0Agents further defied restrictions set in the warrant by Kim when they searched through box holders\u2019 belongings for evidence of crimes. The warrant explicitly <a href=\"https:\/\/ij.org\/press-release\/lawsuit-uncovers-the-inside-story-of-the-fbis-plans-to-take-security-deposit-boxes-without-charging-owners-with-crimes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noted<\/a> that it \u201c<em>does not authorize<\/em>\u00a0a criminal search or seizure of the contents of the safety deposit boxes,\u201d but only allowed the FBI to look inside in order to identify the owners and return their property to them, Institute for Justice reported.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government did not know what was in those boxes, who owned them, or what, if anything, those people had done,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/qjfJT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> Frommer. \u201cThat\u2019s why the warrant application did not even attempt to argue there was probable cause to seize and forfeit box renters\u2019 property.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>FBI Tries Skirting Judge Klausner\u2019s Orders<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Three months after the raid, in June 2021, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lamag.com\/citythinkblog\/fbi-beverly-hills\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">temporary restraining order<\/a>, stopping the FBI\u2019s attempt to keep the property it seized from 369 of the safe deposit boxes because investigators had not proven that the box owners had committed any crimes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis notice, put bluntly, provides no factual basis for the seizure of Plaintiffs\u2019 property whatsoever,\u201d stated the judge in his ruling, citing the Fifth Amendment\u2019s protection against the seizure of property without due process.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the FBI wants to hold onto the fortune it acquired from the raid. Last Friday, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/fbi-says-fortune-seized-beverly-140035114.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prosecutors<\/a> \u201cfiled complaints to confiscate money from more box holders,\u201d the Los Angeles Times reported.<\/p>\n<p>Three months after Klausner\u2019s ruling, the government asked a judge to let it keep $154,600 in cash from one box holder and $330,000 from another because a drug-sniffing dog alerted to the money and both owners had \u201capplied unsuccessfully for state licenses to sell marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>U.S. attorneys suggested that shows \u201cthe funds are drug-related,\u201d but as Los Angeles Magazine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lamag.com\/citythinkblog\/report-fbi-misled-judge-in-86-million-raid-on-beverly-hills-vaults\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>, \u201cat least two other vaults were used by licensed marijuana sellers\u2026 [so] the scent could have spread from any of the cash in the bank where the government was storing all of its questionably confiscated bonanza.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The government also wants to keep $960,100 and $519,000 in cash it took from the boxes of two brothers based on its belief that one of them had \u201cbeen in contact with\u201d suspected armed robbers \u2014 an attempt their lawyer calls \u201can appalling and unconstitutional abuse of power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors accused the owner of a box holding $900,000 of being \u201ceither a top-level drug trafficker or money launderer\u201d because the man bundled his cash in assorted rubber bands, tape-wrapped paper, bank bands, and shopping bags. <\/p>\n<p>The feds were reportedly forced to give back the $57,000 life savings of unemployed chef Joseph Ruiz after insisting there was no way he could have legally saved up that kind of cash. Ruiz <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/fbi-says-fortune-seized-beverly-140035114.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">proved<\/a> otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>As Los Angeles Magazine\u2019s Ian Spiegelman reported, the FBI and U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office have denied they \u201cmisled the judge or ignored conditions of the warrant, saying agents had no obligation to tell Judge Kim they planned to ransack the privately-rented boxes under the umbrella theory that every customer was a black market mastermind.\u201d According to FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller, the warrants were executed legally \u201cbased on allegations of widespread criminal wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Private Vaults closed down, and only the owners have been charged and fined for laundering drug money. Not one person involved has been sent to prison. <\/p>\n<h2>The FBI\u2019s Laundry List of Malfeasance<\/h2>\n<p>While the FBI PR team is stridently maintaining the agency\u2019s innocence, the American people have no reason to believe them. We already know lying to judges isn\u2019t outside the FBI\u2019s wheelhouse after it launched the Russia collusion hoax against President Donald Trump by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2019\/12\/10\/fbi-lied-to-fisa-court-about-christopher-steeles-credibility\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lying<\/a>\u00a0to the FISA court about the credibility of Christopher Steele, author of the debunked Steele dossier.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI, under the purview of Biden-appointed Attorney General Merrick Garland, appears to have entirely discarded all semblance of integrity by now. Last Friday, pro-life activist and Catholic father of seven Mark Houck was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/fbi-raids-home-of-catholic-pro-life-speaker-author-with-guns-drawn-as-his-terrified-kids-watch\/?utm_source=featured-news&amp;utm_campaign=usa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">arrested<\/a> by what his wife described as a swarm of 25 to 30 FBI agents \u2014 for alleged \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/tags\/tag\/face-act\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FACE Act<\/a>\u201d violations \u2014 at his home while his traumatized children looked on \u201cscreaming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Houck isn\u2019t the only prominent conservative who has received a personal FBI visit. Last month, the FBI raided the Mar-a-Lago home of former President Donald Trump. The government is also <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/26\/special-counsel-durhams-protect-the-establishment-approach-is-destroying-the-country\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">targeting<\/a> the former president\u2019s advisers and outspoken supporters, such as Rudy Giuliani, Jeff Clark, and Mike Lindell.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/20\/whistleblower-fbi-is-dropping-child-sexual-abuse-investigations-to-pursue-j6-witch-hunt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">whistleblower<\/a> came forward alleging that the FBI is moving its agents off of child sexual abuse cases to instead pursue its Jan. 6 witch hunt.\u00a0The FBI\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/jmd\/page\/file\/1399031\/download\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2022 budget<\/a> has its largest funding increase request under the category of combatting \u201cdomestic terrorism,\u201d a label the left uses to smear its ideological opponents at will. A notable example occurred last year when the FBI launched investigations into \u201cterrorist\u201d parents who express concerns at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realchrisrufo\/status\/1524545943311314944?s=20&amp;t=DPs74N0k5aqbzPMsG_I2qw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">local school board meetings<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, it was <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/08\/docs-fbi-pressured-americans-to-sign-away-their-gun-rights-without-a-court-hearing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revealed<\/a> that for years the FBI has been secretly pressuring Americans into signing forms that relinquish their constitutional right to own, purchase, or even use firearms.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The agency also <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/30\/zuckerbergs-admission-of-fbi-meddling-in-2020-election-is-even-bigger-than-it-seems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interfered<\/a> in the 2020 election by preemptively branding the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation for Facebook (and likely other platforms) to censor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It has yet to be seen whether the FBI will return all the savings of the innocent Americans caught up in the U.S. Private Vaults raid, or whether taking money from people with baseless allegations is a new funding tactic for the feds. <\/p>\n<p>Lawyers representing the box holders are insistent this is a case all Americans need to pay attention to. \u201cThe government\u2019s theory is that having cash makes you a presumptive criminal,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/fbi-says-fortune-seized-beverly-140035114.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> Ruiz\u2019s lawyer, \u201cand I think every American should be worried about that.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Evita Duffy is a staff writer to The Federalist and the co-founder of the Chicago Thinker. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, &#038; her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1 or contact her at evita@thefederalist.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is no denying anymore that our federal agencies have weaponized their power against the political adversaries of the left. But if you think the feds\u2019 abandonment of all standards<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":580,"featured_media":1659563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1659561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/580"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1659561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1659563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1659561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1659561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1659561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}