Seizing Innocent Americans’ Assets

This past March, a year after the raid, the owners of U.S. Private Vaults pleaded guilty 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.

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, said in the court papers: “We brought suit on behalf of seven clients, but we were representing a class of at least 400 people. What we’ve been trying to show for the past several months is that the government’s actions violated the search-and-seizure protections of the US Constitution in the Fourth Amendment.”

According to Los Angeles Magazine, federal agents “manhandled the personal belongings” of box holders and “made video and photo records of customers’ 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.” The feds also found cremated human remains (“we presume of a legally interred person,” LA Magazine notes) while snooping in one person’s box.

Jennifer and Paul Snitko were two of those people who kept items at the Beverly Hills U.S. Private Vaults. The couple placed wills, backup hard drives, old family watches, and Paul’s 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’s frequent fire evacuations.

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.

After the raid, the feds demanded that box holders submit to an investigation before having their possessions returned. “It was scary to learn that we had to submit our personal information,” said Jennifer with tears in her eyes. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”

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.