Congress Demands Justice Department Return Millions "Seized Unfairly" From Taxpayers
In the latest salvo against civil forfeiture, 21 Republican Members of Congress sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday that demanded the Justice Department “immediately return” up to $22 million that was “seized unfairly by the government.” Using civil forfeiture, the Internal Revenue Service raided bank accounts from hundreds of owners for alleged “structuring” offenses, which involves making a series of cash transactions under $10,000 to skirt federal reporting requirements.
“What was done was not fair, just or right in most cases,” the letter declared, which was co-signed by House Ways and Means Chair Kevin Brady (R-TX), Oversight Subcommittee Chair Lynn Jenkins (R-KS), and former Oversight Subcommittee Chair Peter Roskam (R-IL). “The IRS’s actions led to the destruction of many lives and small businesses, some of which will never fully recover.”
In response to a public backlash, the IRS announced two years ago that it would notify owners who had their property forfeited under structuring laws that they could file petitions to recover what was taken. Appearing before a House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing last month, representatives from both the IRS and Justice Department provided an update on the structuring petitions they had received. The contrast between the two agencies was stark.
After mailing over 1,800 letters to property owners, the IRS received 464 petitions. Upon further review, only 208 petitions were within its jurisdiction. Among those petitions, the IRS decided to grant 174 (or roughly 84 percent), and returned over $9.9 million to property owners.
For the remaining 256 petitions, the IRS sent those to the U.S. Department of Justice, and recommended that DOJ grant 194 of those petitions. Yet the Department only accepted 41 petitions—less than 1 in 6 petitions—and refused to return more than $22.2 million.
Slamming DOJ’s position as “wholly indefensible,” the Members of Congress wrote that they were “profoundly troubled by the significant discrepancy between the IRS’s recommended outcome and DOJ’s final decisions.” “By DOJ’s own testimony, the mitigation process acts as a pardon request, permitting a plea for leniency,” noted the letter. “It provides DOJ with a safety valve that allows for the correction of actions taken by the Government, which in hindsight, we may realize were in error. This is one of those instances.”
More at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicksib.../#4e7fab971043
