Civil Asset Forfeiture Rises To New Level
by Shari Dovale
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced SB-1241 on 5/25/2017. Titled “Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017.”
Under the guise of fighting money laundering, the bill actually forces the common citizen to report their cash and other assets to the government. Other assets include prepaid mobile phones, retail gift vouchers, or even electronic coupons.
Simon Black at SovereignMan.com reports:
Among the bill’s sweeping provisions, the government aims to greatly extend its authority to seize your assets through “Civil Asset Forfeiture”.
Civil Asset Forfeiture rules allow the government to take whatever they want from you, without a trial or any due process.
Civil Asset Forfeiture is already a hot topic within the states. Abuse runs rampant, as it is used as a “Policing for Profit” tool in many jurisdictions.
Here’s the thing, though: they’ve also vastly expanded on the definition of such ‘financial crimes’, including failure to fill out a form if you happen to be transporting more than $10,000 worth of ‘monetary instruments’.
Have too much cash? You’d better tell the government.
If not, they’re authorizing themselves in this bill to seize not just the money you didn’t report, but ALL of your assets and bank accounts.
The bill specifically includes “Safe Deposit Boxes” among the various assets that they can seize if you don’t fill out the form.
Oh, and on top of civil asset forfeiture penalties, there are also criminal penalties.
Right now according to current law they can imprison you for up to FIVE YEARS for not filling out the form. Five years….
So this bill aims to double the criminal penalty to TEN years in prison.
And if that weren’t enough, this bill also gives them with new authority to engage in surveillance and wiretapping (including phone, email, etc.) if they have even a hint of suspicion that you might be transporting excess ‘monetary instruments’.
We have reported on the unconstitutionality of Civil Asset Forfeiture, yet our elected officials have decided that the little citizen should not be allowed to carry any assets, without permission of the elite government.
They go even further, requiring businesses to be spies for their unconstitutional plundering.
But under this new bill, they want to forcibly recruit even more unpaid spies, including any business which issues or redeems ANYTHING that’s prepaid.
Prepaid credit cards. Prepaid phones. Prepaid retail gift cards. Prepaid coupons.
So, Amazon.com, which issues and redeems prepaid gift cards, will be required under this bill to file reports to the government.
For that matter, TGI Fridays and Chuckee Cheese will also become unpaid government spies since they both issue and redeem prepaid vouchers.
And, of course, they will not leave out Bitcoin:
The bill also attempts to drop a major bomb on Bitcoin by including it in the list of monetary instruments that must be reported when entering or leaving the US.
So theoretically if you leave the US with more than $10,000 in Bitcoin or Ether, you’d have to confess this fact to the authorities or otherwise face the aforementioned penalties, i.e. prison time, civil asset forfeiture, etc.
Contact your elected officials and tell them to stop this.