To the average passerby, the strip mall in the 9100 block of Olympic Boulevard in Beverly Hills must look like yet another nondescript shopping center in an area full of them.
But if one Los Angeles County woman is successful, what happened there in March 2021 will forever change the way federal law enforcement operates.
Linda Martin was one of hundreds of people who had the contents of their safety deposit boxes confiscated by the FBI when it raided U.S. Private Vaults.
Federal agents were looking for evidence that the company was helping criminals hide drugs, cash and other valuables. The company pleaded guilty last year to a federal money laundering charge.
But while not everyone who stored their property in the vaults was participating in criminal activity, everyone with at least $5,000 in cash or goods had their assets seized by the FBI.
The Los Angeles Times reported that agents took more than $86 million in cash, plus gold, silver, jewelry, rare coins and luxury watches made by Rolex and Cartier.
Of that figure, $40,200 belonged to Martin and her husband, who were saving up for a down payment on a house.
“We have not committed any type of crime, just having our cash money in a safe deposit box so I wouldn’t be going to the ATM, sliding the card,” she said. “It was out of sight, out of mind.”
Despite not being involved in criminal activity, Martin was deprived of her money for more than two years. It was only returned to her this past Saturday.
“You can sort of see a policing-for-profit interest developed by some of these agencies,” said Bob Belden, an attorney on staff with the Institute for Justice who is representing Martin. “When the FBI raided the safe deposit box company, it suspected the company and maybe one or two of its principals of some sort of embezzlement or criminal activity, but there was not any individualized criminal suspicion of boxholders.”
With the IJ’s assistance, Martin has filed a lawsuit against the FBI and Director Christopher Wray, which she says prompted the eventual return of her property.
“That’s when they came around and wanted to give us our money back,” she said.
But for Martin and the IJ, this is about more than $40,200. It’s about the FBI’s forfeiture process, which they claim is unfair to innocent people and allows for them to be deprived of what’s theirs, even if their only crime is sharing a name with the target of an investigation — or just storing their belongings in the same place.
Martin’s attorneys have applied for class certification, which would allow others in Martin’s situation to join the suit. A judge has not yet decided on class certification.
“The ideal outcome would be an overhaul of the FBI’s notice process so that it actually tells people why it has taken their property and gives people a chance to not only advocate to get their property back, but to clear up simple mistakes,” Belden said.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller declined to comment on Martin’s lawsuit, citing FBI policy, but she did point out that in September, a judge found that the seizure did not violate anyone’s constitutional rights.
“From the outset, FBI Agents outlined evidence of widespread criminal wrongdoing in court filings while establishing a simple procedure to return safeguarded contents to box holders who were not otherwise subject to asset forfeiture,” she said in a statement. “The FBI stands by its ongoing investigation of U.S. Private Vaults, a business that criminally facilitated drug trafficking and money laundering, and which allowed customers to store their criminal proceeds anonymously in safe deposit boxes.”
However, as the Los Angeles Times noted in its report, the ruling “did not address the most controversial aspects of the raid, such as the FBI’s attempt to confiscate assets from box holders on the presumption they were criminals, even in cases where agents had no evidence to validate their suspicions.”
Another L.A. Times report noted that court documents indicate that the bureau misled the judge who authorized the initial search warrant by omitting “a central part of the FBI’s plan: Permanent confiscation of everything inside every box containing at least $5,000 in cash or goods, a senior FBI agent recently testified.”
Belden and the IJ find the bureau’s forfeiture procedures troubling, and they say popular support is on their side.
Beldin pointed out that in the U.S. Congress, members of both parties and both houses support the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration Act, or FAIR Act, drawing praise from people who are often ideological opponents, like Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, and Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican.
“The federal government has made it far too easy for government agencies to take and profit from the property of those who have not been convicted of a crime,” Paul said in a statement. “The FAIR Act will protect Americans’ Fifth Amendment rights from being infringed upon by ensuring that government agencies no longer profit from taking the property of U.S. citizens without due process. It guards against abuse while maintaining the ability of courts to order the surrender of proceeds of crime.”
“We want to restore the presumption of innocence, fair judicial process, and the opportunity to be heard,” Raskin added in a statement of his own.
Last month, the bill passed the House Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan 26-0 vote.
“We’re fighting about the money Linda got back [a few] days ago, and it’s in the context of a system that 26 members of Congress from both parties agree shouldn’t exist,” Belden said.
While the outcomes of the bill and lawsuit remain unknown, Martin said it was “like a weight lifted off of me” to get her money back, and she encourages others in her situation to seek the return of their property.
“I’m grateful and blessed and relieved that this process is finally over. It opened my eyes how [federal agencies] just go and take people’s property and keep it with no explanation,” she said. “Then I had to prove to them how I earned my money. I haven’t been charged with a crime, but they’ve kept the money for two and half years. It’s really crazy, mind-boggling to me.
“It’s a process, but if you’re willing to put up a fight and go through it, I say go for it. Go for it.”