This story is almost unbelievable, but unfortunately it is very real. The FBI suspected a safe deposit box company named U.S. Private Vaults was participating in money laundering. The feds gained a search warrant with very specific limitations (which they abruptly violated), to look at the legal contents of some boxes. However, the judge said no content could be removed unless the FBI specifically could prove the content was illegal.
The feds ignored the search warrant parameters and just started busting open the boxes, confiscating $86 million in cash, jewelry, rare coins and precious metals. When the owners went to court the FBI said the contents smelled like marijuana – ergo the owners had to prove how they came into legal possession of the items. The issues are not resolved, but at least a few judges are rightly looking at this as a clear violation of the 4th amendment…..
(Los Angeles Times) – […] Ruiz is one of roughly 800 people whose money and valuables the FBI seized from safe deposit boxes they rented at the U.S. Private Vaults store in a strip mall on Olympic Boulevard.
Federal agents had suspected for years that criminals were stashing loot there, and they assert that’s exactly what they found. The government is trying to confiscate $86 million in cash and a stockpile of jewelry, rare coins and precious metals taken from about half of the boxes.
But six months after the raid, the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles have produced no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the vast majority of box holders whose belongings the government is trying to keep.
About 300 of the box holders are contesting the attempted confiscation. Ruiz and 65 others have filed court claims saying the dragnet forfeiture operation is unconstitutional.
[…] In preliminary rulings, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner blocked the government’s forfeiture cases against Ruiz and three others, saying the lack of any “specific factual and legal basis” violated their rights to due process. (read more)
The FBI is an out of control, rogue enforcement agency.
THE FOURTH AMENDMENT – “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Everyone should have a safe at home. After the blm crap last year with banks burned, I closed my safe box fearing they will burn the branch and I’ll never see my box contents again. Got get a medium to high priced safe, cheap ones can be opened easily with tanker bars.
The problem with home safes is that it sets the owner up for a torture session by thugs breaking into the home. You can safely maintain valuables on your property, concealed and out of sight. Do a little research and learn how to do it.
Back to Victorian era hollow walls.
Doors are more useful than they seem.
That would be my biggest concern with the safe I have.
A good friend says “Don’t make it hard to get…make it hard to want.” Obviously meaning don’t let anyone know you have it in the first place.
I see the protection of assets differently. For anyone to get far enough in their efforts to get into my safe, they would have already had to overcome multiple levels of security. We live far enough out that my neighbors and I have developed multiple response plans where any intruders would not just be dealing with a single house or a single house’s occupants. There are multiple cameras, alarms and gate locks on all the roads in. Once onto any one of these properties, there’s Dobermans and other outside dogs that generally hate everyone they don’t know. Getting into the houses is equally as difficult, with cameras, alarms and other electronics. The are multiple loaded firearms stored but accessible through out all these houses. Then you’d have to know before hand there were safes because none are visible. If all these things fail, we’ll be past the point of caring.
^^THIS^^
I prefer German Shepherds myself.
All true but are we missing the point that these daylight robberies were carried out by the FBI???
our government has become nothing more than Marxist theives and murdering thugs. All in the space of ten months.
one can’t help feeling, evil as such actions are, that the Beverly Hills glitterati have it coming.
As Porky Pig once said, “You’ve buttered your bread, now sleep in it!”
You know, I am not familiar with the law in these areas, but I have never heard of having to prove something belongs to you when you own a safe deposit box. They are pretending it is drug money because it smells like marijuana, which is legal to sell, by the way, in California.
If property is stolen of course, it is not yours even when you have purchased it. Lots of libs in Beverly Hills, especially Hollywood types. I am sure they have taken notice of this grab.
Eminent domain is the law also. Property can be taken to use for a public purpose, but the government has to compensate you there. Never thought that was right either.
Mass psychos
FBI views protests of stolen election and actions mainly by government provocateurs as domestic terrorism.
FTFY
No doubt they are working on something as snazzy as the SS lightnings…
There are many reasons to NOT keep a safe deposit box and in these times the main reason is government confiscation and evidence tampering to justify keeping your valuables.
Remember if you don’t hold it you don’t own it.
Indeed. They are relics of another time.
Steve Lehto at Lehto’s law has been discussing this specific incident for a while on 3-4 Youtubes.
The govt needs to pay for their spending, and will do anything to get revenue. Looks like the dem party may lose some donors in the process.
“We are very very very VERY sorry about this”
~ wray
They don’t need donors so much anymore, or they will just shake people down for “donations” or protection money.
Yep, Wray will apologize out his @$$ and reprimand a few nobodies, then fire a few ghost employees!
Yep. The unwashed masses are the terrorists, crooks, money launderers, and what ever else they can throw at us.
Meanwhile the bona fide crooks are purposely ignored………Hunter Biden and his cocaine and guns/laptops, political corruption, antifa/blm, moslem terrorists, illegal invaders, and on and on and on and on………….
This is them at their worst. The commies have learned from history. Most of top guys all have USSR backgrounds and more disgustingly a fetish from that time period.
When the commies needed to fund some activities that the gov’t wouldn’t support, they steal it., say it was illegal activity and they are just looking at for best interest of the state.
These people are lower than scum. It takes a certain mindset to be comfortable doing illegal activities. >Scum<
But what about the rank and file?
Sean says 90% are good people.
That is just another way of saying willingly complicit in the illegal and fraudulent activities they participate in.
The other 10% are the bag men.
They have become RANK ( : offensive in odor or flavor especially : rancid ) so FILE them away from our government-approved cash!
This was the rank and file. I’m just doing my job is their response. No they aren’t unless their job is being a thief.
Much of the Institute of Justice’s caseload is based on civil asset forfeiture. They are doing God’s work — right up there with Project Veritas. I highly recommend getting their free print magazine or email newsletter. Their cases will open your eyes to much of the unfathomable corruption taking place right in our very own communities.
Institute of Justice’s main link: https://www.ij.org/
IJ’s YouTube channel, highlighting their cases: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZm2IEBVHdtaAhSyYhWu9mg
Thanks for this reference! They also fight for school choice – the most important long term strategy against the left.
https://ij.org/issues/school-choice/
Read their section on the encouraging, way-overdue demise of the Blaine amendments.
It’s the Feds. Again. They’ll tear your house up then take the entire safe with them. And your cars. Perhaps that piano you inherited or your vinyl still in plastic Stones collection. The war on drugs and gangs created that little forfeiture thing. Wars and drugs and gangs That they created. You can’t protect yourself from them.
can i prey for them?
I bet it was a lot more than $86 million and a number of the agents stuffed their pockets.
Yes! They already knew what they were searching for. Knowing these liars and thieves, they likely confiscated evidence of their own crimes against humanity, to cover their own tracks. Treasonous co- conspirators, all.
Crime Family. This is only one way they fund it and buy off politicians. They are scum of the earth. Herbert Hoover started the crap and it is the same now with much more technology. It is a criminal enterprise. As is, for the most part, congress and the deep state within the entire government. They are taking our freedoms away, we must take it back.
The 3.5 trillion dollar “human infrastructure” bill has a line item in it that will allow the IRS to have access to every American’s bank account. Why? To confiscate it at some point because of the “greater” government need. We are being played. Time to fight back! A world war II quote . . .”they have us surrounded, poor bastards have nowhere they can escape”. Nuts!!
They are taking our freedoms away, we must take it back.
?? “WHATEVER IT TAKES” – SD
Where is Jovan Pulitzer?
Guilty until proven innocent !
Constitution ??? Rule of Law ???
The dregs of society
These thugs are corruption at it’s best.
Absolutely disgusting
FBI already stole some of the loot and Mgmnt doing what they do best to cover it up. I would easily wager at least someone is not getting their valuables back. Whoevers is missing will simply be accused of a crime.
Sometimes it’s pretty nice being on the “poor side” of town!
That’s right. The only thing good about living in a blue area is that the feds are not cracking down on us here.
Well, at least it’s Beverly Hills.
OTOH … if there is no legitimate job (tax returns) or inheritance the owners of these boxes can prove … then I am not quite so sympathetic.
OTOH … if the FBI expressly violated the Judges order … with no other legitimate probable cause … then where is that Judge? Where is our Justice system?
What country are you from? These people are innocent until proven guilty by a court of law. They don’t have any obligation to prove their innocence. Innocence is automatically a given in this country.
The government on the other hand is required to prove in a court of law that someone is guilty. Not just because they say so.
Have you ever heard the term. … “no visible means of support”? The IRS has the power to examine all your bank deposits (and even cash transactions) as measured against your Income … from a job (either from employer or self employment) … to determine whether the deposits/withdrawals jive.
And gifts, inheritances, winnings, etc. are factored in.
Sorry … but while I disagree with the apparent violation of the 4th Amendment … something feels creepy and evasive about this Private Safe Deposit Bank.
Another fed. There’s nothing creepy about 86 year old grandmas storing their valuables in safe deposit boxes. The fbi confiscated all the boxes, are you saying the bank was catering mostly to criminals?
You gotta be a fed shill, no way any citizen is as stupid as the above comment demonstrates.
Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton are all extremely wealthy on their public servant salaries. Where is the raid to confiscate their wealth? Coming soon?
What feels creepy and evasive is the fbi, without any IRS involved, just confiscated the contents of these safe deposits. And in violation of the warrant.
This is what communist do. They seize the wealth of the working class, and this is just the first step in that process. If people here are still not believing that it will not happen, well its happening and its time to take your rose colored glasses off! Its going down, and the commies can use their badge, their positions in Government to do it, and “We the People” are still believing in things like the “law” and our constitutional rights. Since when did our constitutional rights matter, and who is defending them? Agenda 21 anyone? Property? “You will own nothing and you will be happy” Sound familiar? It should if you were and are paying attention.
Idk about agenda 21 but local government and fed government have been using these tactics for decades – it’s just getting more exposure now.
Brought this to mind:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2021/04/15/flying-with-cash-you-may-lose-it-all-to-law-enforcement/
“Jerry Johnson flew to Phoenix hoping to buy a big rig for his growing trucking company, but the next day he went home without a truck and without his money. Jerry wasn’t a victim of a criminal or con artist; instead, law enforcement seized his cash at the airport out of mere suspicion. He was never charged with a crime, but he could lose his $39,500 in savings to the government anyway. And Jerry isn’t alone in losing his money just because he wanted to fly with it.
“Rebecca Brown had $82,000 taken from her in Pittsburgh. Stacy Jones’ $43,000 was taken in Wilmington. More than $58,000 was seized from Rustem Kazazi in Cleveland. Each of them was doing something completely legal: flying domestically with cash. But each of them lost their savings for months after law enforcement seized the money and then tried to take it through civil forfeiture. Only after their cases became public did the government give up and return the money.
“If you look on the internet, you won’t find any warning from the government that flying with large amounts of cash is suspicious. Jerry, like others before him, checked online to see whether there was anything he needed to do before flying with his money. At the most, some websites warn that flyers should be prepared to tell Transportation Security Administration screeners why they are carrying the money. There’s no hint that those screeners routinely alert law enforcement when they see cash on their scanners.”
The cash sting was how the FBI tried to nab PapaD when he was coming back into the country. It was only $10,000.00 but he left it in Greece.
The track down which this train hurtles is neither straight nor endless.
The FBI is a thoroughly corrupt Criminal Enterprise from top to bottom.
Guilty until proven innocent.
We’ve moved into a new reality here.
If the State says you’re guilty, you’re guilty. Claiming innocence will be treason, a second crime.
Stop citing the Constitution. Citing the Constitution will shortly (?) be a crime.
The Soviet Union had a beautiful constitution. Having possession of a copy of that constitution was a crime.
The language of the Constitution will shortly be a crime. Claiming your rights are inalienable is already provocative to leftists. Your rights are granted by the State. Chuck Todd is most emphatic about this on NBC every Sunday morning.
Silliness is a luxury now utterly denied to us. The Never-Trumper types will, of course, all join up with the Fascist types. And the sky is blue..
Guilty until proven innocent? So you’ve never been through an IRS Audit? You ARE absolutely GUILTY till you prove yourself innocent
You will own nothing and be happy about it. – The Great Reset
https://rumble.com/vdvz7h-youll-own-nothing-and-be-happy-the-great-reset.html
What are these amendments you keep referring to? /s
Slavery (noun): 3. “a state of subjection like that of a slave.” -dictionary dot com
Logic 101 – If there’s no actual consequences to government agencies violating Constitutional amendments anymore, no government left with the will or power to actually stop such behavior from continuing: then expect it to continue until there is (or not if none ever rematerializes).
This “trick” has been used, before. For several years, when they confiscated a large amount of cash, they would admit, in evidence, in Court, tests showing the cash had trace amounts of Cocaine, implying it was “drug money”.
It worked, right up until a defence lawyer asked a Judge, to submit cash FROM HIS WALLET, for testing; it came back positive, cause ALL cash in circulation, has TRACE amounts of cocaine on it.
Do an internet search of “Civil forfeiture”, and be prepared to be apalled.
Cops pull you over, adk to see licence and registration, and notice you have “a lot of cash” in your wallet/purse.
They can confiscate it, under the ASSUMPTION that the cash is somehow involved in an illegal transaction. They make it difficult, especially for those from out of State, to know when to appear at the hearing, to try to argue the CASH is “legitimate”.
Feds and State split the take. Its abhorent, and the logical progression from the Rico Statutes, and how they finally imprisoned Capone.
And its been going on, for a # of years now.
Good thing the 99% of the FBI are good people. Those Rank and File guys care about you.
The FBI must keep it all. Any close inspection will reveal the money and valuables the agents pocketed and did not record.
One day, hopefully soon, the sheep(le) will figure out that they vastly outnumber the sheepdog. The sheepdogs need to fear the sheep(le).
When government fears the people, there is freedom. When the people fear their government, there is tyranny.
What about all the cash generated from pot sales?
It’s still illegal to put it in a bank cause it’s still a crime under federal law to sell pot.
CIA had its poppy fields. The FBI needs its own slush fund. Yeah, no money laundering going on in Compton, CA.
The idea of “capture” is that a bureaucracy will eventually become a client to the interests of whatever area of social regulation they are charged to oversee.
With the FBI, that would be organized crime.
In the case of the left, this dovetails perfectly with who they are.
Just a clarification. Your text reads 86 million in cash, jewelry, coins, and precious metals. According to the article the cash alone was $86 million plus the other stuff which I would suspect equaled or exceeded the value of the cash so the total value is much larger.
Additionally, the report states they seized only about half the boxes. Apparently had some decent intelligence since only 300 of the 800 seized were contested in court. That’s 500 owners unwilling to contest the seizure. Wow. The question I have is who owned the other 800 boxes and why were they left alone. There is a roughly 50/50 breakdown in political affiliation nationwide but, probably tilted somewhat in Kalifornia. I doubt they had a list of suspect boxes but, I would bet the farm they had a list of untouchable boxes.
Those people are the ones that don’t know about the seizure yet. Either too old, unable to contact, out of country, whatever. Don’t jump to conclusions.
FBI should be purged of the top 4 tiers of management plus any agent who participated in carrying out unconstitutional orders. If that wipes out the whole agency then so be it. Disband the department, erase them from the budget process and return their functions to the states. The corruption in DC has to be exterminated.
FBI should be purged. Period.
Reparations, Re-Imagine Capitalism, Equity Justice. Last week I posted that the next part of this agenda is to take or force White people to give up their property and it’s happening. The whole rent thing is another way the Government is going to force people to give up their property, by making landlords go bankrupt. Every single time you hear anyone in the Biden Administration mention “EQUITY” or “Re-Imagine” it means reparations. Everybody should pull their money out of the banks and hide it because the Government is going to take it from you. Wait until next week, healthcare is going to be the next part of the agenda and reparations will be in the form of free healthcare for all minorities. It is already being planted by the media by using made up statistics and poll numbers that claim that a majority of black people are suffering from mental illness and stress due to their fears over White Supremacy. The BS just keeps coming.
Oh dear, institutional safe deposit boxes aren’t. Never have been…all it ever need was a court order, a safe deposit box says “look at me”.
They are like your unallocated pool gold held by your bullion dealer…..useless under pressure.
If using, better be offshore….
When you thought you couldn’t hate the FBI any more than you already do . . ..
Brown shirts in action.
Looks like the joebama/clinton/pelousey scum – o – crats are seeking another cover up. the fbi needs to be disbanded!!
these corrupt commies have been dirty since its inception!! remember back a few years ago when an fbi agent got caught
selling classified secrets, at very high levels of classification, to the former russian – u.s.s.r??!!
This is why you don’t put your gold and silver bullion in a safe deposit box.
Suing the FBI is the only recourse these people have but there really need to be criminal prosecutions. However, there is no one willing to do it. Won’t work in CA but in states where conservatives still have power, Federal agents doing this sort of thing need to be prosecuted. Looking at you Texas.
Tangibles. Got a bunch of money hanging around? Buy a tractor, or tools, or a greenhouse, or a solar system. I dunno… I don’t run with the super rich and famous. But, even I know that putting stuff in a safe deposit box is unsafe.
Agree
Keep your valuables at home, ALL of them!
Ruby Ridge and Davidian compound…FBI.
No laws, no bounds and they answer to no entity, no govt agency, they are rogue and they are POWERFUL.
And, yes we can store in-house all we want, subject to thieves that can detect in-home safes (I know from experience) and don’t think FBI won’t come to your home…ask Roger Stone, et als…
It is a very small step from drug dealers and safe deposit boxes to conservatives and bank accounts.
Next they will be locking people up for political reasons.
Imagine their surprise when they discover that all the perps are well connected “untouchables”. LMAO
It’s time to wake up, all branches of the government work for us, we pay them, it’s not they other way around. There can be no way to have a clue how long the FBI, the CIA, NSA and others have been jerking us around. Our answer? Do nothing
The Fifth Amendment would also likely apply.
Fifth AmendmentThe Fifth Amendment creates a number of rights relevant to both criminal and civil legal proceedings. In criminal cases, the Fifth Amendment guarantees the right to a grand jury, forbids “double jeopardy,” and protects against self-incrimination. It also requires that “due process of law” be part of any proceeding that denies a citizen “life, liberty or property” and requires the government to compensate citizens when it takes private property for public use.
Learn more…
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Amendment VNo person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
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Jim Morrison had it right. This is the END
Look for the United States Supreme Court to get involved with this one quickly.
Some people are under the false idea that they still are living in a free country. You should look closer and do a rethink or three.
Yep, remember between 2017and 2020 the main Democrat talking point (and it was constantly rolled out by the Socialist faithful) was No one is above the law. Well now we know the rest of that statement–except the FBI, except the CIA, except the NIAID, except Democrats, except RINOs, except the DOJ, except Antifa, except BLM, except Hunter Biden, and the list goes on. Alinsky must really be smiling from the grave, especially with his two most prized students, Obama and Hillary!
Except the CDC, except the NIH……ad infinitum, ad nauseum…..!
big club, not in it.