Federal Asset Seizure and Forfeiture Response

The Constitution says your innocent until proven guilty. But civil asset forfeiture is a lawsuit against your PROPERTY, not you. The case is literally called "United States v. $39,500 in Cash." Your money doesn't have rights. And because its a civil case - not criminal - you have to prove your property is innocent. The burden flipped. Only 1% of federally seized property ever gets returned. The system was designed backwards, and it works exactly as intended.

This isn't a broken version of criminal justice. Its an alternative system designed to work around Constitutional protections. By suing your PROPERTY instead of YOU, the government created a parallel legal universe were your property has no presumption of innocence, you have no right to a lawyer, and the burden of proof is on you. At Spodek Law Group, we've watched clients discover this reality to late - after the 30-day deadline passed, after they assumed "civil" meant "less serious." Todd Spodek built this firm on one principle: the system doesn't explain itself, and by the time you figure out how it works, you've already lost. Were here to flip that.

United States v. $39,500: Why Your Property Doesn't Have Rights

Your facing a lawsuit called "United States v. $14,000 in Cash." Your money is the defendant. Your money doesn't have a lawyer. This sounds absurd, but its the entire mechanism that makes civil asset forfeiture constitutional. The government isn't prosecuting YOU for a crime. There prosecuting your PROPERTY for being involved in a crime. This distinction - what lawyers call "in rem" forfeiture - is the reason every protection you think exists doesn't apply.

You have the right to remain silent. Your property doesn't. You have the right to an attorney. Your property doesn't. Your innocent until proven guilty. Your property is guilty until proven innocent. Same Constitution. Opposite rules.

Jerry Johnson learned this in August 2020. He flew from Charlotte to Phoenix carrying $39,500 in cash (completely legal) to buy a truck for his trucking company. When he landed, a TSA officer approached him in baggage claim. "Do you have money or drugs on you?" Johnson told the truth: he had the cash. The officer interrogated him for an hour, then gave him a choice. Sign a forfeiture agreement, or get arrested. Johnson signed. He has never been charged with any crime. TSA refuses to return his money. The case isn't called "United States v. Jerry Johnson." Its called "United States v. $39,500 in Cash." Because the cash can't defend itself, Johnson has to prove - in civil court, without criminal protections - that his money is innocent.

The paradox is deliberate. If the government prosecuted Johnson criminally, they'd need proof beyond a reasonable doubt. They'd need to charge him. He'd have a right to a court-appointed lawyer. The burden would be on the government. But by prosecuting his PROPERTY in civil court, the government only needs "preponderance of the evidence" - 51% probability. Johnson has no right to a court-appointed lawyer because its civil. And the burden shifts to HIM to prove the money wasn't involved in criminal activity. Prove a negative. Prove your money is innocent.

This isn't a technicality. Its the entire system. In rem forfeiture means your property has no Constitutional rights. Thats why it works. The Supreme Court confirmed this in Bennis v. Michigan (1996). Tina Bennis lost her family car because her husband used it - without her knowledge - to solicit a prostitute. The Court ruled 5-4 that the innocent owner defense is not required by Due Process. She lost the car anyway. Your property doesn't have rights, and you have to prove it shouldn't be forfeited.

At Spodek Law Group, we explain this to clients in the first conversation because most people don't believe it until they see the case caption. "United States v. One BMW." "United States v. $500,000." These cases have funny-sounding names, but there not funny at all. The name is the trap. Once you understand your not the defendant - your property is - you understand why all the normal rules evaporated.

The 30-Day Trap: How Deadlines Work Against You

You receive a notice of seizure in the mail. You have 30 days to file a claim challenging the forfeiture. Miss that deadline by one day, and your property is forfeited forever. No exceptions. No appeals. No remedy.

Most people don't know this. The notice doesn't always make it clear. Some people think 30 days means "30 business days." It doesn't. Some people think they can file late and explain they didn't understand. You can't. On day 31, the government proceeds with administrative forfeiture - meaning no court, no hearing, no judge. Your property is just... gone.

The timeline is engineered for government wins. The government has 60 days to send you notice. You have 30 days to respond. If you file a claim, the government has 90 days to file a complaint for forfeiture. If they don't file within 90 days, they have to return your property. But here's the catch: you'll never know if they missed the deadline unless you track it yourself. You have to know the rules, track the deadlines, and file motions enforcing them. Without a lawyer, you won't know to do this.

Because its a civil case, you have no right to a court-appointed lawyer. If you can't afford an attorney, you represent yourself. Against federal prosecutors. With procedural rules you've never seen. On a 30-day deadline you didn't know existed.

In Colorado, only 1% of forfeitures are challenged. Not 1% are WON. One percent are CHALLENGED. That means 99% of people who have property seized don't even file a claim. Some miss the deadline. Some don't know they can fight. Some do the math: hiring a lawyer costs $5,000 to $50,000. The median seizure is $1,276. Fighting costs more than the property is worth. The government knows this. The median amount isn't an accident. Its calibrated.

One of Todd Spodek's clients called on day 28. He'd received the notice three weeks earlier, didn't understand it, put it in a pile, and finally showed it to a friend who said "you need a lawyer right now." We filed the claim with 48 hours to spare. Had he called on day 32, there would have been nothing we could do. The deadline is a trapdoor, and once it closes, its over.

The consequence cascade is brutal. Miss the 30-day deadline. Administrative forfeiture proceeds. No court hearing. Property forfeited forever. Can't appeal. No remedy exists. The system is designed so that ignorance of the deadline IS the punishment.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: The Burden That Flipped

In criminal court, the government must prove your guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In civil forfeiture, you must prove your property is innocent by a preponderance of the evidence. Same government. Opposite burden.

Only 1% of federally seized property is ever returned to there former owners. That means the government has a 99% win rate in forfeiture cases. For comparison, the federal criminal conviction rate is 93%. Civil forfeiture is MORE SUCCESSFUL than criminal prosecution. Let that sink in. The government is better at taking your property without convicting you of a crime than they are at convicting you of a crime.

Why? Because the burden flipped. In forfeiture, the government only needs to show - by 51% preponderance - that the property was involved in or derived from criminal activity. They don't need to prove YOU committed a crime. They don't need to charge you. They don't need to convict you. Once they meet that low bar, the burden shifts to YOU to prove your an innocent owner.

What does "innocent owner" mean? You must prove BOTH: (1) You did not know the property was being used for illegal activity, AND (2) Upon learning of it, you took all reasonable steps to stop it. If you can't prove both, you lose the property. Even if your never charged. Even if the person who used your property is acquitted. The property case is separate, and the burden is on you.

Lyndon McLellan owned a convenience store in rural North Carolina. Cash business. He made deposits under $10,000 on a bank teller's advice to reduce paperwork. This is legal - as long as your not "structuring" to avoid reporting requirements. McLellan wasn't. The IRS seized his entire bank account anyway under suspicion of structuring. He had to fight for months to get it back. He almost lost his business. The IRS eventually dropped the case, but only after he fought. If he'd given up, they would have kept the money. The burden was on HIM to prove the deposits were legal, even though they were.

The "innocent owner" defense sounds like a protection. Its not. Its a burden. You have to PROVE your innocence. How do you prove you "didn't know" something? How do you prove you took "all reasonable steps"? What steps are reasonable? The government will argue you should have known, should have asked more questions. And because the burden is on YOU, they just have to create doubt about whether you DIDN'T know.

At Spodek Law Group, we've seen clients lose property even after being acquitted of criminal charges. The criminal case and the civil forfeiture case are separate. Winning one doesn't mean you win the other. Its common for prosecutors to drop criminal charges but proceed with civil forfeiture because the burden of proof is so much lower. They can't convict you beyond a reasonable doubt, but they can take your property by a preponderance of the evidence. Its not a bug. Its the system working as designed.

The Supreme Court made this worse in May 2024. In Culley v. Marshall, the Court ruled 6-3 that property owners have NO due process right to a preliminary hearing. Your property can sit in government custody for MONTHS - even YEARS - before you ever get in front of a judge. During that time, your car depreciates. Your business fails because your operating cash is gone. Your ability to fight deteriorates because you can't afford a lawyer without the money they seized. This decision was seven months ago. Most people don't even know it happened.

The 99% government win rate isn't an accident. Its the result of a system where the burden is on you, the standard is low, the deadlines are tight, and the government has unlimited resources and time.

The Lawyer You Can't Afford For The Money They Already Took

Heres the catch-22. You need a lawyer to get your seized money back. But you can't afford a lawyer because they seized your money. And because its a civil case - not criminal - you have no right to a court-appointed attorney. The Sixth Amendment right to counsel doesn't apply. Your on your own.

The median civil forfeiture seizure is $1,276. The average cost of hiring an attorney to fight ranges from $5,000 to $50,000. Do the math. It costs four to forty times the seized amount to fight for it. Thats why the median seizure is $1,276 instead of $50,000. They target amounts where fighting back is financially irrational.

Defense attorneys who work in this space - and Todd Spodek has said this to clients directly - know that the government often seizes EVERYTHING, including funds you would use to hire an attorney. This isn't an accident. Practitioners know law enforcement takes "any item that holds value in order to prevent you from hiring an attorney." Bank accounts frozen. Cash seized. And then the client says, "I need your help, but I can't pay you because they took all my money."

The Institute for Justice represented Russell Caswell, a motel owner, when the federal government tried to forfeit his entire motel because some guests had used rooms for drug transactions - transactions Caswell had no knowledge of. Had they not taken the case pro bono, Caswell would have been bankrupted by legal fees. A federal judge eventually ruled in his favor, writing a scathing opinion about how "abusive" the case was. But Caswell got lucky. Most people don't have access to pro bono representation.

In Colorado, 99% of forfeitures go unchallenged. Thats not because 99% of seizures are legitimate. Its because 99% of people can't afford to fight, don't know they can fight, or do the math and realize fighting costs more than surrendering.

At Spodek Law Group, we've structured our practice to handle forfeiture cases even when the economics are upside down. $5,000 seized from someone living paycheck to paycheck isn't "just" $5,000. Its rent. Its groceries. We've taken cases were the seized amount was less than our normal fee because the principle matters and because we've seen what happens when people try to fight without representation. They lose.

The lawyer funding paradox is one of the cruelest features of civil forfeiture. You can't get your money back without a lawyer. You can't afford a lawyer without your money. The loop has no exit unless you find someone willing to take the case knowing they might not get paid.

Jerry Johnson, Tina Bennis, and the 2024 Supreme Court Case Nobody Noticed

These aren't hypotheticals. There real people who lost real property under civil forfeiture.

Jerry Johnson (2020). Flew from Charlotte to Phoenix with $39,500 cash (legal) to buy a truck for his trucking company. TSA officer in baggage claim: "Do you have money or drugs?" Johnson told the truth. The officer interrogated him for an hour, then gave him a choice: sign a forfeiture agreement or get arrested. Johnson signed. He has never been charged with any crime. TSA refuses to return his money. The signed agreement - obtained under threat of arrest - is treated as "voluntary" by the courts. If you sign under duress, the government will call it voluntary.

Tina Bennis (1996). Co-owned a car with her husband. He used it - without her knowledge - to solicit a prostitute. Wayne County seized the car. She was an innocent owner who had no idea. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the government can forfeit property from innocent owners and that the Constitution does not require an innocent owner defense. Tina Bennis lost her car. You can be completely innocent and still lose your property.

Culley v. Marshall (May 2024). The most recent Supreme Court case on civil forfeiture, and almost nobody noticed. Two women had there cars seized by Alabama police. Neither was charged. Both filed innocent owner claims. Alabama held the cars for over a year without any preliminary hearing. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that property owners have NO due process right to a preliminary hearing before there property sits seized. This was seven months ago. Your car, your cash, your property can sit in government custody indefinitely while you wait for a hearing that may not come for a year or more.

These three cases - spanning nearly 30 years - show the same pattern. No criminal charges required (Johnson). No protection for innocent owners (Bennis). No timely hearings required (Culley). Each case stripped away a protection you thought existed.

At Spodek Law Group, we use these cases in initial consultations to prepare clients. If you think the system will be fair because your innocent, your wrong. If you think you'll get a quick hearing, your wrong. If you think signing something under threat of arrest will be seen as coercion, your wrong. The law is against you. Knowing that doesn't mean you give up. It means you fight smarter, with someone who knows how the system actually works.

Why Police Have $5 Billion Reasons to Seize Your Property

In 2014, federal asset forfeiture brought in $5 billion to the Justice and Treasury Departments. That same year, burglars stole $3.5 billion from American citizens. The government seized MORE from citizens through forfeiture than criminals stole from citizens through burglary. The government took more than the criminals.

Civil forfeiture isn't primarily a crime-fighting tool. Its a revenue stream.

State and local law enforcement seize property locally, then turn it over to federal prosecutors under "equitable sharing" agreements - even if state law would restrict the forfeiture. Once forfeited federally, up to 80% of proceeds are returned to the local police. The money goes straight into the police department budget, bypassing state restrictions. Its forum shopping with your property.

Police have a direct financial incentive to seize property. Seized assets fund police budgets, pay for equipment, sometimes even salaries. In many states, seized assets aren't supplements - they're a line item. Departments plan around forfeiture revenue.

Since 2000, state and federal governments have seized at least $68.8 billion through forfeiture. Thats not a typo. Billion. And thats an UNDERCOUNT because not all states report data. Where did that money go? New squad cars. Military equipment. Overtime pay. Seize more, keep more.

The median seizure amount reveals the strategy: $1,276. Why target small amounts? Because small amounts are too expensive to fight. If you seize $50,000, the property owner might hire a lawyer. If you seize $1,200, the property owner does the math and walks away. The government wins by default when fighting costs more than the property is worth.

Todd Spodek has represented clients who had property seized during traffic stops were no charges were ever filed. Cash in the car. "Where did this come from?" "I don't believe you." Seized. No arrest. No charges. Just gone. The officer's department gets 80% back if they process it through federal forfeiture. The system rewards the seizure.

From 2000 to 2019, 84% of all forfeitures done by DOJ agencies were CIVIL forfeitures. Not criminal. Civil. Meaning no conviction required. For Treasury agencies, the number was 98%. The system is designed to take property without proving criminal guilt.

At Spodek Law Group, we tell clients: follow the money. If you want to understand why your property was seized, ask who benefits financially. The answer is almost always the agency that took it. Your fighting an opponent who has a budget incentive to keep what they took. Thats the battlefield.

What To Do When They Take Everything (Including Your Defense Fund)

If the government seizes your property, the 30-day deadline is real and absolute. From the moment you recieve notice, you have 30 calendar days to file a claim. Miss it by one day, and the property is forfeited forever. If you receive any notice related to asset seizure or forfeiture, treat it like a bomb with a 30-day fuse and call a lawyer immediately.

Don't talk to law enforcement without a lawyer present. If officers ask about the seized property, there building a forfeiture case. Your answers become evidence. Say "I want to speak to my lawyer before I answer questions" and stop talking. They'll be friendly, understanding, just trying to "clear this up." Don't fall for it.

Document everything. Gather records showing the legitimate source of the property - bank statements, pay stubs, receipts, tax returns. The burden of proof is on YOU to show the property is innocent. Without documentation, your arguing from memory and the government is arguing from suspicion.

Don't sign anything. Remember Jerry Johnson - the officer gave him a choice: sign the forfeiture agreement or get arrested. He signed. The government calls that "voluntary." If they threaten to arrest you, let them. You'll have more legal protections in a criminal case than you will if you "voluntarily" forfeit your property.

Understand the defenses. Innocent owner defense. Lack of probable cause. Fourth Amendment violations. Eighth Amendment excessive fines. Procedural defenses when the government misses deadlines. Each requires specific evidence and legal arguments. A lawyer will evaluate which apply to your case.

Civil forfeiture is a specialized area. Most criminal defense attorneys have never handled a forfeiture case. You need someone who knows the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, understands burden-shifting, has experience with "in rem" litigation. Todd Spodek and the team at Spodek Law Group have built a practice around defending clients in situations were the system is rigged against them. We've fought federal forfeitures. We've won cases were clients were told they had no chance.

The system is designed for you to lose - confusion, tight deadlines, burden-shifting, making the fight cost more than the property is worth. The only way to beat it is to know the rules better than the people enforcing them and move faster than they expect.

If your property has been seized, call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196. We'll tell you whether you have a case, what it will take to fight, and what your realistic options are. The 30-day clock is ticking. Don't let it run out while your trying to figure this out on your own.