CBP Sued For Seizing $41,000 From Airline Passenger, Then Refusing To Give It Back Unless She Promised Not To Sue
from the Customs-and-Border-Pickpockets dept
Another case of asset forfeiture is the subject of a federal lawsuit. Like many others, the plaintiff has obtained the assistance of the Institute for Justice in battling the government for the return of seized assets. In this case, a US citizen saw $41,000 of hers disappear into the government's custody when she attempted to take it to her hometown in Nigeria to start a medical clinic.
After detaining her for hours at the airport, the CBP decided it could keep the money Anthonie Nwaorie lawfully earned.
CBP took the money because Nwaorie, a U.S. citizen since 1994 who lives in Katy, had not declared that she was taking more than $10,000 out of the country — a technical requirement that her lawyers say is not well-publicized or easy to comply with.
If this was the only problem, it was "solved" by Customs officials detaining Nwaorie long enough for her to miss her flight. No money left the country, undeclared or not. If this was criminal act in need of punishment, the CBP could have turned this over to prosecutors. But none of this happened. The CBP simply took the money and ghosted Nwaorie. From the lawsuit [PDF]:
After receiving a CAFRA [Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act] seizure notice from CBP in November 2017, Anthonia timely submitted a claim under CAFRA on December 12, 2017, requesting that CBP refer the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for court action, thus electing a judicial forfeiture proceeding rather than an administrative forfeiture proceeding. The USAO declined to pursue forfeiture of the seized cash and the government failed to timely file a forfeiture complaint within the 90-day period required under CAFRA. At this point, CAFRA automatically required that CBP “promptly release” the seized property.
The money was never released, despite the CBP's clear legal obligation. Instead, the agency attempted to force her into granting it a permanent pass from civil liability in exchange for her cash it had never bothered processing.
[R]ather than promptly releasing the seized cash to Anthonia as required under federal law, CBP instead sent Anthonia a letter dated April 4, 2018, conditioning the return of the seized cash on Anthonia signing a Hold Harmless Agreement that waives her constitutional and statutory rights, and requires her to accept new legal liabilities, such as indemnifying the government for any claims brought by others related to the seized property. The letter stated that if Anthonia did not sign the Hold Harmless Agreement within 30 days from the date of the letter, “administrative forfeiture proceedings will be initiated.” On the other hand, if she signed the Hold Harmless Agreement, the letter said she would be mailed a “refund check” for the full amount of the seized cash in 8 to 10 weeks.
This is the government holding someone else's money hostage -- nothing more. The CBP has a legal obligation to return property it isn't going to process through the courts. There's nothing in the law demanding citizens waive a bunch of their rights just to reclaim what the government has taken from them.
This will be a tough case for the government to defend. The CBP accused Nwaorie of breaking federal law, but never followed through on that claim. It kept her money but never bothered processing it as an administrative or judicial forfeiture. It apparently assumed she would never challenge the seizure. When she did, it told her it would keep the money unless she agreed in writing to never pursue the government for its bogus and badly-handled seizure.
As for the law the CBP claimed she had broken -- not declaring funds over $10,000 when leaving the country -- Nwaorie points out the government has done nothing to make travelers aware of this requirement. She states she's aware this is required when entering the country (declarations of cash, etc. being brought into the country) but had no idea the government demands the same declaration when exiting. As she points out in her lawsuit, multiple government travel tip website pages have nothing at all to say about cash reporting requirements.
Information about the currency reporting requirement for travelers departing the United States is not found in lists of tips for international travelers on government websites such as: CBP’s “U.S. Traveler’s Top Ten Travel Tips” webpage, https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/know-before-you-go/us-travelers-top-ten-travel-tips; the list of “Documents You Will Need” (or elsewhere) on CBP’s “Before Your Trip” webpage, https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/know-before-you-go/your-trip; the list of required documents on the State Department’s “Traveler’s Checklist” webpage: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/before-you-go/travelerschecklist.html; TSA’s “Top Travel Tips,” https://www.tsa.gov/travel/travel-tips/; TSA’s “Travel Checklist,” https://www.tsa.gov/travel/travel-tips/travel-checklist; or TSA’s “FAQ” for travelers, https://www.tsa.gov/travel/frequently-asked-questions.
On top of that, the reporting must be done at the time of the flight, but the office where the reporting is handled is not even located on the airport's property, much less in the terminal. And then there's the petty grubbiness of the CBP officers' actions -- like their decision to cut open her bag to access the cash, rather than use the key she provided them, and threatening to harass and detain her in the future any time she decides to board an international flight.
There's no questioning what the law says the government must do in cases like this. Her lawsuit quotes the relevant text from CAFRA:
Under CAFRA, if the government fails to file a complaint “before the time for filing a complaint has expired” (and does not obtain a criminal indictment containing an allegation that the property was subject to forfeiture), “the Government shall promptly release the property pursuant to regulations promulgated by the Attorney General and may not take any further action to effect the civil forfeiture of such property in connection with the underlying offense.”
Here, the CBP shrugged off its statutory obligations and compounded it by tying the money's return to a promise not to sue. That thuggish plan has backfired.
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Filed Under: anthonie nwaorie, asset forfeiture, asset seizure, cash, cbp
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"They're government agents, of course they're always right."
Here, the CBP shrugged off its statutory obligations and compounded it by tying the money's return to a promise not to sue. That thuggish plan has backfired.
Hopefully anyway. While it would be nice if the judge involved hands out some actual punishments, seeing case after case where a slap on the wrist is handed out for actions that would get anyone else thrown in a cell simply because the accused has a badge has lowered my expectations just a tad, to the point that I would not be terribly surprised(disgusted yes, surprised no) if the judge sides with the CBP here and claims that everything they did was not only legal but perfectly acceptable.
Mind, I'd love to be proven wrong. I don't expect to be, but it would be nice.
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Re: "They're government agents, of course they're always right."
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Re: Re: "They're government agents, of course they're always right."
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"the government gets to keep the money."
A profit motive would imply conflict of interest, warranting judicial disqualification.
Of course this would apply to every judge on the bench.
Maybe the profit motive breaks the legal system?
It certainly broke the Church and the Inquisition. Multiple times.
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Re: "the government gets to keep the money."
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"Fake conflict of interest."
Well, if an adjudicator is tempted by conflict of interest to exploit it for his own gain, and it's possible to declare it a fake conflict of interest or not a conflict of interest, then really it's a tiny additional step to do so to move into position to act.
Is there a standard to determine if a conflict of interest tempts corruption too much? Or is it just a gentlemen's assessment?
Because I don't trust lawyers or jurists to be gentlemen.
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Re: "the government gets to keep the money."
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Re: "They're government agents, of course they're always right."
If only. A slap on the wrist hurts nominally. We are more talking about a waggling of a finger and a coy tut-tut here.
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Re: "They're government agents, of course they're always right."
They're a non-profit advocacy group - they want to set precedents. They're not a for-profit lawyer that will take losing cases so long as they get paid.
I expect IJ to win.
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Re: Re: "They're government agents, of course they're always right."
Oh I'm not questioning their motives so much as looking at past history of cases where government agents did something that would have gotten anyone else thrown in jail and were given a slap on the wrist at most, suspecting that something like that might happen here.
Like I said though, I'd love to be proven wrong here.
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Doesn't this also mean
Nigeria is going without a medical clinic?
That doesn't sound like a small thing if it means patients aren't getting treated and people are dying for want of resources.
One could hope this would become an international incident.
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Re: Doesn't this also mean
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Re: Re: Doesn't this also mean
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Re: Re: Re: Doesn't this also mean
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Doesn't this also mean
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Re: Re: Re: Doesn't this also mean
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Re: Re: Re: Doesn't this also mean
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Re: Doesn't this also mean
Not people. Nigerians. No Americans were harmed in that perversion of justice. Well, to be fair there was financial harm to the American whose money was confiscated. But then she was black and female (I assume). And naturalized. She should just generally be glad that she now is citizen of a country governed by law rather than corruption (like it was where she is coming from) and not get uppity.
It's not like the CBP hasn't explicitly told her to keep her woolly head down and know her place and maybe they'll hand back her money. You know, the "your money is about to be released but you'll need to pay an administrative fee" thing.
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Let the lawsuits begin
And, as Uriel points out, those claims of damages might include those that never got treatment or for whom treatment was delayed in Nigeria. Get your popcorn ready, this could be a good one.
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Re: Let the lawsuits begin
…are not defendants in the lawsuit.
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"agents who are not defendants in THIS lawsuit."
Fixed it for you.
There may well be another one. Or seven.
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Re: "agents who are not defendants in THIS lawsuit."
There may well be another one.
You will eat, bye and bye
In that glorious land above the sky
Work and pray, live on hay
You’ll get pie in the sky when you die
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Actually, the guvmint DID promptly re-"lease" the money
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Re:
Use the criminal statute, not the civil one. Federal felony convictions will send a better signal by far than mere money.
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Re: Re:
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Re: Re:
“Trump Says Cops Should Rough Up Suspects” (Tim Cushing, Aug 2, 2017)
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Re:
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Constitution free zone
Maybe it's time to start challenging such zones. I'm pretty sure no judge has actually affirmed constitutional rights are suspended at the border.
In fact, some judges have affirmed that non-citizens of the US (that is to say everyone) has constitutional rights.
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Re: Constitution free zone
Also, those radical judges, ruling from the bench. Why, the nerve of them even thinking that the plain language should be the interpretation!
(Sarcasm, obviously)
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stopped for Traveling While Black? maybe not.
It's quite possible that this was not just a case of the border patrol randomly stopping someone for questioning -- or as the traveller suspects, because of her skin color.
There are other possibilities for why she was singled out, such as possibly being already under suspicion/observation when her international flight ticket flagged her to authorities, who then waited for her to appear at the airport.
Also ...
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11348609
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Re: stopped for Traveling While Black? maybe not.
It's that large bundles of cash smell like drugs. Especially $100 bills.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/drug-money-2/
Put 410 $100 bills in a bundle, and there's enough coke on it to make a dog alert, if it can actually smell drugs at all, and isn't just randomly alerting to get treats from it's handler.
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Re: Re: stopped for Traveling While Black? maybe not.
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Detection dogs
If dogs are trained to sniff for the ink.
We allegedly train dogs for some common street drugs and some common explosive compounds.
If an officer is claiming that the dog is detecting more than that, then the dog is signalling falsely and uncovering items at random.
Seriously, detection dogs should have less than 5% false positive, or should be retired, and if the Department of Justice cannot maintain such a standard, detection dog programs should be terminated.
To be fair, we actually have sniffer devices that can detect trace substances better than the dogs. I think the dogs are used for the false positives, to justify warrant-less searches.
In that case, they cut out the middle man and use divining rods and their trained drug-whisperer officers who incriminate sober people.
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Re: Re: Re: stopped for Traveling While Black? maybe not.
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Re: Re: stopped for Traveling While Black? maybe not.
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Re: Re: Re: stopped for Traveling While Black? maybe not.
Those so-called "counterfeit detecting" pens that so many gas stations and small shops swipe across large-denomination bills before accepting them are simple iodine marker pens, and anyone who remembers their middle school chemistry lab would know that iodine turns blue when it contacts starch. Starch is used as a binder in photocopier paper, which is presumably the method of choice for young, lazy, low-information counterfeiters.
The problem is that the Secret Service tells merchants that they must confiscate any banknote they *suspect* might be a counterfeit -- and that includes the false-positives that laundry starch will certainly produce whenever iodine "detector" pens are used.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: stopped for Traveling While Black? maybe not.
It's probably not a bad idea to run your bills through the washing machine with your other laundry, but AVOID LAUNDRY STARCH LIKE THE PLAGUE if you don't want your money confiscated
No, I'm pretty sure that literally laundering your money is a terrible idea, and it absolutely baffles the mind that anyone would even suggest that, to the point that for sanity's sake I'm going to have to assume that you're being sarcastic.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: stopped for Traveling While Black? maybe not.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: stopped for Traveling While Black? maybe not.
Accidentally doing it for some bills forgotten if your pockets is one thing, intentionally running large amounts through the wash is quite another, and in fact if your concern is that it's 'risky' carrying large amounts of money around(a very realistic worry these days) then 'laundering' them I'd say stands to make them even more 'suspicious', and thereby more likely to be taken.
Given it's fairly well known apparently that just about all paper money has at least a minor trace of drugs on them, 'they smelled like drugs to the dog' isn't likely to hold up in court. On the other hand, 'they're not new bills and yet they've been cleaned for some reason' might, depending on how recently the judge involved took a blow to the head, such that getting your money squeaky clean could very well be used against you.
Though to be sure, 'suspect had lots of money, I want lots of money' seems to be all the grounds some of these thugs-with-badges need to rob someone blind, so dirty or clean you're still in trouble if carrying money they want, but 'suspiciously clean bills' might make getting your money back more difficult.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: stopped for Traveling While Black? maybe not.
As opposed to paper? They tested a similar theory: they wanted to know how much less hygienic wooden cutting boards for the kitched were compared to plastic (melanine?) ones.
Turns out that a few billion years of stationary trees having to fend off bacteria and fungus attacks have some evolutionary effects. The wooden boards were actually sporting fewer bacteria than the plastic ones.
So I am less than convinced that plastic money will be more sanitary than paper money.
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Cutting boards
Wooden cutting boards are porous, which means that dirt can escape scrubbing, but the tanin is antimicrobial. Really it's a matter of what wood is used. Hardwoods with small pours are recommended.
Highly recommended: Teak, which has tectoquinones which are also good against fungi. Less good: Bamboo, which is not as resistant to microbes, and is typically shellacked.
Plastic has no natural antimicrobial features. It's just tough and can be made non-pourous, so it can be cleaned with more abrasive cleansers and harder scrubbing.
More recently, we've been looking at silicone, which also has antibacterial properties.
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Re: Cutting boards
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Cash
To the contrary we need to create numerous means for individuals to pay other individuals anonymously, including electronic and long distance. The nations have proven they cannot be trusted either to write fair law, nor to enforce law equally.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: stopped for Traveling While Black? maybe not.
That's because it's not actually paper, it's cloth. Largely linen.
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The CBP is one of Trump's loyalist factions
They no longer serve the DoJ but serve President Trump directly, and for that they can get away with whatever they want.
Trump really wants to be führer.
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Re: The CBP is one of Trump's loyalist factions
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Secret armies
Curious. I thought I posted a response to this. An additional response may appear at some point.
Trump wants a secret army, or at least a secret police force. He's petitioned the administrations of many law enforcement departments for loyalty and in exchange, a lot of latitude. CBP and ICE agreed, as did the Sheriff's Department who specifically wanted to continue asset forfeiture and wanted recent Obama-era regulations on forfeiture lifted again.
The FBI, as is well known, did not comply, and that story has been central in our news feeds. The intelligence departments have also been non-compliant, and hence have retained an antagonistic relationship with the White House.
It very much smacks of the Either you're for us or against us rhetoric of the Iraq war, except instead of talking about allied nations, we're talking about government agencies.
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Re: Secret armies
There is no national Sheriff's Department in the US. Sheriffs are county officials. Perhaps you're thinking of the Marshal's Service?
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The Secret National Sheriff's Department
No, I misspoke. Within days after Trump's innauguration he had a meeting with the National Association of Sheriffs, who emphasized to him the importance of unrestrained asset forfeiture was to doing their jobs and catching bad-guys. Also that recent Obama-era reforms to limit asset forfeitures and department profits from them were letting criminals escape justice. Around the same time, the DoJ removed the new restrictions.
I don't remember Trump having any direct contact with the US Marshals Service.
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Re:
Sometimes an organization is just not fixable. There's a point where you can do little but dismantle, prosecute, raze it to the ground and start from scratch with more safeguards.
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Police state
EVEn when the judge TELLS THEM..
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Re: Police state
Judges are for telling citizens the rules. There are no rules for cops since they deal with criminals and would be unfairly disadvantaged if the criminals were allowed to break the rules and the cops not.
If that sounds reasonable to you, there might be a job for you in the Trump administration.
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Re: Re: Police state
The end never justifies the means.
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Re: Re: Re: Police state
The only way to be sure at least some criminals lose is to have criminals on both sides, so justice is served either way once the government is criminal.
Or do you have a better rationale for the U.S. Law Enforcement behavior?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Police state
I think that ship sailed long ago.
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Re: Police state
NOPE.
ACTING, as the person would SUE THEM is scaring the SPIT out of them..
Give the money back AND A NEW TICKET TO ANYWHERE
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Did some civil servant fearing for his life and fleeing his jurisdiction e-mail you instructions on how to retrieve it once it is unfrozen?
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Should've hid the money better.
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Maybe a stupid question but...
(I did in fact find it weird the last international flight when I went to Turkey that there were CBP at the gate checking passports of people boarding the plane. Fortunately they only checked the brown people.)
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Huh? This is an exceptionally clear requirement that's stated quite plainly on the relevant forms. Anyone who's traveled internationally should be familiar with it, because it's stated right there on the customs form in very clear language. Not sure what this lawyer is smoking...
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Re:
Anyone who's traveled internationally should be familiar with it, because it's stated right there on the customs form in very clear language.
You mean the form you fill out when entering the US? Because I have never been asked to fill out a US Customs form when I LEAVE the US.
Not sure what this lawyer is smoking...
Not sure what you're smoking.
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https://www.federalcharges.com/what-is-strong-armed-robbery/
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If you are going to move large sums of money
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Then they panicked and had to stump up 10K.
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Update: US returns money, Nwaorie is suing.
The CBP returned the $41000 to Nwaorie, and she is continuing her lawsuit in an effort to discourage the state from continuing its practice of excessive asset forfeiture.
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