The FBI took her life savings. Now she’s fighting to help others get theirs back
Linda Martin thought she was being responsible by keeping her nest egg in a safe deposit box where she wouldn’t be tempted to touch it.
He never imagined that the FBI would confiscate his life savings.
“They didn’t tell us why they took our money. They didn’t tell us anything about what we did wrong,” Martin, 58, told Fox News. “We didn’t do anything wrong. We work and we saved our money because we were trying to save and buy a house.”
Two years later, Martin still doesn’t know why his money was taken or if he’ll ever get it back.
The FBI took his life savings, but he was never charged. Hear his story below:
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“The FBI, they think they can get away with anything,” he said. “I think it’s unfair.”
On March 22, 2021, the FBI seized the safe deposit boxes of Martin and 1,400 other customers from US Private Vaults, a company based in Beverly Hills. The FBI took it. In addition to the $40,200 down payment on the house, Linda was saving $86 million in cash and tens of millions more in gold, silver, jewelry and other valuables from other safe deposit box tenants.
Martin found out about the raid while watching the local news with her husband.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Martin said. “I really didn’t believe it. I sat down with him to watch the news and the FBI was raiding our private vault location.”
Several months later, he A notice has been received Stating that the FBI is seeking what is known as a civil forfeiture of his money. Confused by the legal jargon, Martin chose to file a petition with the bureau, the first option listed in his notice, without realizing that doing so could result in his property being seized and, as a result, The FBI was allowed to determine if she could get her money. behind.
Martin told Fox News that he had not received a commitment.
He also said that to his knowledge, none of the people who took his assets had been charged or suspected of any crime. Rather, the FBI was investigating American private vaults, which were closed after the raid. And confessed Drug Money Laundering Conspiracy.
Linda Martin is filing a class-action lawsuit to recover her life savings that were seized from her safe deposit box by the FBI in a 2021 raid.
“Unfortunately, it’s legal,” Institute for Justice attorney Bob Belden told Fox News. “Civil forfeiture is a practice in the United States where law enforcement can take property from people who have never been charged with a crime.”
Last week, Martin and the Institute for Justice filed a nationwide class-action lawsuit seeking to help anyone who owns the property. Taken by a government agency In the last six years and received one less forfeiture notice.
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According to FBI notice Martin received his life savings taken under administrative forfeiture, an action under the Tariff Act of 1930 that allows federal agencies to seize property without judicial involvement.
“It’s really a system where the agency is not only the prosecutor, judge and jury,” Belden said, “but also a governor or president thinking about granting a pardon.”
In this type of seizure, law enforcement agencies only need probable cause that the property is somehow connected to a crime in order to seize it, he said.
“Linda’s case is a very good example of how meaningless this standard is in real life,” he said.
The FBI applied for a seizure warrant against U.S. Private Vaults in March 2021, but both the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office said in the application that agents would only “inventory” the property of box renters. will and the warrant would “authorize their seizure.” According to the Institute for Justice, the nest boxes themselves, not their contents. Review of court documents.
Using federal forfeiture records, the Institute for Justice calculated that from 2017 to 2021, Justice Department agencies took in more than $8 billion in forfeiture, with the FBI earning $1.19 billion. (Irrfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office Not told the judge Earlier this month, they had already planned to use civil forfeiture to seize all assets in consumer accounts worth more than $5,000, according to findings by the Institute for Justice, which the FBI seized. is the minimum monetary threshold for
“They developed probable cause in their mind before they knew anything about the owner of any of the boxes,” Belden told Fox News.
An FBI spokesman previously said the bureau A large number of safe deposit boxes were confiscated “based on allegations of widespread criminal wrongdoing” in the US private vault and that the seizures were within the scope of their warrants. But Martin said he never got an explanation.
Additionally, according to Belden, government agencies benefit from these types of raids. After an agency deposits seized property into the Department of Justice’s asset forfeiture fund, the money is returned to the agency to pay “costs associated with carrying out the lawful forfeiture of property,” according to the DOJ. is done.
Belden said that means more money in the agency’s pocket.
“It’s a big incentive,” he told Fox News. “It’s a big incentive to seize property.”“
Using federal forfeiture records, the Institute for Justice calculated that from 2017 to 2021, Justice Department agencies took in more than $8 billion in forfeiture, with the FBI earning $1.19 billion.
In a previous class action lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice, a judge ruled in favor of a group of safe deposit box holders and found that administrative forfeiture notices Sent by the FBI. Plaintiffs were not provided with sufficient information as to why and how their property was confiscated. The judge ordered the FBI to return the property to those named in the lawsuit or send more detailed administrative forfeiture notices. The FBI returned the property.
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““We decided to call it, ‘Take it now, define never forfeit,'” Belden said.
The FBI seized an estimated $86 million in cash from hundreds of safe deposit boxes in American private vaults in a March 2021 raid. (Alseeb/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“Linda has no idea what they think she did wrong,” Belden said. “It just illustrates what we think is happening to hundreds or thousands of people in other states across the country.”
Martin chose to file a class action lawsuit in hopes of recovering not only his property, but the property of anyone who was subject to administrative forfeiture.
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“I felt lost,” Martin told Fox News. “I’m not just advocating for myself, but for everybody, because there are so many people who don’t know what to do.”
“We are just trying to get justice,” he added.
Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California returned Fox News’ request for comment.
To see the full interview with Martin and Belden, Click here.