Public Pressure Forces IRS To Give Back Money To Civil Forfeiture Victim

[Wilikon]

After publicly humiliating the Internal Revenue Service, a North Carolina man received more than $100,000 from the agency.

Lyndon McLellan had the bank account for his convenience store seized by the IRS, and at first he wasn’t even sure why. The agency used civil asset forfeiture laws to take McLellan’s money without convicting or charging him of a crime.

The IRS said it suspected McLellan was violating federal structuring laws, which prohibit making multiple cash deposits of less than but near $10,000.

The federal government has taken criticism for stretching the bounds of structuring laws to seize property from well-intended people.

But even after policies were changed in 2014 to not seize property in these kinds of cases, it still wouldn’t relent on McLellan.

U.S. Attorney Steve West threatened McLellan that going public would only make things worse for him. He told McLellan it “just ratchets up feelings in the agency. My offer is to return 50% of the money.”

McLellan went to the press anyway. The IRS quickly changed its tune and gave Lyndon McLellan back all $107,702 of his money.


http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/14/public-pressure-forces-irs-to-give-back-money-to-civil-forfeiture-victim-video/



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGtFWC-12-w

[tvbcof]

After publicly humiliating the Internal Revenue Service, a North Carolina man received more than $100,000 from the agency.

Lyndon McLellan had the bank account for his convenience store seized by the IRS, and at first he wasn’t even sure why. The agency used civil asset forfeiture laws to take McLellan’s money without convicting or charging him of a crime.

The IRS said it suspected McLellan was violating federal structuring laws, which prohibit making multiple cash deposits of less than but near $10,000.

The federal government has taken criticism for stretching the bounds of structuring laws to seize property from well-intended people.

But even after policies were changed in 2014 to not seize property in these kinds of cases, it still wouldn’t relent on McLellan.

U.S. Attorney Steve West threatened McLellan that going public would only make things worse for him. He told McLellan it “just ratchets up feelings in the agency. My offer is to return 50% of the money.”

McLellan went to the press anyway. The IRS quickly changed its tune and gave Lyndon McLellan back all $107,702 of his money.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/05/14/public-pressure-forces-irs-to-give-back-money-to-civil-forfeiture-victim-video/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGtFWC-12-w

Big fat cracker getting rich ripping people off on death-dogs and the IRS is just trying to help level the play-field a bit.  Social justice, bitches.  Next stop, 'environmental justice' as well.  I doubt that this tycoon properly disposes of all that deep-fry oil and there probably were 'indigenous peoples' in his area back in the day.  Thank God that both the IRS and EPA have their own brown-shirts militarized enforcement capabilities now to deal with the increasing menaces to 'our way of life.'

[Chef Ramsay]

It took this small mom and pop gas station/convenience store over a decade to accumulate this 100k in their account so these guys are rural relaxed types that are just trying to run a business on the outskirts. The likely only reason this was solved correctly was because Fox News was talking about this specifically last night.