US Marshals Jump Into 'Cyber Monday' Mania (networkworld.com)

coondoggie writes: "Cyber Monday is generally thought to be the start of the online holiday shopping season. We would like to encourage shoppers who are already online in search of bargains to consider stopping by our auction website to bid on forfeited assets," said Jason Wojdylo, Chief Inspector of the U.S. Marshals Service Asset Forfeiture Division in a statement. These online auctions are designed to generate proceeds from ill-gotten gains to give back to victims, he stated. One auction includes a wine collection of approximately 2,800 bottles seized from once prominent wine dealer Rudy Kurniawan, who is serving a 10-year federal prison sentence following his conviction of selling millions of dollars of counterfeit wine.

Comments

corruption, not victim compensation

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

These online auctions are designed to generate proceeds from ill-gotten gains to give back to victims, he stated.

Assets seized under asset forfeiture generally don't go "back to victims", they mostly go back to police departments. It is a corrupt system that is urgently in need of reform.

http://www.forfeiturereform.co...

https://www.aclu.org/issues/cr...

Police should never benefit from asset forfeiture because it creates a perverse set of incentives; either it should go into the state or federal general fund, or proceeds should go to a pool of charities. The burden of proof for asset forfeiture should be on the government, and the standard should be "beyond a reasonable doubt", just like any other criminal conviction.

Re:corruption, not victim compensation

[Trailer Trash]

The US Marshall Service deputies work for the federal judiciary, much like a county sheriff handles local court matters. This is most likely all "criminal forfeiture" which isn't the problem in the US. This is the proceeds of actual criminal activity as verified by a court.

The problems are with "civil forfeiture", which is handled by the FBI on the federal level. Civil forfeiture needs to be shut down entirely, and any LEO found to have taken part in it should be prosecuted. Yes, I'm serious.