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

Holy crap - horse statues

[towermac]

Check out the statues:

http://www.usmarshals.gov/asse...

How crazy does one have to be? I'd love to hear her story behind that. Maybe she'll write a book.

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

[Sarten-X]

From what I see on the Marshals' listings, the items being sold are forfeited pursuant to a final judgement from a suitable court. The proceeds are indeed listed as part of the judgement, and would therefore be distributed among the victims (possibly including the government itself) as any similar fine would.

Some jurisdictions may be abusing forfeiture for profit - and that's bad - but it's quite a leap to extrapolate that to all law enforcement agencies in the country, as some Slashdotters are quick to do.

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.

Re:corruption, not victim compensation

[BlueStrat]

From what I see on the Marshals' listings, the items being sold are forfeited pursuant to a final judgement from a suitable court. The proceeds are indeed listed as part of the judgement, and would therefore be distributed among the victims (possibly including the government itself) as any similar fine would.

Some jurisdictions may be abusing forfeiture for profit - and that's bad - but it's quite a leap to extrapolate that to all law enforcement agencies in the country, as some Slashdotters are quick to do.

It doesn't matter how or for what reason(s) the property was seized or what legal/procedural mechanism was involved.

Government should not profit. Proceeds from any and all seized property should go to non-governmental/non-government-affiliated charities.

Having judges/courts seize the property being sold, even upon a criminal conviction, rather than some street cop deciding that your money/house/car/etc broke the law simply moves the corruption up the ladder and further institutionalizes the problem.

Strat

Let me get this straight

[viperidaenz]

Some guy is in jail for 10 years for selling counterfeit wine.
The cops are now selling his counterfeit wine.

If a shop buys these bottles and re-sells them, isn't that still illegally selling counterfeit products?

If you import a counterfeit product and it's stopped at the border, it either gets destroyed or you have to pay to ship it back.

Re:Let me get this straight

[R3d M3rcury]

No, they're not selling the counterfeit wines. They're selling the wines that he bought with the money that he made from selling counterfeit wines.

Fencing the Goods

[Jodka]

Cops Now Steal More from Citizens than do Actual Criminals.

Re:Can I bid on the cash cops seized without warra

[KGIII]

That's included too, as far as I know. I've seen lots of nice stuff - at great prices. I will not buy them. I will not contribute to this, I find it abhorrent. You go to prison as punishment, not to be punished. If they can prove they are ill-gotten gains then the funds should go towards the reparation or rehabilitation but that aspect seems to be lacking. "Oh, no receipt? Well, we'll just be taking this." There's no real due process there and, as such, it's deplorable.

I can buy lots of this stuff - some of it is nice. I don't. I won't. *sighs* Someone else will but it does make me feel good to not contribute.

Re:Can I bid on the cash cops seized without warra

[KGIII]

It looks like these items (from following a few links posted in the thread) are not - in fact, taken as civil forfeiture or as ill gotten gains but are from judgments handed down with due process. Hmm... I don't know if it's possible to be sure but it looks like there is some information attached. Heh. Maybe I can buy some stuff and not feel like I'm contributing to the process.

(I felt obligated to make this clear, my first post was under the impression that that's what it was - given the summary and I sure as hell didn't read the article or do one iota of research.)