Title: IRS Seizes $107,000 From Innocent Small-Town Convenience Store Owner For 'Structuring' Deposits Source:
Information Liberation URL Source:http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=50691 Published:May 2, 2015 Author:IJ.org Post Date:2015-05-02 21:38:58 by Deckard Keywords:None Views:5412 Comments:31
Lyndon McLellan has spent more than a decade running L&M Convenience Mart, a gas station, restaurant, and convenience store in rural Fairmont, North Carolina. Then, one year ago, without any warning, agents from the IRS seized his entire bank account, totalling more than $107,000.
With that, Lyndon entered the upside down world of civil forfeiture, where the government can seize and keep ordinary Americans property without ever charging them with a crime.
The IRS and Department of Justice are pursuing forfeiture of Lyndons money despite a recent policy change designed to prevent precisely these kinds of cases. In October 2014, the IRS announced that (absent exceptional circumstances) it would pursue forfeiture in cases like Lyndons only where there was evidence that the money being seized was derived from illegal activity. The U.S. Department of Justice announced a similar policy change in March 2015.
In February 2015, during a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Ways & Means Oversight Subcommittee, North Carolina Congressman George Holding told IRS Commissioner John Koskinen that hed reviewed Lyndons casewithout specifically naming itand that there was no allegation of the kind of illegal activity required by the IRSs new policy. The IRS Commissioner responded, If that cases exists, then its not following the policy.
When news of the IRS Commissioners statement got back to the United States Attorney in charge of Lyndons case, he advised Lyndons attorney and accountant that he was concerned that Lyndons case document was provided to Congress, and that:
Whoever made [the document] public may serve their own interest but will not help this particular case. Your client needs to resolve this or litigate it. But publicity about it doesnt help. It just ratchets up feelings in the agency. My offer is to return 50% of the money. The offer is good until March 30th COB.
Under these new policies, the government should not be pursuing forfeiture of Lyndons bank account. But the government has refused to back down, and is actively pursuing the forfeiture of Lyndons money.
Lyndon is unwilling to give the government a single penny of his hard-earned money. As he puts it, It took me 13 years to save that much money, and it took fewer than 13 seconds for the government to take it away.
Lyndon did nothing wrong. That is why he has teamed up with the Institute for Justice to fight this shocking abuse of power, to get his money back and to make sure the government does not do this to anyone else.
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The IRS and Department of Justice are pursuing forfeiture of Lyndons money despite a recent policy change designed to prevent precisely these kinds of cases.
In October 2014, the IRS announced that (absent exceptional circumstances) it would pursue forfeiture in cases like Lyndons only where there was evidence that the money being seized was derived from illegal activity. The U.S. Department of Justice announced a similar policy change in March 2015.
There was NO illegal activity, the guy ran a convenience store.