After Returning The Money They Stole, Feds Will Pay Interest and Legal Expenses Too

A convenience store owner accused of "structuring" will get some compensation for his forfeiture ordeal.
Reason
Feb. 04, 2016

First the feds stole $107,000 from Lyndon McLellan, saying his bank deposits of money from his North Carolina convenience store were suspiciously small, as if he were trying to avoid the reporting requirement for transactions involving $10,000 or more. Then the feds refused to return the money, even after the IRS and the Justice Department announced that they would no longer pursue such "structuring" cases unless they involved proceeds of illegal activity. Offering to return half the money last March, a federal prosecutor warned McLellan's lawyer that calling public attention to the case would only make the government less inclined to reach a settlement. Two months later, the feds finally agreed to give McLellan his money back but without interest and without compensating him for the $22,000 he had paid his lawyer and a forensic accountant before the Institute for Justice took the case pro bono. This week a federal judge completed McLellan's vindication by dismissing the forfeiture case with prejudice, making him eligible to recover his costs and the interest on his purloined savings under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act (CAFRA).

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