[HN Gopher] FBI misled judge who signed warrant for seizure of $...
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       FBI misled judge who signed warrant for seizure of $86M in cash
        
       Author : octoberfranklin
       Score  : 76 points
       Date   : 2022-09-24 21:32 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.latimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.latimes.com)
        
       | barneygale wrote:
       | American law enforcement is a state-sponsored criminal gang.
       | Here, they robbed a bank.
        
       | ajsnigrutin wrote:
       | It's funny... if an engineer fucks something up, s/he can be
       | personally responsible for the fuckup.... doctors need personal
       | malpractice insurance for their fuckups... professional drivers
       | can easily go to jail if they fuck up...
       | 
       | ...but if a government worker, paid by the taxpayers, fucks up...
       | the worst that can happen is, the taxpayers have to pay for
       | eventual lawsuit cost and damages to the people who got fucked by
       | that worker.
       | 
       | For something like this, atleast a few people should end up in
       | jail for a long time.
        
         | reset-password wrote:
         | Right. This is nuts that this is happening in America. Lynne
         | Zellhart is disgusting and people like her should be
         | imprisoned.
        
         | elcritch wrote:
         | At the least the senior FBI and US Attorney's should be liable
         | to be held in contempt of court. Yes they might need some
         | protection in carrying out their lawful duty but lying and
         | misleading the judiciary isn't lawfully carrying out those
         | duties.
        
         | system2 wrote:
         | System is rigger for them. That will not happen in 1000 years.
        
         | aaaaaaaaaaab wrote:
         | >if an engineer fucks something up, s/he can be personally
         | responsible for the fuckup
         | 
         | Except software engineers :)
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | melony wrote:
           | Most SaaSes have much more lower stakes.
           | Biomedical/automotive/aerospace are already covered by
           | existing regulations.
        
         | nine_zeros wrote:
         | It happens not just in judiciary or criminal cases, but also in
         | DMV, state permits, immigration etc.
         | 
         | Even a typographical error or minor delays by the government
         | official has asymmetric consequences for the human but no
         | consequence to the officer. You can be perfect and do
         | everything correctly but still fall off a cliff because some
         | government officer made a typographical error.
        
         | Overtonwindow wrote:
         | I think what you might be suggesting is to remove prosecutorial
         | immunity. There are so many cases of wrongdoing by prosecutors
         | and judges, and there's really very little that can be done to
         | punish them.
        
         | jmyeet wrote:
         | It's worth noting that this case wasn't a screw up. It was a
         | deliberate act of deception. You may well understand this but
         | "fuck up" is an ambiguous term that might allow for negligence
         | or an error rather than actual malfeasance, which was the case
         | here.
        
         | heyflyguy wrote:
         | I agree and though much of the outrage has some political ties
         | to it, I think and assume you agree that this is a pervasive
         | problem for everyone not within the ranks of a federal agency
         | of some kind.
        
       | _cs2017_ wrote:
       | > Only those who wish to hide their wealth from the DEA, IRS, or
       | creditors would" rent a box anonymously at U.S. Private Vaults,
       | she wrote
       | 
       | It appears this opinion was wrong: many honest people did choose
       | this store instead of a bank for their safety deposit needs. I
       | wonder why? I understand this question has no bearing on the
       | legality of the FBI actions, but I do want to understand the
       | customers' rationale.
        
       | justinzollars wrote:
       | In my lifetime one of the biggest freedoms we have lost is
       | private banking. Prior to 9/11 banking was relatively private.
       | What you had was your own, and secret. You could even have a
       | private bank account in Switzerland. Now, if you are American
       | foreign banks won't even bother dealing with you.
       | 
       | Obviously the paranoid state, won't like the idea of a private
       | safety deposit box company.
       | 
       | I think the next leg to fall is cash itself. We will move to CBDC
       | and social credit.
        
         | didericis wrote:
         | > We will move to CBDC and social credit
         | 
         | There's something incredibly irresponsible and pathetic about
         | acknowledging a course of action that seems bad/inevitable, and
         | then declaring that it _will_ happen.
         | 
         | The future is not inevitable. If you declare failure to reach a
         | positive future as inevitable, you are actively working towards
         | failure, not success.
        
         | Sebb767 wrote:
         | > Now, if you are American foreign banks won't even bother
         | dealing with you.
         | 
         | I'm living in the EU and any bank-related form I had to fill
         | out ask whether I have ties to the USA. There's one for "are
         | you citizen of a different country?", but the USA (and only the
         | USA) is always asked for explicitly.
        
         | kozziollek wrote:
         | And non-American banks force their non-American customers to
         | answer "are you happen to be American resident?". Even when
         | they never did anything related to USA.
         | 
         | Imagine if every country on Earth asked this. But of course USA
         | can force other countries to do whatever it wants.
        
         | BLKNSLVR wrote:
         | And China has a few years head start in that direction.
         | 
         | The US following China's lead. I'd hope that the idea alone, of
         | following in China's footsteps, is enough to get the US to
         | change course.
        
           | trasz wrote:
           | >The US following China's lead.
           | 
           | Quality of life in China is constantly improving. In US it
           | isn't. So no, US isn't following China's lead.
        
             | justinzollars wrote:
             | not sure why this is being downvoted. China recently
             | surpassed the US in life expectancy. But suppose you do not
             | trust Chinese statistics; Mexico passed US life expectancy.
             | Life expectancy a good measure for right track / wrong
             | track.
        
             | didericis wrote:
             | I'm not so sure about that... look at the demographic
             | issues and the current banking collapse. China looks like
             | it's starting a pretty precipitous decline.
             | 
             | I hope things stabilize and people there DO keep improving,
             | I have no desire to see _anywhere_ stagnate or start
             | declining. But I'm also extremely aware of how much of the
             | Chinese state apparatus is dedicated to lying and
             | distorting public perception, and what I hear about what's
             | been going on behind the scenes sounds really bad right
             | now.
        
       | bumblebritches5 wrote:
        
       | jmyeet wrote:
       | Here's the lesson I want people to take away from this: the idea
       | that there is a literal interpretation of the Constitution is a
       | myth.
       | 
       | This egregious seizure is just further proof that the Fourth
       | Amendment is pretty much dead. Any kind of forfeiture without
       | probable cause should be a Fourth Amendment violation but yet
       | civil asset forfeiture (the most egregious form of Fourth
       | Amendment violation) remains legal.
       | 
       | Probably the worst thing about this case is that the government
       | has been caught in a lie and isn't backing down and they want to
       | keep the contents. Any "evidence" gleaned from these contents
       | should be absolutely inadmissible without prior and specific
       | probable cause. There should be no allowance for "there's no
       | reason why legitimate customers would use USPV instead of a
       | bank".
       | 
       | Lots of people distrust banks. Not using a bank is not evidence
       | of a crime let alone probable cause.
       | 
       | I really hope the FBI and the US attorney get their rear ends
       | handed to them over this but I have doubts they ever will.
        
       | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
       | Semi related: It is interesting that these items are not
       | considered the bank's property yet if I upload something to the
       | cloud it is considered the cloud provider's data.
       | 
       | Why isn't cloud data treated the same as a safety deposit box?
        
         | buran77 wrote:
         | > if I upload something to the cloud it is considered the cloud
         | provider's data
         | 
         | Is it? The cloud _stores_ your data but the provider does not
         | _own_ your pictures or your PhD paper just because you uploaded
         | them there. Any example of an EULA where a cloud provider
         | assumes ownership of all data? Or you 're thinking of
         | situations like Facebook who I believe (may be wrong or
         | misremembering) has this in their EULA - content uploaded
         | become theirs.
         | 
         | On the other end of the spectrum as long as they don't know
         | what's there (encryption?) it can't hurt them in the eyes of
         | the law. If they can see what's there then authorities can
         | still force them to act (identify the owner, remove the data,
         | etc.).
        
           | GeekyBear wrote:
           | > The cloud stores your data but the provider does not own
           | your pictures or your PhD paper just because you uploaded
           | them there.
           | 
           | I would assume that a bank does not regularly go rifling
           | through the contents of everyone's safety deposit boxes and
           | reporting items they believe are incriminating the way a
           | cloud provider does.
           | 
           | https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-
           | surveil...
        
         | LadyCailin wrote:
         | You agreed to terms of service that gave the data to them. That
         | would be a good canary case though, have a bank provide the
         | same terms of service for their physical lock boxes, and see if
         | that gets struck down, despite the TOS. If so, you have a case
         | to annul the digital TOS as wel.
        
         | [deleted]
        
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       (page generated 2022-09-24 23:00 UTC)