US Private Vaults: FBI misled judge who signed warrant for Beverly Hills seizure of $86 million in c

[Eugene]

Source: Los Angeles Times

FBI misled judge who signed warrant for Beverly Hills seizure of $86 million in cash

BY MICHAEL FINNEGAN STAFF WRITER
SEPT. 23, 2022 5 AM PT

The privacy invasion was vast when FBI agents drilled and pried their way into 1,400 safe-deposit boxes at the U.S. Private Vaults store in Beverly Hills.

They rummaged through personal belongings of a jazz saxophone player, an interior designer, a retired doctor, a flooring contractor, two Century City lawyers and hundreds of others.

Agents took photos and videos of pay stubs, password lists, credit cards, a prenuptial agreement, immigration and vaccination records, bank statements, heirlooms and a will, court records show. In one box, agents found cremated human remains.

Eighteen months later, newly unsealed court documents show that the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles got their warrant for that raid by misleading the judge who approved it.

They omitted from their warrant request a central part of the FBI’s plan: Permanent confiscation of everything inside every box containing at least $5,000 in cash or goods, a senior FBI agent recently testified.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-09-23/fbi-beverly-hills-safe-deposit-box-raid-forfeiture-judge

Non-paywalled link: https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-misled-judge-signed-warrant-120002250.html

[SWBTATTReg]

1. I heard about this. A blatant grab of cash for a raid/search that was limited to only so many

boxes, and the FBI thinking that every one of the boxes were somehow tainted w/ the stain of drug trafficking, and thus, went into ALL of them.

This puts a bad light on the FBI. As it should.

Beware to all who use this private safety deposit box services. Your valuables aren't as safe as you might think.