#Rustem Kazazi

[newstfionline]

A 64-year-old put his life savings in his carry-on. U.S. Customs took it without charging him with a crime.

By Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post, May 31, 2018

A 64-year-old Cleveland man is suing U.S. Customs and Border Protection after agents strip-searched him at an airport in October and took more than $58,000 in cash from him without charging him with any crime, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week in Ohio.

Customs agents seized the money through a process known as civil asset forfeiture, a law enforcement technique that allows authorities to take cash and property from people who are never convicted or even charged with a crime. The practice is widespread at the federal level. In 2017, federal authorities seized more than $2 billion in assets from people, a net loss similar in size to annual losses from residential burglaries in the United States.

Customs says it suspects that the petitioner in the case, Rustem Kazazi, was involved in smuggling, drug trafficking or money laundering. Kazazi denies those allegations and says that the agency is violating federal law by keeping his money without filing any formal complaint against him.

Kazazi is a retired officer with the Albanian police who relocated with his family to the United States in 2005 after receiving visas through the State Department’s lottery program. They became U.S. citizens in 2010. After several years away, Kazazi planned a trip to Albania last fall to visit relatives, make repairs on a family property and potentially purchase a vacation home.

He took $58,100 in U.S. currency with him, the product of 12 years of savings by Kazazi, his wife, Lejla, and his son Erald, who is finishing a chemical engineering degree at Cleveland State University, according to the lawsuit. The family lives in Parma Heights, a suburb of Cleveland.

In an interview translated by his son, Kazazi said safety concerns prompted him to take cash on his trip, rather than wire the funds to a local bank.

“The crime [in Albania] is much worse than it is here,” he said. “Other people that have made large withdrawals [from Albanian banks] have had people intercept them and take their money. The exchange rates and fees are [also] excessive.”

Albanian contractors often prefer dollars and euros over the local currency, Kazazi said. For those reasons, he said, many expatriates who return to visit Albania bring large amounts of cash with them.

On Oct. 24, Kazazi arrived at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport to begin the first leg of his journey, which would take him to Newark to connect with an international flight. He carried the cash in three counted and labeled bundles in his carry-on bag, he said, along with receipts from recent bank withdrawals and documentation pertaining to his family’s property in Tirana, the Albanian capital.

According to a translated declaration that Kazazi provided to the court as part of the lawsuit, Transportation Security Administration employees discovered the cash in his bag during a routine security check and alerted Customs and Border Protection.

“They asked me some questions, which I could not understand as they spoke too quickly,” according to Kazazi’s declaration. “I asked them for an interpreter and asked to call my family, but they denied my request.”

The CBP agents led Kazazi to a small, windowless room and conducted multiple searches of him and his belongings, he said. According to Kazazi’s declaration, the agents asked him to remove all of his clothing and gave him a blanket to cover the lower portion of his body. Kazazi said that a man wearing rubber gloves then “started searching different areas of my body.”

Kazazi characterized the search as a “strip search” in an interview translated by his son. “I felt my rights violated,” he said.

The searches turned up nothing--no drugs, no contraband, no evidence of any illegal activity, according to the lawsuit. But the agents took Kazazi’s money. Even more alarming to Kazazi was that the receipt the agents handed to him did not list the dollar value of his cash.

“I began to worry that they were trying to steal the money for themselves,” he said in his court declaration.

After being released, Kazazi called his wife and explained what had happened. None of it made sense to either of them, but Lejla Kazazi told her husband that it had to be some sort of misunderstanding and that he should continue on his trip and let her and Erald sort it out at home.

Seven months later, Customs still has the money.

The Kazazis have been caught up in a broader struggle over civil asset forfeiture. Defenders of the practice, such as Attorney General Jeff Sessions, say it is a valuable tool for fighting drug cartels and other criminal enterprises in cases in which a criminal conviction is difficult to obtain. But media outlets such as The Washington Post and civil liberties groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have found that the process is ripe for abuse.

“The government can just take everything from you,” said Wesley Hottot, the Kazazi family’s attorney. Hottot is with the Institute for Justice, a civil-liberties law firm working to overturn civil forfeiture. People wishing to challenge a civil forfeiture must essentially demonstrate their innocence in court, Hottot said, turning the dictum of “innocent until proven guilty” on its head.

“You have to affirmatively show you’re not a criminal to get your own money back,” Hottot said. “You have to effectively prove a negative.”

Federal authorities haul in billions in cash and property from forfeiture every year, a tally that does not include additional billions seized in state and local forfeiture actions.

The Kazazi family did not hear anything about their cash or why it was taken until more than a month after it was seized, when Customs finally sent a seizure notice to their home.

“This is to notify you that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) seized the property described below at Cleveland, OH on October 24, 2017: $57,330 in U.S. Currency,” the notice states. “Enforcement activity indicates that the currency was involved in a smuggling/drug trafficking/money laundering operation.”

The first thing the Kazazis noticed was that the dollar amount listed was $770 less than the amount that Kazazi said he took with him. The family said that the cash was all in $100 bills, making it impossible for it to add up to $57,330.

Hottot said that these types of “errors” are common in forfeiture cases and that it is “always in the same direction”--government receipts coming up a few hundred or a few thousand dollars short of what defendants say they had.

The Kazazis said they were also flabbergasted by the allegation of “smuggling/drug trafficking/money laundering.” There was no indication of how the officers arrived at that conclusion. “This was the most offensive thing I’ve ever seen,” Erald Kazazi said. “They provide no evidence. They list three different things without even saying which one it is.”

In a statement, CBP said that “pursuant to an administrative search of Mr. Kazazi and his bags, TSA agents discovered artfully concealed U.S. currency. Mr. Kazazi provided inconsistent statements regarding the currency, had no verifiable source of income and possessed evidence of structuring activity,” that is, making cash withdrawals of less than $10,000 to avoid reporting requirements.

Hottot denies that Rustem Kazazi was trying to conceal the cash--he had wrapped it in paper, labeled it and sent it through the scanner in his carry-on bag. The “inconsistent statements” were a result of Kazazi’s poor English language comprehension, Hottot said.

Hottot also noted that the structuring allegation was not included in the seizure notice. “They’ve never mentioned structuring before,” he said. “I think what were really seeing here is some creative Monday-morning quarterbacking by CBP, trying to justify the unjustified.”

CBP also noted that there are disclosure requirements for traveling internationally with sums of cash greater than $10,000. “Failure to declare monetary instruments in amounts more than $10,000 can result in fines or forfeiture and could result in civil and or criminal penalties,” the statement said.

Hottot said Kazazi was well aware of those requirements and planned to file his disclosure form during his four-hour layover in Newark. The form instructs travelers to file the paperwork “at the time of departure from the United States with the Customs officer in charge at any Customs port of entry or departure.”

“If he’s going to follow the law on this, he’s going to have to do it in Newark on the way out of the country,” Hottot said.

The CBP seizure notice gave the Kazazis a number of options for proceeding with the case. They could abandon the cash completely, or they could make an “offer in compromise”--letting CBP keep a certain percentage of the seized cash if it returned the rest. There were also options for challenging the seizure administratively through internal CBP channels or letting the case proceed in federal court. The Kazazis opted for federal court.

Erald Kazazi said they are pursuing a court case because they do not trust the internal CBP process. “They were the ones that seized our money,” he said. “We wanted another party like the attorney’s office to deal with this case. Based on my father’s experience, it didn’t seem like CBP really wanted to help us out.”

Under federal forfeiture law, the government was required to initiate a forfeiture case within 90 days after the Kazazis responded to the seizure notice. If it failed to initiate a forfeiture case within that window, it would be required to promptly return the money to the claimants.

That deadline passed over a month ago, on April 17. CBP has not filed a forfeiture complaint; nor has it returned the money. Erald Kazazi said he has called CBP several times was told that the case was now with the U.S. attorney’s office in Ohio and that CBP had no additional information on it. So this week, the Kazazis filed their lawsuit, demanding the immediate return of their property.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio declined to comment on the record.

Erald Kazazi said the ordeal has affected his father’s health and turned their lives upside down. But, he said, his father’s high opinion of the United States has not changed.

“He’s not going to let the actions of some employees that made a mistake in their duties change his opinion of the country,” he said.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Customs stole a US citizen's life savings when he boarded a domestic flight, now he's suing to get it back

Rustem Kazazi is a 67-year-old retired Albanian policeman who became a US citizen in 2010; last October, he boarded a flight from his hometown in Cleveland to Newark, planning to continue on to Albania.

Kazazi was carrying $58,100 in plainly labeled bank note bundles, along with receipts for his withdrawals and documentation showing that the funds were to be spent on a property in Tirana, Albania for his relatives.

Cleveland TSA officials found the money and alerted Customs and Border Protection, who repeatedly questioned Kazazi, denying him an interpreter (his English is not fluent), strip searching him, and, eventually, confiscating his life's savings under civil asset forfeiture rules.

CBP has not charged Kazazi with any crimes or civil infractions, but under civil asset forfeiture rules, they don't have to. It's not Kazazi who's under suspicion -- it's the money, and it is literally presumed guilty until proven innocent. Kazazi has to pay out of his own pocket for a lawyer to sue the government to defend his money and prove that it is not proceeds from a crime.

Kazazi was carrying cash because Albanians who pick up large cash sums from wire transfers in Albania are often robbed, and even when they aren't, they're hit with large fees and poor exchange rates (I have experienced this firsthand, when I wired cash to my family in St Petersburg, Russia to pay for my great-uncle's headstone).

CBP seized all the cash after Kazazi refused an "offer in compromise" that would let them skim a percentage of it in exchange for his promise not to sue them.

Under the loose civil asset forfeiture rules, CBP had 90 days to file a forfeiture case against Kazazi's money. They didn't even bother.

Obama's DOJ had instructed federal officials to cease the seizure of assets under forfeiture rules; Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions renewed the practice and instructed officials to aggressively steal stuff from Americans. In 2014, US cops stole more cash and valuables from Americans under asset forfeiture than all the burglars stole in the same period.

https://boingboing.net/2018/06/01/i-am-the-law-2.html

[realitista]

A 64-year-old Cleveland man is suing U.S. Customs and Border Protection after agents strip-searched him at an airport in October and took more than $58,000 in cash from him without charging him with any crime, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week in Ohio.

Customs agents seized the money through a process known as civil asset forfeiture, a law enforcement technique that allows authorities to take cash and property from people who are never convicted or even charged with a crime. The practice is widespread at the federal level. In 2017, federal authorities seized more than $2 billion in assets from people, a net loss similar in size to annual losses from residential burglaries in the United States.

Customs says it suspects that the petitioner in the case, Rustem Kazazi, was involved in smuggling, drug trafficking or money laundering. Kazazi denies those allegations and says that the agency is violating federal law by keeping his money without filing any formal complaint against him.

Kazazi is a retired officer with the Albanian police who relocated with his family to the United States in 2005 after receiving visas through the State Department's lottery program. They became U.S. citizens in 2010. After several years away, Kazazi planned a trip to Albania last fall to visit relatives, make repairs on a family property and potentially purchase a vacation home.

He took $58,100 in U.S. currency with him, the product of 12 years of savings by Kazazi, his wife, Lejla, and his son Erald, who is finishing a chemical engineering degree at Cleveland State University, according to the lawsuit. The family lives in Parma Heights, a suburb of Cleveland.

[newseveryhourly]

A 64-year-old man, an Albanian with legal US citizenship, was stripped of more than $58,000 in cash by Customs and Border Protection at Cleveland's Hopkins Airport last year. Rustem Kazazi was headed to Albania with the cash to fix up his... https://ift.tt/2JGiMMo

[theconservativebrief]

Annual report detailing the value of all property seized at the state and local level in NH now required to be posted online…

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) A new law in New Hampshire seeks to bring more transparency to law enforcement’s profits from asset forfeiture.

SB498 was among 75 bills that Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law over a weeklong session, according to a June 8 press release from the governor’s office.

The bill requires the state attorney general’s office to post an annual report online detailing the value of all property seized at the state and local level, as provided by the law enforcement agencies.

The fiscal-year report also will list the proceeds from any seized items and provide a categorized account for how the money was spent.

The Institute for Justice, a property rights watchdog group, said such reform in the Granite State is long overdue.

The group said in a press release touting the new law that New Hampshire had seized $1.15 million in drug-related property from 1999 to 2013.

State and local law enforcement are allowed to split up to 90 percent of the income from forfeitures.

New Hampshire was one of 11 states, in addition to the District of Columbia and the Treasury Department, that received failing grades from IJ on its forfeiture transparency and accounting report card.

Only two states (Arizona and Colorado) received ‘A’ grades, along with the federal Justice Department.

“Wide-ranging transparency requirements are vital for keeping both the public and the state legislature well-informed about civil forfeiture in New Hampshire,” said Lee McGrath, senior legislative counsel at IJ.

IJ said 29 states and the District of Columbia have tightened their forfeiture laws since 2014, including the abolishment of forfeiture for civil cases in Nebraska and New Mexico.

**MORE COVERAGE OF CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE at LibertyHeadlines.com**

The institute previously has litigated a number of high-profile property rights cases, including five before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Four of those were judicial victories, according to the IJ website, while the last, the 2005 eminent domain ruling in Kelo v. City of New London, was won “in the court of public opinion,” it said.

Among the institute’s pending lawsuits are one involving airport customs authorities—which seized around $58,000 from a Cleveland man, Rustem Kazazi, while traveling back to his native Albania—and another lawsuit challenging the ticketing practices in the town of Doraville, Georgia.

Original Source -> State Law Makes Asset Seizures More Transparent

via The Conservative Brief

[greatvocalmajority]

US customs offers to repay immigrant's life savings

US customs offers to repay immigrant's life savings

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) – U.S. Customs and Border Protection has offered to repay nearly all of the money seized from a U.S. citizen traveling back to his native country of Albania with his life savings of $58,000.

Cleveland.com reported Thursday attorneys told a judge that customs officials are in the process of writing a check to Rustem Kazazi for “$57,330 plus interest.”

The money was taken from…

[politiciandirect]

Feds sued for grabbing US citizen's life savings after airport strip-search

Feds sued for grabbing US citizen’s life savings after airport strip-search

The Kazazi family is suing after CBP took Rustem Kazazi’s life savings.  (Institute for Justice)

His American dream was helping his family in Albania.

It ended when he walked through security at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

A U.S. citizen for more than a decade, Rustem Kazazi was flying back to Europe to help his Albanian family repair their home and maybe even to buy a little…

[johnbarleycorn12]

American Brazenly Robbed of $58,100 Life Savings by Federal Agents at Cleveland Airport - Hit & Run : Reason.com

American Brazenly Robbed of $58,100 Life Savings by Federal Agents at Cleveland Airport – Hit & Run : Reason.com

Rustem Kazazi was victimized by desperadoes from a gang called “Customs and Border Patrol,” but thanks to the Institute for Justice he’s fighting back. — Read on reason.com/blog/2018/05/31/american-brazenly-robbed-of-58100-life-s

More overreaching

[benrleeusa]

[John K. Ross] Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions

Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature from the Institute for Justice.

Last week, the Iowa Supreme Court struck down part of the state's civil forfeiture law, ruling the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination trumps the state's requirement that individuals challenging forfeiture of their property disclose how they acquired it. Nick Sibilla has the story over at Forbes.com.

Newark, N.J. jail officer is sentenced to 25 years for raping pretrial detainee. Third Circuit: No need to reconsider his conviction. (Circuit split! Breaking with the Tenth Circuit, the panel holds that the jury must be clearly informed that, to convict of aggravated offense, defendant must have used force on victim; simply being physically larger than or having coercive authority over victimdoes not suffice.)

Fun fact: The first phrase inscribed on U.S. currency was "Mind Your Business." After the Civil War, "In God We Trust" started to appear on coins; Congress did not mandate it on all currency until 1955. Does the phrase violate the statutory rights of plaintiffs, who do not so trust (or otherwise object to the inscription)? The Sixth Circuit says no; they can pay by check or credit. Dissent: Lots of transactions are cash only. And as the gov't hasn't produced a compelling reason why the phrase is necessary to further its goals (communicating "the fundamental values on which our system of governmentis founded" to the world), this suit should not have been dismissed.

Army veteran suffering from PTSD tells VA therapist he thought about shooting Louisville, Ky. police officer (who cited him for minor traffic violation) but that he did not intend to do it. A VA staff member informs the police (without the therapist's say-so). The officer gets the veteran charged with making terroristic threats, neglects to mention therapist's belief that veteran was not a risk. The veteran spends 10 days in jail before charges dismissed. Sixth Circuit: The officer had a warrant, so the veteran can't sue for false arrest (though he might have been more successful had he raised different claims).

Michigan family court judge is barred by state law, constitution from retaining his position next term, as he will by then have become a septuagenarian. A violation of the Equal Protection Clause? The Sixth Circuit says he eloquently makes a forceful case: Many other prominent public offices have no age limit, and the gov't doesn't seriously try to explain why one is necessary here. But this is a rational basis case, so it needn't. Case dismissed.

Madison County, Tenn. officer: I shot 18-year-old assault suspect in the back, killing him, as he "gunned" his car directly at me. Eyewitnesses: The teen was driving slowly, steering away from officers (who were not in uniform, did not activate the emergency lights on their unmarked car, and did not identify themselves). Sixth Circuit: No qualified immunity.

After diet-drug class action settles for $200 million, lawyers collude with a since-disbarred state judge to defraud clients of the proceeds. Clients wise up, sue, and lawyer commences a "high-stakes shell game" to conceal his assets. So begins two decades of litigation. Sixth Circuit: The district court properly froze the lawyer's assets.

Does the motto "In God We Trust" inscribed on U.S. currency unconstitutionally endorse monotheistic religion? The Seventh Circuit says no, the motto (and other phrases like "one nation under God") merely give a nod to the nation's religious heritage.

U.S. Congressman (R-Ill.) resigns in 2015 after it emerges he sought to use public funds for (among other things) a chandelier, part of a Downton Abbey-themed redecoration of his office. (Pics here.) Later, he's charged with filing false reimbursement claims (among other things). Ex-Congressman: Congressmen can't be prosecuted for their legislative activities, per the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution. Seventh Circuit: Applying for reimbursements is not legislative activity.

Allegation: On daily basis, inmate with rotting teeth, pus-oozing gums begs for dental care. In the three months it takes Lincoln County, Ark. prison officials to bring him to a dentist, his face becomes disfigured, he pulls two of his own teeth, and he is unable to eat regular food. (A nurse provides ibuprofen.) Eighth Circuit: No qualified immunity.

Feds: Environmental nonprofit can't sue the feds for declining to turn over public records; it's not sufficiently clear that it was the nonprofit that requested the documents (which would confer Freedom of Information Act standing) as opposed to an individual activist associated with the nonprofit. Ninth Circuit: "FOIA forms should not be a 'gotcha' proposition requiring a lexicographer to discern who made the request." It is clear the nonprofit was the requester; the nonprofit can sue.

Allegation: After disturbance in Los Angeles County jail (in which inmates light fires, break stuff), officers maliciously and sadistically beat no-longer-resisting inmates, tasing them repeatedly in sensitive areas and breaking their bones while yelling "stop resisting." Video (mandated by county policy) inexplicably goes missing. Jury: Nineteen officers, including supervisors who condoned culture of excessive force, and the county are liable. Pay $950k damages. District court: Plus $5 mil attorneys' fees. Defendants: This suit shouldn't have been allowed to go; the inmates didn't take mandatory prelitigation step of filing complaint forms. Ninth Circuit: In retaliation for filing a complaint, guards put an inmate in yard with rival gang members who attacked him with razor blades. Affirmed.

An heir of the Egyptian composer who arranged the 1957 song, Khosara Khosara (you might recognize it), cannot sue American rappers who borrowed the tune, says the Ninth Circuit, taking a peek at Egyptian law. The heir had sold the rights to the song but claimed a continued and inalienable moral right under Egyptian law to object to "offensive" uses of the song.

Protesters erect tents on University of California–Berkeley campus, form human chain to prevent police from taking the tents down. After bullhorn warnings, police use batons to disperse protesters. Excessive force? Ninth Circuit: None of the plaintiffs got really hurt, so no. Concurrence: The protest was entirely peaceful (apart from locking arms), and there was no immediate need to remove the tents. So it was excessive force; but the officers are entitled to qualified immunity because there's no precedent that puts police on notice.

Man accepts Facebook friend request from undercover detective, posts incriminating posts. A Fourth Amendment violation? The Delaware Supreme Court says no.

Police officer "door checks" motorcyclist, opening door of his patrol car just as the motorcyclist was passing; the collision knocks the motorcyclist off a bridge. He falls 30 feet, sustains serious injuries. Yikes! The motorcyclist was only suspected of speeding and says he didn't know he was being pursued. The officer ignored instruction to cease pursuit, violated several department policies regarding pursuits. Washington state appeals court: No qualified immunity.

Allegation: Twitter user @jew_goldstein, a Salisbury, Md. man, tweets GIF to journalist, who is widely known to suffer from epilepsy, with message "YOU DESERVE A SEIZURE FOR YOUR POSTS." The journalist sees the GIF, a rapidly flashing strobe image, and has a serious seizure. District court: The journalist's civil claims for assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress can proceed. (A criminal case pends as well.)

This week, IJ sued U.S. Customs and Border Protection for seizing over $58k from a Cleveland retiree. It's been over seven months since agents took the cash from Rustem Kazazi, and he hasn't been charged with a crime. Indeed, his family earned and planned to spend the money legally and have documentation to prove it—if CBP would actually give him a day in court. Read more at The Washington Post. And in related news, CBP has returned over $40k seized from a Texas nurse—weeks after IJ filed suit on her behalf. The suit is not moot, however; read more here.

[junktex]

Cleveland resident Rustem Kazazi was strip searched by customs officials at an airport last year. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are being accused of seizing a 64-year-old man’s life savings — and then refusing to give it back to him even after they declined to charge him with a crime.