FBI Seizes $850,000 From Suspected Gambling Ring

Maine’s Stephen Mardigan was financially well off until this spring. He was a little too well off for the liking of the government. They claimed his wealth had been obtained by running illegal gambling operations. The government has seized nearly $850,000 worth of cash, bank funds and expensive watches from Mardigan. But there’s just one problem. Mardigan has not been charged with any crime.

The practice is known as a civil forfeiture and the government isn’t merely happy with what they’ve taken so far. They have filed a civil lawsuit against 30 of Mardigan’s properties, which are worth millions. Civil forfeiture allows the government to seize property from people who haven’t been charged with a crime. It’s up to those who lost property to prove they are not guilty. Not the other way around.

Darpana Sheth, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, a Washington D.C.-based public interest law firm, doesn’t like the law.

Civil forfeiture “completely reverses the presumption of innocence,” he told the Bangor Daily News. “No one in America should lose their property without being convicted of a crime.”

Mardigan was just one of four people who had property seized. But his property is the most valuable and is being targeted next. Those who have property taken under civil forfeiture laws have 30 days to respond. If they don’t the government keeps what they have taken regardless if charges are ever filed on not.

The act of civil forfeiture is not a new one. It was used in the 1600s by the British. But it has picked up steam in the last 35 years in the “War on Drugs.” Law enforcement agencies can split the proceeds from the seizure of property. Those against the practice say that is inviting a misuse of the system. The amount seized by the government went from $93.7 million in 1986 to $1 billion in 2008.