Tag: fossils

CBP Seizes $30,007 in Unreported Currency

Posted by Jason P. Wapiennik on November 21, 2013

The pace of customs currency seizure news releases has declined since the government shutdown, but today Customs released some details on a recent currency seizure at sea. This is different than a lot of currency seizure stories posted here which usually happen in airports or at land border crossings. Let’s look at the details, with my emphasis in bold and my comments in brackets:

San Juan, Puerto Rico — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers seized $30,007 in unreported currency last Friday from a passenger departing on board the M/V Caribbean Fantasy Ferry destined to Santo Domingo, DR. The seizure occurred during routine outbound examination of passengers at the Pan American Dock West in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Dennis Mota-Rodriguez, 50, resident of San Juan, failed to accurately declare having in his possession more than $10,000 [Editor’s note: read about the reporting requirement HERE]. CBP officers conducted further examination of Mota and his belongings and discovered money concealed within a book agenda, hidden within clothing in his checked luggage and wrapped on his person, held by a girdle. [Editor’s note: any concealment, whether in luggage, backpack, etc., so long as it is done with an intent to evade the reporting requirement can be a violation of the bulk cash smugglinglaws].

The currency was seized under bulk cash smuggling laws. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents arrested Mota-Rodriguez and will proceed with an investigation. [Editor’s note: That’s right, some individuals are charged with criminal, and not just civil, violations of the law.]

“Transportation of currency is not illegal. However, if carrying more than $10,000 through our borders, the currency must be reported to CBP,” said Juan Hurtado, San Juan area port director. “Travelers who refuse to comply with federal currency reporting requirements run the risk of having their currency seized, and may potentially face criminal charges.”

Individuals are permitted to carry any amount of currency or monetary instruments into or out of the United States. However, if the quantity is $10,000 or higher, they must formally report the currency to CBP. Failure to report may result in seizure of the currency and/or arrest. [Editor’s note: technically this is wrong, the reporting requirement is triggered if the amount is more than $10,000, not $10,000 “or higher”].

In addition to currency interdiction, CBP routinely conducts inspection operations on arriving and departing international flights and intercepts narcotics, weapons, prohibited agriculture products and other illicit items.

If this guy wasn’t up to anything illegal, then this was totally avoidable. He would have had to file the currency report, and demonstrate a lawful source for the money and lawful intended use. But he could have taken it with him had he only not hid the money and given Customs what they needed. In myopinion, though, sometimes Customs gets a little overzealous or unfair in their enforcement; however, I think the vast majority of customs officers do their job well. If you have had cash seized by customs and are contemplating what to do next, please make use of the other information available on this website or call our office at (734) 855-4999 to speak to a customs lawyer, or e-mail us through our contact page. We are able to assist with cash seized by customs around the country, including Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Orlando and many other places, and not just locally in Detroit.

Please read these other articles:

Customs Money Seizure Radio Interview

Posted by Jason P. Wapiennik on November 10, 2013

Customs lawyer Jason Wapiennik will be interviewed today at 4:30 EST on Detroit’s AM 680/690 by certified Arabic interpreter Ratib Habbal in a live interview that will be translated from English into Arabic. We will be discussing common questions with regards to customs money seizures, getting seized money back from Customs, and other areas of Great Lakes Customs Law’s many practice areas.

The interview can be heard live by visiting the WNZK‘s live audio stream HERE.

Customs’ seizes T-Rex skull in Jackson, Wyoming as part of ongoing investigation

Posted by Jason P. Wapiennik on December 4, 2012

According to this news report, and this one, Customs in Jackson, Wyoming, exercised a federal warrant to seize the skull of a Tarbosaurus from someone’s home. The story draws a parallel to another recent news item about the importation of dinosaur bones:

Federal officials recently seized a nearly complete Tarbosaurus skeleton that was sold at auction and arrested a Florida man for illegally importing dinosaur fossils.

A U.S. attorney for the president of Mongolia says that country welcomes the increased awareness for the illegal trade of Mongolian fossils.

Local 8 news.

According to the limited information in the News & Guide article, the fossil was seized for failure to provide proper documentation that the export was done in compliance with the law.

That article also references a similar case involving a dinosaur skeleton in New York and Florida, and I would also draw the reader’s attention to the story I blogged about a few months ago in Detroit where seized fossils went unclaimed and were thereafter donated to the University of Michigan.

Maybe instead of devoting so much of my blogging lately to avoid having your currency seized I need to start focusing on avoiding having your fossils seized…

Structuring currency imports and exports

Posted by Jason P. Wapiennik on November 13, 2012 with 7 Comments

The law concerning reporting transportation of more than $10,000 in currency and/or monetary instruments coming into or out of the United States is clear; any amount more than $10,000 must be reported. So what about two or more of transactions of $10,000 or less?

It is illegal to structure an importation or exportation in order to avoid filing the required report under 31 USC § 5324(c)(3). For example, if a person wanted to transport $25,000 from the U.S. to Brazil, it is illegal to divide the money into smaller sums and export those smaller sums on the same or different occasions to avoid filing a report. It does not matter if the money is divided and given to a person on the same flight (or same car, bus, boat, etc.), or if it’s done days, weeks, months, or years apart if done to avoid having to file a report — structuring the transaction to avoid filing the report is illegal and carries serious civil and/or criminal consequences. It does not matter if you have other reasons for structuring the transaction, so long as one of those reasons to is to avoid having to file a report your structuring of the transaction is illegal.

On the other hand, dividing the money for any reason other than evading the reporting requirement is legal. However, my typical cautionary disclaimer applies: you still have to prove it and convince Customs that your intent was not to avoid filing a report, and hope that your evidence is strong enough to get your money back (remember, Customs will have seized it pursuant to 31 USC § 5317).

If you have had cash seized by customs and are contemplating what to do next, please make use of the other information available on this website or call our office at (734) 855-4999 to speak to a customs lawyer, or e-mail us through our contact page. We are able to assist with cash seized by customs around the country, including Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Orlando and many other places, and not just locally in Detroit.

Please read these other articles:

Under what circumstances is filing a report with Customs for transporting more than $10,000 required?

Posted by Jason P. Wapiennik on August 14, 2012 with 9 Comments

Title 31 of the U.S. Code, § 5316, is the law requiring that a report be filed when leaving or departing the U.S. for a (1) knowing (2) transportation (in the past, present or future) of (3) monetary instruments (including currency, U.S. or foreign) (4) of more than $10,000 (5) at one time.

Each of the elements numbered 1 through 5 above have a legal definition too detailed for an article this short, but suffice it to say that the terms “knowing,” “monetary instruments,” and “one time” do not have the common, everyday definitions you might expect. If you are not a lawyer or don’t mind losing more than $10,000 do not try to be clever and figure it out.

When leaving or arriving to the U.S., how do I know if I need to file a report?

Some believe the $10,000 reporting requirement is per person, meaning that if there are two people then the reporting requirement is raised to $20,000, and $30,000 for three people, and so forth; or, they also think that if no single person has on them or in their luggage more than $10,000, there is no reporting requirement. This is usually not true.

Some particular examples

So to what scenarios does the reporting requirement apply? Let’s look at a few examples that assume a hypothetical husband and wife traveling together:

Husband is transporting $8,000 for himself, and $7,000 for his wife. Is there a reporting requirement? Yes, Husband needs to file a report because Husband is transporting more than $10,000 at one time.
Husband wants to transport $18,000. Trying to avoid filing a report, Husband gives $9,000 to Wife to transport and he transports $9,000. Is there a reporting requirement? Yes, Husband needs to file a report because, among other things, he is causing more than $10,000 to be transported at one time. It is also the crime of structuring.
Husband and Wife are each transporting $6,000 for their own account. Is there a reporting requirement? No, neither Husband nor Wife need to file a report because the money is for their own account (but see the “Cautionary Disclaimer” below).

Cautionary disclaimer

In the case of currency seizures, for whose account the money is and who is carrying it is often a difficult matter to prove. It really guts the distinctions in the first three scenarios, especially in #3. It is difficult, if not impossible, to sufficiently prove for whose account cash currency is being carried, especially between a husband and wife, or other family, and especially if transported in baggage. It’s a lot easier if you are carrying money orders or traveler’s checks made payable to either husband or wife. When in doubt, disclose everything and file a report.

If you do not file a report and you raise the suspicions of U.S. Customs, or you play fast and loose with the rules and you will get your currency or monetary instruments seized. If you have had cash seized by customs and are contemplating what to do next, please make use of the other information available on this website or call our office at (734) 855-4999 to speak to a customs lawyer, or e-mail us through our contact page. We are able to assist with cash seized by customs around the country, including Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, Orlando and many other places, and not just locally in Detroit.

Please read these other articles:

Detroit Customs donates seized fossils to University of Michigan

Posted by Jason P. Wapiennik on August 11, 2012 with 2 Comments

From the Detroit Free Press comes this story about U.S. Customs seizing hundreds of pre-historic fossils for an apparent failure to declare. The article does not make it clear if they were declared at all, or if there was a false declaration (e.g., declared imported for exhibition at a trade show instead of imported for sale). There is probably a reason why the importer(s) never filed a petition for remission to have the fossils returned.

An excerpt of the story follows, with my emphasis in bold:

The fossils — whose origins and age are unknown — were seized in March 2011 after two Canadian men at the Ambassador Bridge claimed they were attending a fossil trade show in Illinois.

A secondary inspection revealed several boxes containing more than 1,100 fossils that were for sale. They were seized because the unidentified men did not properly declare their goods.

[Customs spokesman Ken Hammond] said the agency tried to contact the men several times to reclaim the fossils and pay associated penalties, but they never got back in touch with customs and border protection.

Hammond did not now how much the penalties were. He said the men were not criminally charged. He did not know where the men acquired the fossils.

“The bad part that happened with these individuals is they didn’t declare their intentions to us,” Hammond said, adding that the men would have had to go through the proper importing process.

[ . . . ]

19 USC § 1497 subjects any article excluded in the declaration and entry made by the importer (and not mentioned before baggage inspection begins) to forfeiture. There could also be a monetary penalty under the same statute equal to the value of the fossils.

Customs can, and does, have authority to donate seized property in certain circumstances. Earlier this year, Customs donated $1.3 million worth of seized property to charities.