Like other victims of civil seizure before them, North Carolina residents Tom and Marla Bednar have suffered irreparable damage to their financial stability since the federal government seized $115,000 from them last year.
The Bednars, who operated a precious metal business in Raleigh, are about to finally receive their money back after months of litigation. But, they told the News & Observer, they can never reclaim their business reputation after suffering such an unexpected loss.
In August of 2014, Tom Bednar was halted by an unmarked police car and arrested. His wife was arrested separately, and their children detained.
They were questioned and accused of operating without a license, while officers ransacked their home for eight hours. They left it in a “state of shambles” and “destroyed a lot of our property,” Bednar said in an interview.
Then one evening in September, they received a chilling call from bank officials. Their bank account had been cleared out.
The U.S. Secret Service had investigated their account, and saw a number of withdrawals under $10,000—for $3,000, for example, or $9,000. The IRS often accuses businesses of “structuring” violations for these withdrawals, which they suspect are intentionally avoiding federal reporting requirements for withdrawals $10,000 and over.
Even though many businesses have legitimate reasons for withdrawing or depositing similar amounts—in the Bednars’ case, buying precious metals from pawn shops and auctions—thanks to civil asset forfeiture laws, the IRS need not prove actual wrongdoing before seizing the cash. The money is then treated “guilty” until proven innocent.
In November, the licensing charges against them were thrown out of court. But thanks to the structuring accusations, they lost their business and had to sell off valuables they had saved for their retirement.
“We not only lost that, we lost our personal reputation. And you don’t get that back,” Marla Bednar said.
“You traumatized our family. You terrorized us.”
The U.S. attorney eventually dropped the structuring case, as well, citing Attorney General Eric Holder’s new rules governing civil forfeiture. But they also killed the case minutes before they would have been required to turn over information revealing how the Secret Service began investigating their accounts in the first place.
The U.S. attorney’s office said through a spokesman that it considered the Bednar case to be an open investigation and would not comment on it or on the use of civil forfeitures generally.
Watch their interview and read more on the case here.
