FBI and San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department accused of illegally seizing marijuana cash

  • 📰 latimes
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 47 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 22%
  • Publisher: 82%

Business Business Headlines News

Business Business Latest News,Business Business Headlines

The FBI is trying to confiscate the nearly $1.1-million bounty. It says the money is tied to federal drug or money-laundering crimes, but has specified no unlawful conduct and charged no one with a crime.

Empyreal, a Pennsylvania company that transports cash for dispensaries, convenience stores and other clients in 28 states, relies on banks and credit unions to do the federally mandated due diligence on marijuana outfits whose cash it carries, said Deirdra O’Gorman, Empyreal’s chief executive. The company checks state licensing records to verify compliance, she said.

The next morning, the DEA put the driver under surveillance as she made her stops in Kansas City. On her way back through Kansas, the same sheriff’s deputy stopped her again on I-70. This time, the deputy seized the more than $165,000 in cash that the driver had collected at five state-licensed dispensaries in Missouri.

The deputy responded, “We’ll start taking them all down at once,” according to an Empyreal court filing. In its court papers, Empyreal says Deputy Jonathan Franco’s apparent confusion over how the company operates led him to falsely tell the judge that it converts dispensaries’ cash into cryptocurrency. Empyreal says Franco also falsely told the judge that some of the pot stores whose cash was in the van were unlicensed. Franco’s warrant application stated that Empyreal lacked a marijuana business license. The company says no license is required to carry cash from legal dispensaries to banks.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 11. in BUSİNESS

Business Business Latest News, Business Business Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

FBI and San Bernardino County sheriff accused of breaking law by seizing marijuana cashThe case has also rekindled allegations that federal law enforcement agencies in Southern California have been abusing forfeiture laws by seizing cash and valuables from people when the government has no evidence that they committed crimes.
Source: latimes - 🏆 11. / 82 Read more »