In news that reached me after my Baltimore Sun op-ed yesterday was already in print, owners Randy and Karen Sowers of Middletown, Md. have settled the federal charges against their South Mountain Creamery over “structuring” of bank deposits. They “will get back a little more than half of $62,936 seized by the government earlier this year, according to court documents filed late Tuesday. … ‘I didn’t do anything wrong, but we had to settle because we had no other choice,’ Sowers said.” [Courtney Mabeus, Frederick News-Post; earlier here, etc.]
P.S. And welcome Don Boudreaux/Cafe Hayek readers (no, I’m not related to Mancur Olson); Coyote.
7 Comments
What a scam. I note how the threat of future IRS penalties is held over their heads to enure they don’t make too much trouble over this. Remember, buddy, us guys can always come back, if you know what I means.
Small Business Lession:
For cash businesses like the this family dairy, save your money up and make periodic deposits of $10,000.01.
What is the justification for the government keeping any of the money?
Legal extortion- disgusting. Our government is out of control.
[…] deserves particular credit for breaking the structuring story with reports here and here. Update: South Mountain case settles. […]
Here is another example in Tennessee where George Reby was driving through with out of state tags to buy a car he bought on e-bay and was stopped just because of the out of state tags. He had cash on him for the purchase of the car and the police seized it. Under Tennessee civil forfeiture laws, YOU have the burden to prove that cash is NOT drug money.
http://samstringfellow.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/the-police-paper-chase/
Yes, we covered that one:
http://overlawyered.com/2012/05/he-couldnt-prove-it-was-legitimate/