Punishment Before Conviction
Before a jury hears a single piece of evidence—often before an indictment is even unsealed—the federal government can deploy one of its most devastating weapons: freezing your bank accounts and seizing your property. In white-collar investigations, the DOJ routinely utilizes asset forfeiture to secure funds for eventual restitution and to deliberately starve targets of the resources they need to mount a formidable legal defense.
A sudden freeze can paralyze a legitimate business, halt payroll, and trigger defaults on mortgages and loans. Fighting these seizures requires immediate, highly aggressive intervention. At Stanton Law DC, the firm challenges the underlying legal basis for the freeze and fights to release the capital you need to survive.
Protecting Your Right to Counsel
The government cannot freeze untainted assets if you need those funds to hire a lawyer of your choice. Relying on Supreme Court precedent, we aggressively litigate to unfreeze legitimately earned funds so you can fund your defense. If the government has commingled your legal income with allegedly illicit funds, the firm moves to prove exactly which dollars are subject to forfeiture.
Understanding the Three Types of Forfeiture
Federal Forfeiture Frameworks
| Type | Description | Burden / Mechanism |
|---|---|---|
| Criminal ForfeitureIn Personam | Tied directly to a criminal prosecution. The government seeks to forfeit the property as part of the sentence against the defendant. | Requires a criminal conviction first (Beyond a Reasonable Doubt). |
| Civil ForfeitureIn Rem | A lawsuit filed against the property itself, based on the theory that the property was involved in a crime. | Does not require a criminal conviction (Preponderance of the Evidence). |
| Administrative ForfeitureAgency Level | Property seized by agencies (like Customs or the DEA) without court involvement. If you do not formally contest it within strict deadlines, you lose the property by default. | Requires filing a timely Claim to force the matter into federal court. |
Defense Strategies
1. Forensic Tracing and Commingled Funds
The government often casts too wide a net, freezing entire bank accounts when only a fraction of the funds are allegedly tied to unlawful activity. Stanton Law DC works with forensic accountants to "trace" the money, demonstrating that the seized assets were derived from legitimate business operations.
2. The Innocent Owner Defense
In civil forfeiture cases, property can be seized even if the owner committed no crime. The firm aggressively asserts the "Innocent Owner" defense under 18 U.S.C. § 983(d), proving that our client did not know of the conduct giving rise to forfeiture or took reasonable steps to prohibit the illegal use of the property.
3. Eighth Amendment Challenges
Even if the government proves that property is subject to forfeiture, the seizure cannot be "grossly disproportionate" to the gravity of the offense. We regularly challenge excessive forfeitures as unconstitutional violations of the Eighth Amendment's Excessive Fines clause.