I.R.S. Asset Seizure Case (against Carole Hinders) Is Dropped by Prosecutors

Federal prosecutors have agreed to dismiss a case against Carole Hinders, an Iowa restaurant owner whose bank account was seized by the I.R.S. based solely on a pattern of cash deposits, Ms. Hinders’ lawyer said Friday.

“After her deposition, at which it became overwhelmingly clear that Carole was an innocent and hardworking restaurateur, the assistant United States attorney on the case told us that he informed the I.R.S. that they should not go forward with the case,” said Larry Salzman, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm representing Ms. Hinders.

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Ms. Hinders was never accused of any crime. The Mexican restaurant she owned, Mrs. Lady’s, did not accept credit cards, and she regularly deposited earnings in a bank branch a block away.

After doing business this way for nearly four decades, Ms. Hinders was told that the I.R.S. had seized $33,000 from her bank account after agents detected a pattern of deposits under $10,000. Under a law designed to catch terrorists, money launderers and drug lords, depositing less than $10,000 is illegal if it is done to evade a federal bank reporting requirement, but Ms. Hinders, 67, said she never knew about the requirement.

Read the rest at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/us/irs-asset-forfeiture-case-is-dropped-.html?_r=1

DU thread on the issue from October: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5722353