ARLINGTON, Va.—Earlier this year, a customer of Henry and Minh Cheng sent them $42,000 cash as payment to their small wholesale jewelry business. That payment never arrived because Indianapolis police seized their parcel and tried to take the money without alleging any specific crime. Now, after the Chengs defended their property from civil forfeiture with the Institute for Justice (IJ), Marion County prosecutors have agreed to return their money. The Chengs’ class-action countersuit, aimed at ending the unconstitutional seizures, will continue to move forward.
“Indiana had no basis to forfeit the Chengs’ money, and so it’s only right that the government has agreed to return it,” said IJ Attorney Marie Miller. “But many other people are affected by the state’s practices of taking money simply because it goes through Indiana and failing to identify a crime that would justify the forfeiture. The counterclaims aim to end this abuse of civil forfeiture not just for Henry and Minh, but for everyone.”
“I’m ecstatic at the prospect of getting my money back,” said Henry, “and this is just the beginning. What happened to my company shouldn’t happen to anyone. Indiana should stop trying to steal from law-abiding citizens by seizing property and figuring out later whether there’s any basis for keeping it.”
For years, police have seized cash at the busy processing center, and the Marion County prosecutor has filed civil forfeiture actions on behalf of the State of Indiana to keep the seized money. This places people like Henry and Minh in the position of having to prove their innocence in a court hundreds or thousands of miles from their home in California.
It’s a profitable practice. Since 2022 alone, Indiana has begun proceedings to forfeit more than $2.5 million from in-transit parcels, and the state has already raked in approximately $1 million from those parcels. To get their money back and to end these predatory practices, Henry and Minh teamed up earlier this year with the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that defends people from abusive civil forfeiture nationwide.
Henry and Minh started their wholesale jewelry business about 30 years ago. They travel across the country serving retail shops. Early this year, they made a bulk sale to a retailer in Virginia, who was slow to submit payment. A few months after the sale, in April, the retailer informed the couple that she could pay promptly with cash. Henry and Minh agreed to accept that form of payment.
The retailer shipped the money using FedEx, and the parcel was routed through the Indianapolis FedEx hub, the second largest FedEx hub in the U.S. There, a police officer seized the package and presented it to a K-9. The dog alerted, allowing the police to get a warrant to open the parcel. After an officer found the cash in the parcel (and without finding any contraband), the Marion County Prosecutor filed a civil-forfeiture action to keep the money. As with other civil-forfeiture cases originating from the FedEx facility, the prosecutors alleged simply that the cash was proceeds of “a violation of a criminal statute.”
On August 6, IJ filed Henry and Minh’s response to the forfeiture complaint along with counterclaims alleging that the scheme violates their rights and those of classes of people in similar situations. Those counterclaims will continue.
The Institute for Justice is the nation’s leading law firm fighting for the elimination of civil forfeiture. IJ is currently bringing class-action lawsuits against the DEA and TSA for their practices of seizing money at airports. Following IJ’s release of video of a passenger bullied into permitting his bag to be searched, the Department of Justice suspended all DEA airport interdictions. IJ is also suing Indiana over forfeiture practices that let private prosecutors bring cases and keep proceeds for themselves. IJ is also a leader in civil-forfeiture research, producing reports—such as Policing for Profit—that outline the many abuses of civil forfeiture nationwide.