Federal Government

Grades
  Forfeiture Law Grade
Federal Government

 

Forfeiture Law
As the numbers below indicate, the federal government has a very aggressive civil forfeiture program.  Federal law enforcement forfeits a substantial amount of property for its own use while also teaming up with local and state governments to prosecute forfeiture actions, whereby all of the agencies share in the bounty at the end of the day.Outrage over abuse of civil forfeiture laws led to the passage of the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act (CAFRA) in 2000.  Under these changes, the government now must show by a preponderance of the evidence why the property should be forfeited.  The Act also created an innocent owner defense that lets individuals keep their property if they can show either that they did not know that it was being used illegally or that they took reasonable steps to stop it.But while CAFRA heightened some procedural protections, it failed to address the largest problem in the federal civil forfeiture system:  the strong pecuniary interest that federal law enforcement agencies have in the outcome of the forfeiture proceeding.  For the past 25 years, federal agencies have been able to keep all of the property that they seize and forfeit.  And that has led to explosive growth in the amount of forfeiture activity at the federal level.

 

U.S. Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund (AFF)[1]
Deposits to Fund

Net Assets
in Fund

Cash and Cash
Equivalents

Property

Total
Deposits

FY 2000

$536,500,000

NA

NA

NA

FY 2001

$525,800,000

$357,900,000

$48,900,000

$406,800,000

FY 2002

$485,200,000

$355,600,000

$68,000,000

$423,600,000

FY 2003

$528,400,000

$413,900,000

$72,100,000

$486,000,000

FY 2004

$427,900,000

$448,500,000

$94,600,000

$543,100,000

FY 2005

$448,000,000

$514,900,000

$80,600,000

$595,500,000

FY 2006

$651,100,000

$1,009,200,000

$115,700,000

$1,124,900,000

FY 2007

$734,200,000

$1,409,000,000

$106,700,000

$1,515,700,000

FY 2008

$1,000,700,000

$1,222,600,000

$63,400,000

$1,286,000,000

Total

$5,337,800,000

$5,731,600,000

$650,000,000

$6,381,600,000

Average
per Year

NA

$716,450,000

$81,250,000

$797,700,000

[1] Data retrieved from AFF Annual Financial Statements.

 

U.S. Department of Treasury Forfeiture Fund[2]
Deposits to Fund

Net Assets
in Fund

Currency and Equivalent

Property

Equitable Sharing Payments to States

FY 2001

$237,300,000

$65,700,000

$25,800,000

NA

FY 2002

$173,000,000

$113,100,000

$33,000,000

$48,500,000

FY 2003

$177,200,000

$163,800,000

$31,000,000

$78,500,000

FY 2004

$194,100,000

$228,900,000

$42,600,000

$98,700,000

FY 2005

$255,300,000

$209,100,000

$49,500,000

$75,700,000

FY 2006

$236,800,000

$167,900,000

$46,700,000

$81,300,000

FY 2007

$361,400,000

$208,000,000

$52,600,000

$32,700,000

FY 2008

$426,800,000

$412,200,000

$44,200,000

$78,500,000

Total

$2,061,900,000

$1,568,700,000

$325,400,000

$493,900,000

Average
per Year

$257,737,500

$196,087,500

$40,675,000

$70,557,143

 

[2] Data retrieved from Treasury Forfeiture Fund Annual Accountability Reports.

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