A few weeks ago, we briefly mentioned how civil assets forfeiture applies to Bitcoin, a process by which governments seize citizens’ assets without accusing them of being a crime. The 2023 Fifth Amendment Integrity Repair Act, also known as fairness act, is perhaps the most important bill introduced in Congress today to protect Bitcoin holders from large-scale government over-reeding, as the US government says that forfeiture of citizen assets forms an important pillar in the construction of strategic Bitcoin reserves. Without it, many might see their bitcoin being seized and confiscated in little or no way on behalf of the reserve.
It has long been argued that forfeiture of civil assets requires dramatic reforms. Nationwide, states have become known to abuse processes to enrich their own law enforcement agencies that could adequately fund the funds collected. Forfeiture of civil assets is “one of the most serious abuses in the country today” from police trying to seize a van from Vietnamese veterans who work as a marijuana “container” or to appropriately save men’s lives on seat belt violations.
As the ACLU states, forfeiture of civil assets is particularly problematic, as this process creates financial incentives for law enforcement to confiscate citizens’ property to the government without a legitimate process. In particular, in light of Bitcoin’s rarity and the resulting valuation, this financial incentive is only exacerbated when civil assets are forfeitured to build a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
To protect citizens from forfeiture abuse of civil assets, the 2023 fair act co-hosted by Senator Ramis aims to amend federal laws that govern the process of ensuring that forfeiture procedures of civil assets complying with the Fifth Amendment follow the appropriate process.
First, we do so by raising the standard of evidence from the “dominance” of evidence — meaning that the parties’ claims are rather true — becomes clear and persuasive evidence, increasing the burden of evidence the government has to provide to enforce the forfeiture.
By fair conduct, the enforcement body must establish that there is a substantial link between the property and the crime and that the owner of the seized property’s interest used the property with the intent to promote the crime or knowingly agreed to it, or that another person has been deliberately blinded in connection with the crime. This forms the most important aspect of the act applied to Bitcoin.
At this point, for example, if UTXO itself was previously used to avoid sanctions or touched on the darknet market, the government could seize legally acquired Bitcoin. Regardless of whether the owner knew the history of the coin when it acquired it. By introducing aggressive consent and intentional blindness, the prerequisites for fair conduct that recognized the origins of acquired BTC for the owner of the forfeitured Bitcoin to be confiscated.
Also, fair law requires the government to appoint an attorney to property owners who cannot obtain financial representation. Or, if the cost of acquiring a representative exceeds the value of the seized property, it is an issue that prevents many people from fighting for the forfeiture of the property first. To get your current property back, you need to prove that the government is wrong, not that it has to sue you.
“The confiscation of civil assets allows federal law enforcement to seize the property of Americans who have not been charged or convicted of a crime,” said Sen. Booker, who introduced the bill along with Senator Rand Paul.. “Under this system, police can maintain cash, cars, and even homes based on mere suspicion of a crime. These losses are often in the interest of law enforcement as they are burdened with the property owner to prove that the property should be reclaimed.”
“The government should never have the power to seize a person’s property without justification, but under the current civil assets forfeiture law, Americans are stripped of their property without being charged or convicted of a crime.
If you support a strategic Bitcoin Reserve, the passing of fairness should be a prerequisite for establishment to ensure that the government’s Bitcoin stack is not built on the abuse of its authority.
This is a guest post by L0LA L33TZ. The opinions expressed are entirely unique and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
This post fair law is intended to protect Bitcoin holders, first appeared in Bitcoin magazine and is written by L0LA L33TZ.
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