A federal judge in Brooklyn handed the government a minor defeat in a forfeiture case against three men caught smuggling cash to Pakistan.
In U.S. v. Khan, Judge Jack Weinstein denied the government's motion to invoke the "bulk cash" provision of the Patriot Act, under which the three men would lose all the cash that belonged to them. What makes this case interesting is that Judge Weinstein based his decision on the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment. He found that the men earned the money legally, and had not intended to support terrorism or drug trafficking.
But the decision wasn't exactly a ringing victory for the three Pakistanis. Judge Weinstein still upheld the forfeiture of half of their cash, some $48,000 in all. And each of them had already been found guilty of conspiring to conceal more than $10,000 in currency and making false statements to a federal agent--the latter charge landed Martha Stewart in prison--and fined $7,500 each and sentenced to prison.
Click here for the full story, which appeared in today's New York Law Journal.