Legal Challenges After Feds Seize Safe Boxes In Beverly Hills

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — When the FBI, DEA, and U.S. Postal Service raided U.S. Private Vaults in Beverly Hills, they found safe boxes containing fentanyl, OxyContin, guns, and stacks of gold bullion and up to $1 million in $100 bills, among many other illegal materials. In the process, investigators seized every stored safe deposit box as evidence. To reclaim property, owners must identify themselves and prove that they are the rightful owners, which undermines the “private” in U.S. Private Vaults, which lets customers store materials anonymously. The business shut down in late March, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Five box holders have sued the government, saying it violated the constitutional ban on unreasonable search and seizure. Last Tuesday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner declined one customer’s request for an emergency order that would have stopped the government from searching their boxes and blocked their use as evidence in an ongoing investigation against U.S. Private Vaults. The order would have also stopped the FBI from requiring customers to identify themselves in order to retrieve their property.

But it may not be over yet - Klausner acknowledged that “it is possible that the government’s seizure and search of those other boxes violated the 4th Amendment rights of their owners.” But Klausner said that a request made by a man identifying himself as John Doe was “far broader than necessary” to protect him from harm.

Last month, a federal grand jury indicted U.S. Private Vaults on three counts of conspiracy: to distribute drugs, launder money, and structure cash transactions to avoid currency reporting rules. The indictment alleges that the business is a front for a drug dealing operation, and claims that a USPV employee sold a police informant marijuana and cocaine.

In court papers obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Assistant U.S. Atty. Andrew Brown said that agents seized deposit boxes because there was “overwhelming evidence” that the U.S. Private Vaults is a “criminal business.” At the same time, Brown called some customers “honest citizens” who deserve to retrieve their belongings.

U.S. Private Vaults states online that it does not allow “illegal drugs, weapons, ammunition, hazardous materials, illegal contraband and illegally obtained property or the products therefrom.” The company claims it conducts searches with dogs trained to sniff out drugs.

Lawyers for the customers say the government is overstepping its bounds, because there is no evidence to suspect they were stashing illegal materials. “This is as illegal a search and seizure as I’ve ever seen,” Jeffrey B. Isaacs, an attorney for one customer, told the L.A. Times. “It’s rather shocking.”

“The government, without any probable cause or suspicion, has taken away their property and announced that they won’t return it until my clients can prove they are the ‘legitimate owners,’” attorney Benjamin Gluck told the Beverly Hills Courier.

“The United States Supreme Court has said that the purpose of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent people in ambiguous circumstances. And the government has announced that they believe that everyone who kept the box there is a criminal.”

Related coverage:

DEA, FBI, USPS Investigate U.S. Vaults In Beverly Hills | Beverly Hills, CA Patch