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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA California-based couple that operates a wholesale jewelry business is trying to prove that more than $40,000 in cash seized at the Indianapolis FedEx center belonged to them, and was not associated with any criminal enterprise.
Earlier this year, Henry and Minh Cheng made a bulk sale of gold jewelry to a retailer in Virginia, which 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 payment for the merchandise in cash.
The retailer shipped the cash payment of $42,825 through FedEx, and the parcel was routed through the Indianapolis FedEx hub, the second largest FedEx hub in the United States.
There, a police officer seized the package and presented it to a K-9. The police dog alerted to it, allowing the police to get a search warrant to open the parcel.
After an officer found the cash in the parcel, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears filed a civil forfeiture action to keep all of the money.
As with other civil forfeiture cases originating from the FedEx facility, the prosecutors alleged that the cash was proceeds of “a violation of a criminal statute.”
“The Indiana government cannot take money from people just because a shipping company routes it through Indiana,” Institute for Justice Attorney Marie Miller, who is representing the Chengs, said in a news release. “Henry and Minh have never been to Indiana or done business in Indiana, but now they have to defend against a forfeiture action in Indiana, without the state bothering to identify an Indiana crime that it can allege the money is linked to.”
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office said it would not comment on pending litigation.
“There’s no link to any alleged wrongdoing in Indiana, and the parcel is in Indiana purely as a result of the happenstance of FedEx as routing practices,” Miller said in a press conference Monday morning.
According to the Institute for Justice, Indiana has begun proceedings to seize more than $2.5 million from in-transit parcels, and the state has already raked in approximately $1 million from those parcels.
“The fact that they’re fighting against Indiana’s abusive practices is remarkable,” Miller said of the Chengs.
The Chengs have had their business for 30 years and this is the first time something like this has happened to them.
Henry Cheng said during a Monday press conference that he hopes he can change what Indiana is doing: creating civil forfeiture cases by intercepting packages traveling to legit businesses.
“The government can’t even identify a crime that would allow them to keep the money that we need to run our business,” Henry said. “We were shocked when we found out what was going on in Indianapolis and we want to put a stop to it.”
Last week the Institute for Justice filed a response to the forfeiture complaint in Marion Superior Court along with counterclaims alleging Indiana violated the company’s rights and those of classes of people in similar situations.
“This scheme is one of the most predatory we have seen, and it’s past time to put a stop to it,” IJ Senior Attorney Sam Gedge said in a news release. “It’s illegal and unconstitutional for Indiana to forfeit in-transit money whose only connection to Indiana is the happenstance of FedEx’s shipping practices.”
According to MyCase, a hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Sept. 16 on the motion for class certification.
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I had to re-read the article to find out this sleaze bag scheme was NOT being run by Todd Rokita, but the Marion County Prosecutor, Ryan Mears.
While it seems unbelievable that somebody would send $40+K cash via Fedex for something that is not illegal, I am sure the possibility could exist. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
There has to be more to this story than is being provided in this article. How would “a police officer seized the package and presented it to a K-9” even happen without some knowledge in advance the transaction was happening? Are there IMPD officers sitting around the FedEx package sorting facility randomly selecting packages to present to a K-9? While the Chengs may not have done anything illegal, one can assume the other party was involved in some sort of criminal enterprise. If they were a legitimate business, they would have deposited the funds into a company bank account and sent the money to the Chengs via a check or some other electronic means. Best case, they were attempting to avoid paying taxes on $40k of income (tax evasion); worst case, they are laundering money for a larger criminal enterprise. While I feel badly for the Chengs (if they did nothing wrong), the money was never theirs, as the package was never delivered to them. I suspect the sender of the package was either being monitored or someone connected with the sender turned against them and alerted the authorities.