cross-posted from: https://community.hackliberty.org/post/4832

A lawsuit that was filed after FBI agents raided a vault company, seizing more than $86 million in cash as well as jewelry and gold from 1,400 safe-deposit boxes, says the owners’ items have still not been returned and that agents misled a judge to get the warrant.

Agents raided the Beverly Hills, California, branch of US Private Vaults in March 2021 and seized assets from boxes held by hundreds of people who were not suspected in any crimes, court papers reported on by the Los Angeles Times say.

The lawsuit alleges the FBI and the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles obtained search-and-seizure warrants against US Private Vaults by concealing critical details from the judge who approved them.

Robert Frommer, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice, which filed the lawsuit, said in the court papers: “The government did not know what was in those boxes, who owned them, or what, if anything, those people had done.”