Linda Martin thought she was being responsible by putting her nest egg in a safe deposit box where she wouldn’t be tempted to touch it.
She never imagined the FBI would seize her life savings.
“They didn’t tell us why they took our money. They haven’t told us anything as far as what we did wrong,” Martin, 58, told Fox News. “We haven’t done anything wrong. We work and we saved our money because we were trying to save and buy a house.”
Two years later, Martin still doesn’t know why her money was taken or if she’ll ever get it back.
THE FBI TOOK HER LIFE SAVINGS, BUT SHE HASN’T BEEN CHARGED. HEAR HER STORY BELOW:
WATCH MORE FOX NEWS DIGITAL ORIGINALS HERE
“The FBI, they feel like they can get away with anything,” she said. “I just feel like it’s unfair.”
On March 22, 2021, the FBI seized Martin’s and 1,400 other customers’ safe deposit boxes from U.S. Private Vaults, a Beverly Hills–based company. The FBI took the $40,200 Linda was saving for a down payment on a home in addition to another $86 million in cash and tens of millions more in gold, silver, jewelry and other valuables from other safe deposit box renters.
Martin found out about the raid while watching the local news with her husband.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Martin said. “I really didn’t believe it. I sat down to start watching the news with him, and the FBI was raiding our private vault place.”
Several months later, she received a notice stating that the FBI wanted to keep her money through a process known as civil forfeiture. Confused by the legal jargon, Martin chose to file a petition with the bureau, the first option listed on their notice, without realizing doing so conceded that her property could be forfeited and, consequently, allowing the FBI to determine if she could get her money back.
Martin told Fox News she hasn’t received a determination.
She also said that to her knowledge, no one who had their assets taken have been charged with or even suspect of any crime. Rather, the FBI had been investigating U.S. Private Vaults, which shut down following the raid and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder drug money.
Linda Martin is filing a class-action lawsuit to recover her life-savings which were seized from her safe deposit box by the FBI in a 2021 raid.
“Unfortunately, this is legal,” Institute for Justice attorney Bob Belden told Fox News. “Civil forfeiture is a process in the United States where law enforcement can take property from people who have never been…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at FOX News : U.S.…