But that’s not true is it? David Vocatura was in his nearly 100-year-old family bakery when a squad of armed IRS agents filed into the store. The agents wanted to know if Vocatura and his brother Larry were trafficking drugs or running a prostitution ring. The brothers had no idea what they were talking about. The reason they were suspicious? His small business dealt in cash only to avoid credit card charges and deposited the money nightly. Due to the volume of their business, the deposits were generally under $10,000. As you are no doubt aware, there is a reporting requirement if you deposit over $10,000 and it’s illegal to avoid this reporting requirement in order to hide illicit funds. There is no evidence that this small town bakery was involved in drugs or prostitution. No one has ever filed charges against them for this or presented any witnesses or any documents to support that theory. The case was litigated in district court for three years. The Vocatura’s hired attorneys and were told the case would go away if they accepted a deal and agreed to forfeit some portion of the money. We know about this case, because the Vocatura’s didn’t accept the deal. Eventually after three years of litigation, the IRS dismissed the case in a legal maneuver that might keep them from having to pay the Vocatura’s attorney fees. The IRS then filed opened a grand jury investigation demanding three years of the Vocatura’s financial records. They are now trying to see if they can find anything at all the Vocatura’s did wrong.

And while it is the IRS, it’s not a totally different system, because this isn’t a tax case in that sense. It’s a typical civil case in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. It’s an asset forfeiture case and their attorney, The Institute for Justice has a website if you’re interested in the history of the litigation and what their lawyer was doing.