Hi Bordersilver, I don't agree. If you watched the whole thing she lied to them at every stage. Have you got any more money to declare? No! Outcomes another Wad of cash. Have you got anymore cash? No! Outcomes another Wad of cash.. and another..and another. She had that many Wads of cash she was lucky they didn't keep the lot. Cheers markcoinoz
Do you blame her for not being so forthcoming? How many people sleep with money under their mattress rather than declaring it? Her crime? Having too much money and not sharing knowledge of it! Yes, I know the rules re: $10 000. But the fact that it's "law" doesn't make it morally "right".
She's from a country where officials routinely take bribes, money, land and other valuables. I think it's a natural instinct NOT to tell government employees. Especially NOT government employees. My personal opinion is it's none of the government's business who has how much cash or valuables, until after they get convicted of committing an actual crime.
The other guys above responded well enough, but my point was simply that it is deemed "wrong" to not declare. Repeatedly not declaring (i.e. her lying) is secondary.
I'm no lawyer however sometimes a person is found guilty of a crime but a conviction is not recorded. So if a person sold some drugs for $200 or whatever with no criminal record, the court may find them guilty but not record a conviction as a conviction may prevent the person from traveling, doing certain jobs etc. In that case the $200 would be proceeds of crime without a conviction and forfeited because otherwise even being found guilty by a court, the person could keep the $200 drug money!
Found another video on asset forfeiture. This is really just a teaser for a documentary US news company The Blaze has done on the practise. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x-pTrYzeak[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKuaSRr6EXw[/youtube] I'm sure there are hundreds of similar stories to this.