Four years after prosecutors grabbed attention by lassoing the Mongols’ logo – a ponytailed man riding a motorcycle – along with myriad club members in Southern California, an appellate court must sort out what the federal government might owe the club’s attorneys.
It could be a lot, in a free-speech case that’s also a cautionary tale about aggressive federal use of forfeiture to seize private property.
“What they did was an outrageous violation of the First Amendment, and an absolute abuse of forfeiture and trademark laws,” American Civil Liberties Union attorney David Loy said Monday in a telephone interview.
Forfeitures are big business for the federal government. Last year, the Justice Department seized some $1.8 billion worth of forfeited assets. Typically, these are ill-gotten gains from drug trafficking, financial fraud and other criminal activity.
The most recent Justice Department forfeited-assets inventory includes a $1.6 million Cessna Citation aircraft seized in Palm Beach, Fla., 10 million Vaquero cigars seized in Louisville, Ky., and 152 boxes of gold and silver taken in Charlotte, N.C. Officials also reported seizing lots of cash and real estate and, in Laredo, Texas, a big stash of “assorted fragrances.”
Los Angeles-based prosecutors claimed a huge haul in October 2008 when they announced mass indictments of those they called “violent Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang” members. The indictments followed a lengthy undercover investigation by four agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who managed to become patch-wearing members of the club.
Prosecutors subsequently secured more than 80 convictions, mostly on racketeering and conspiracy charges. Investigators also seized hundreds of firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, stacks of dollar bills and other items, opening one legal front that’s still active.
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