Principal Benjamin Gluck appeared as a special guest on the Courthouse News Service Sidebar podcast episode titled, “For a Fistful of Dollars.” The episode discusses civil forfeiture, the controversial practice in which local law enforcement can seize assets that are suspected of being involved in a crime and its susceptibility to be abused by those with authority. Law enforcement officials often keep the money they seize to self-fund their organizations.
Mr. Gluck commented on the “fiasco” of law enforcement’s disorganized search of deposit boxes during the March 2021 raid at U.S. Private Vaults, a private safe deposit box business in Beverly Hills. He also shared his clients’ unfortunate experience of being required to prove ownership of family heirlooms. Mr. Gluck ultimately summarized the raid as “illegal,” “tone-deaf,” and “disgraceful…as a matter of law and, frankly, just as a matter of decency.”
Click here to listen to the episode: “For a Fistful of Dollars.”
U.S. Private Vaults (USPV), a private safe deposit box business in Beverly Hills, was raided by the government in March 2021. Mr. Gluck and Bird Marella have represented over 30 clients affected by the unlawful seizure, securing the return of over $25 million in seized assets. The matter has received national press coverage. Mr. Gluck successfully opposed the government’s seizure at USPV and established claimants’ rights to proceed anonymously. He was featured in numerous news reports in local and national media, from the Los Angeles Times to Esquire.
