By Steve Neavling
The FBI violated individuals’ constitutional rights when agents rifled through hundreds of safe deposit boxes without warrants in 2021, a federal appellate court has ruled.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s decision, saying the search violated the box holders’ 4th Amendment rights, Intercept reports.
The FBI raided U.S. Private Vaults, a safe deposit box company in Beverly Hills, Calif., in March 2021 and seized millions of dollars in cash, along with jewelry, personal items and documents such as wills and prenuptial agreements.
The bureau’s warrant application failed to include crucial aspects of the raid, such as the special agent in charge instructing agents to open each box, preserve fingerprint evidence, document the contents, and utilize drug-sniffing dogs to inspect all cash.
“If there remained any doubt regarding whether the government conducted a ‘criminal search or seizure,’” the 9th Circuit ruled, “that doubt is put to rest by the fact the government has already used some of the information from inside the boxes to obtain additional warrants to further its investigation and begin new ones.”
