Asset Forfeiture Attorney for Travelers

Travelers are allowed to carry cash. They are allowed to move savings, business proceeds, family support, real-estate deposits, and legitimate investment funds through airports and ports of entry. What they are not allowed to do, and what many people only learn after the fact, is fail to report currency or monetary instruments over $10,000 when entering or leaving the United States, or give answers that officers treat as concealment or structuring.

When that happens, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigations, the DEA, or a joint task force can seize the money on the spot. In many of these cases, no criminal charge is filed. The traveler is released. The property is not. From that moment, the government proceeds against the cash itself under civil asset forfeiture laws. Deadlines are short. The burden of building a record that the funds are legitimate falls on the owner. Missing a claim window can result in automatic forfeiture.

At Padula Law, we represent individuals and companies nationwide in asset forfeiture and related federal matters. Attorney Michael Padula previously served as a trial attorney in the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. That background shapes how we evaluate a seizure, how quickly we move a case out of the administrative track, and how we present source-of-funds evidence to the agency or the court.

Carrying Cash Is Legal. Failing to Report It Is Not.

Federal law does not set a maximum amount of currency a person may bring into or take out of the United States. The rule that matters for most travelers is 31 U.S.C. § 5316. If you transport, or are about to transport, more than $10,000 in currency or monetary instruments into or out of the country at one time, you must file a report; typically FinCEN Form 105, the Report of International Transportation of Currency or Monetary Instruments (CMIR).

The $10,000 threshold is cumulative. Officers treat a family, a couple, or a group traveling together as one transportation event when the money is being moved for a shared purpose. Splitting cash among bags, pockets, or companions so that no one person is “over $10,000” is the conduct agencies describe as structuring or concealment. It is one of the most common reasons cash is seized at Miami International Airport, Washington Dulles, and other high-volume ports.

• A completed, accurate report does not create a tax. It does not give CBP a right to keep the money. It documents that the traveler complied with the Bank Secrecy Act.
• An incomplete report, a late report, a report that understates the amount, or an oral answer that does not match what officers later find in luggage is what converts a lawful trip into a seizure.

How These Seizures Happen

Most traveler seizures do not begin with an arrest. They begin with a conversation.

At an outbound international gate, CBP may ask how much currency you are carrying. At secondary inspection on arrival, officers may inspect luggage, wallets, and clothing. At Dulles and other D.C.-area ports, enforcement often focuses on outbound flights. At Miami International Airport, one of the country’s highest-volume ports for currency seizures and a primary gateway between the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, both inbound and outbound examinations are routine.

Once officers believe the reporting requirement was not met, or that the cash is connected to other alleged violations, they take custody of the funds. You should receive a Custody Receipt for Seized Property. Keep it. Photograph it. Do not sign statements characterizing the money as “unexplained,” “not yours,” or “for someone else” without counsel. Those statements follow the case into the Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures file and, later, into court.

Travelers are often told to “wait for the letter and file a petition.” That advice comes from the agency that just took the property. It is not a substitute for legal advice. The letter that follows, the Notice of Seizure and Information to Claimants, starts a short clock. What you elect on that form can determine whether the case stays inside CBP’s administrative process or moves into federal court, where your rights are stronger.

What Assets Can the Government Seize from Travelers?

Asset forfeiture in the travel context is not limited to stacks of bills. Property commonly seized at airports, land borders, and seaports includes:

• U.S. currency and foreign currency.
• Monetary instruments: cashier’s checks, traveler’s checks, money orders, bearer instruments, and certain prepaid instruments.
• Vehicles, vessels, and aircraft alleged to have facilitated the transportation.
• Electronics detained during a border search, including phones and laptops held for further examination.
• Merchandise or commercial goods alleged to be undeclared, misdescribed, or connected to other customs violations.
• Bank or investment funds later restrained because officers claim they are traceable to the seized transportation.

Three Tracks: Administrative, Civil, and Criminal Forfeiture

• Administrative forfeiture: Most airport cash cases start here. The seizing agency, often CBP’s Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures office at the port, sends notice and offers three practical paths: do nothing, petition the same agency for remission or mitigation, or file a claim that forces the government into court. If no timely claim is filed, the agency can declare the property forfeited without a judge ever seeing the file.
• Civil judicial forfeiture: Filing a verified claim stops the administrative process and requires the United States to file a complaint in federal district court, generally within 90 days. The standard of proof is lower than in a criminal case, but you gain discovery, motion practice, and a forum that is not the seizing agency. This is the track we most often use when the funds are legitimate, and the seizure is based on a reporting error, an incomplete explanation at the checkpoint, or a weak theory of “taint.”
• Criminal forfeiture: Criminal forfeiture is tied to a conviction and is part of sentencing. Some traveler cases remain purely civil. Others sit alongside a criminal investigation for bulk cash smuggling, structuring, money laundering, or a related offense. Defense of the property and defense of the person have to be coordinated. Statements made to recover cash can be used in a criminal case. We plan for both from the first call.

The Deadlines That Decide Most Cases

Federal administrative deadlines are unforgiving.

Typical timing in a CBP currency seizure:

• Notice of seizure: generally mailed within 60 days of the seizure.
• Verified claim: usually due within 35 days after the notice is mailed (or within 30 days after final publication if you did not receive personal notice).
• Government complaint: if a proper claim is filed, the United States generally has 90 days to file a judicial forfeiture complaint or return the property.

These windows are not suggestions. A late claim is often treated as no claim. The property is then administratively forfeited. Contact counsel as soon as you have a receipt, a notice, or even a clear memory of the seizure; do not wait for the envelope.

Why Filing Only a Petition Can Be the Wrong First Move

A petition for remission or mitigation asks the same agency that seized the property to give some or all of it back as a matter of discretion. In a clean reporting-error case with strong source-of-funds documents, a well-prepared petition can produce a negotiated return. In many other cases it does the opposite. It keeps the matter inside the agency, invites detailed written admissions, and can delay judicial review for many months.

A verified claim for court action is different. It is the mechanism Congress provided, through the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, to move the dispute before a federal judge. Filing the claim does not prevent a later settlement. It changes the leverage. The government must then decide whether it can prove a connection to a specified offense and whether it wants to litigate that question in the district where the seizure occurred or where the claimant resides.

We evaluate the facts before choosing a track. The decision depends on the amount seized, the quality of the source documentation, what was said at the airport, whether a criminal investigation is open, and which port and U.S. Attorney’s Office will handle the file. There is no single form that is right for every traveler.

Proving the Money Is Legitimate

Civil forfeiture shifts practical pressure onto the owner. The government alleges the property is connected to a reporting violation, concealment, bulk cash smuggling, or some other specified unlawful activity. The traveler has to show a lawful source and a lawful intended use.

Useful evidence often includes bank withdrawal records, sale documents for a home or vehicle, business ledgers and invoices, tax returns, wire confirmations, employment records, affidavits from the people who provided the funds, and a clear explanation of why cash was being carried, rather than using a wire. Gaps in that story are what agencies exploit. So are inconsistent statements given during secondary inspection.

Innocent-owner protection exists under federal law, but it is not automatic. A spouse, parent, business partner, or principal who sent funds with a traveler must be prepared to prove ownership and the absence of knowledge of any illegal purpose. Third-party claims have their own timing rules. They should be raised early, with documents, not as an afterthought.

Proportionality also matters. Even where a reporting violation occurred, the Eighth Amendment and CAFRA limit forfeitures that are grossly disproportionate to the offense. A paperwork failure involving otherwise lawful savings is not the same case as proceeds of trafficking. That distinction should be in the file from the beginning.

What to Do If Officers Seize Your Property

If you are stopped at an airport, land border, or seaport and officers take cash or other property:

• Ask for and keep the custody receipt. Record the date, port, agency, badge names if available, and the exact amount listed.
• Do not consent to a search of a phone or laptop beyond what you are required to allow, and do not speculate about the source of funds. Short, accurate answers are better than a long explanation invented under pressure.
• Do not sign a waiver, abandonment form, or “voluntary” statement that the money is not yours.
• Do not call the Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures office to “explain everything” before you have counsel. Those calls are documented.
• Preserve travel itineraries, ticket receipts, bank records, and any messages about why the funds were being carried.
• Contact a forfeiture attorney immediately, ideally before the notice letter arrives, so a claim can be prepared and the correct election made.

U.S. citizens cannot be denied entry for refusing to unlock a device, but CBP may detain the device and issue a receipt. Non-citizens face different admission consequences. Device detention and currency seizure often happen in the same encounter. Both should be addressed together.

Fighting Forfeiture in Courts Across the United States

Forfeiture law is federal. A seizure at LAX, JFK, Atlanta, or a southwest land crossing follows the same core statutes as a seizure at Miami International Airport or Washington Dulles. What changes is the port’s Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures office, the local U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the practical habits of the agents who work that gateway.

Padula Law maintains offices in Miami and Washington, D.C., and represents clients in matters arising across the United States. Miami is a primary corridor for travel and commerce with Latin America and the Caribbean and has long been among the airports with the highest volume of currency seizures. Washington is where the Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section sits and where many of the policies that shape these cases are written. Michael Padula’s prior service in that Section, and his work as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida, is the perspective we bring to traveler seizures as a working knowledge of how these files are built, charged, settled, and tried.

We handle the related issues that travel with these cases: Bank Secrecy Act exposure, structuring or money laundering allegations, OFAC questions, and parallel criminal investigations. When a company or family office is moving funds, we also advise on how to document source and purpose before the next trip so the same problem does not recur.

Speak with Padula Law Today

If your cash, monetary instruments, or other property were seized while you were traveling, or if you have received a Notice of Seizure and need to decide whether to petition or file a claim, call Padula Law at (888) 574-5155 for a free confidential consultation.

Asset Forfeiture FAQs For Travelers