For at least several months, federal agents have been working to seize millions of dollars in cash and investment accounts, two homes, one business property, and several vehicles, including a Bentley, from a local businessman and his wife, who operates Anna’s Estate Sales in Little Rock.
Other than alleging in a civil complaint that the property constitutes proceeds of wire fraud and money laundering, and is therefore subject to forfeiture, the U.S. attorney’s office has refused to offer further details publicly, or, according to the couple, even to them.
In a motion to dismiss filed June 25 on behalf of businessman Stephen Parks, his wife, Anna Harper, and three related businesses - limited liability companies Ecotec Coal, King Coal and King Coal Holdings - attorneys urged a federal judge to unseal affidavits that federal agentshave presented to various magistrate judges in support of their requests for 22 searchand-seizure warrants executed between October and February. The attorneys argued that their clients - Parks, Harper and the businesses - need to know specifically what they are accused of in order to contest the seizures.
King Coal describes itself online as a “green energy company” using innovation and technology to “safely revitalize the coal industry.”
“We really don’t know much at all,” Stephen Parks’ attorney, Erin Cassinelli of Little Rock, said last week, when asked what the case was about.She said she and attorneys for Harper and the coal businesses have appealed the sealing of the affidavits to a district judge, and are “waiting for a hearing and ruling.”
Meanwhile, the government hasn’t filed a formal response to Cassinelli’s motion. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office told a reporter Tuesday: “Our office will be filing a response … within the next 20 days. Beyond that, we have no comment.”
Joining in the motion to dismiss with law partners Cassinelli and Jack Lassiter are fellow Little Rock attorneys Eugene Sayre and Christopher Brockett, who represent the three businesses, and Little Rock attorney J. Blake Byrd, who represents Anna Harper, operator of Anna’s Estate Sales in Little Rock for the past 17 years.
According to court documents, the houses seized by federal agents include Parks’ and Harper’s residence at 2020 N. Spruce St. in the Heights. The two other properties that the U.S. attorney’s office contends should be turned over to the government are a house at 4817 Stonewall Road, also in the Heights, and an office building at 1616 Brookwood Drive in the Riverdale Addition. According to the Pulaski County assessor’s office, the latter two properties are owned by King Coal Holdings.
Sayre, a tax attorney, onWednesday referred questions about the case to Cassinelli. Byrd couldn’t be reached for comment.
Court documents show that a Louisiana woman, Dana Parks Messina, is representing herself on a claim involving a 2009 Lexus sport utility vehicle that was in her possession when seized in February. She said she was a “bona fide” purchaser of the vehicle and is an “innocent owner,” having paid off a loan for the vehicle, and having the title for it.
“The Lexus does not involve proceeds connected to alleged criminal activity to Claimant’s knowledge,” Messina said in a sworn statement, noting that her only notice of the civil forfeiture action was a receipt from the seizing agency in February.
“The government, starting in October 2012 and again in January 2013, seized lots of money and property, and searched homes and businesses taking nearly everything, without having to disclose anything but an accusation by statute number,” Cassinelli said in an email on Wednesday. “Here we are in July still fighting to even know what they allege was done illegally. It’s just crazy to me that this can happen. I can understand searches and seizures and a need to delay notice of them, but months and months and months??”
The U.S. attorney’s office filed a complaint Feb. 1, which was amended on May 13, against the three parcels of real estate, about $8 million in seven bank accounts, $73,643 in cash seized from the Spruce Street house, $84,430 from a life insurance policy, the contents of two Raymond James & Associates investment accounts, and five vehicles. Aside from the Lexus, the vehicles are a 2008 Bentley Continental, a 2013 Ford, a 2009 Chevrolet van and a 2011 Ford F150 pickup. The complaint doesn’t name the owners of any of the property.
In the motion to dismiss, attorneys for Parks, Harper and the three businesses cited the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in arguing that the government has failed to comply with requirements for filing forfeiture complaints, inparticular by failing to “state the circumstances from which the claim arises with such particularity that the defendant or claimant will be able, without moving for a more definite statement, to commence an investigation of the facts and to frame a responsive pleading.”
Citing case law, the attorneys further argue: “A complaint must be dismissed if a claimant cannot be sure of the who, what, when, or where of the alleged events surrounding the forfeiture allegations.
“In the present case, the government’s complaint isdeficient on its face because it does not provide any facts, much less facts supporting a reasonable belief that it could prove the property forfeitable at trial,” the motion states. “There can be no doubt that the complaint provided does not include any information from which claimants can understand the theory of forfeiture, begin an investigation, or prepare a responsive pleading.”
The motion later adds, “There is absolutely no information demonstrating a nexus between the property and the alleged wire fraud and moneylaundering. And there is no mechanism for keeping this necessary information sealed while also requiring claimants to meaningfully assert their interests and respond to the complaint.”
The motion notes that in addition to the cash and property seized, federal agents took more than 100,000 businessand personal documents.
The case in which the motion is filed is pending before U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright. It indicates that an appeal of more than one magistrate judge’s refusal to unseal the affidavits in three related cases is pending before U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson, with a hearing scheduled for July 15.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/08/2013