This afternoon the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) publically released a bombshell report finding the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigations of structuring laws and civil forfeiture “compromised the rights of some individuals and businesses.” The TIGTA found that “91 percent of the 278 investigations in its sample where source of funds could be determined were of businesses and individuals whose funds were obtained legally.”

The Institute for Justice’s litigation and research, including its report Seize First, Question Later, which is cited by TIGTA, helped bring these abuses to light.

The report also found:

Department of Justice attorneys working with the IRS encouraged “quick hits,” where property was easier to seize, “rather than pursuing cases with other criminal activity (such as drug trafficking and money laundering), which are more time-consuming”;

“The Government appeared to bargain non-prosecution to resolve the civil forfeiture case[s]”;

Investigators often ignored reasonable explanations for transactions that appeared to fit a pattern of structuring.

Yesterday, U.S. Representatives Peter J. Roskam (R-IL) and Joseph Crowley (D-NY) reintroduced the RESPECT Act, “which would limit the IRS’s ability to seize people’s money without first charging them with a crime.”

In response to today’s report, Institute for Justice Attorney Robert Everett Johnson issued the following statement: