The Wall Street Journal 9/20/93 Seizing Wire Transfers The government can intercept international wire transfers without a warrant, a federal appeals court said, further expanding the scope of scope of civil forfeiture laws. The ruling is apparently the first at the appellate level to address forfeitures involving international wire tranfers, in which bank credits usually are shuffled from a sending bank, to a receiving bank. In the case before the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, drug-enforcement agents seized $12 million at intermediary banks in New York. The government had a warrant to seize only some of the money, all of which was on its way to Colombia. The defendants, 17 Columbian companies that say they are clothing exporters, said the government violated constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. The companies also said the government broke federal privacy laws by subpoenaing their financial records. A three-judge panel of the appeals court in New York, however, ruled that electronic fund transfers happen so quickly that the government can act without a warrant. The court also said the Right of Financial Privacy Act didn't apply, the court said, because no special device, such as a wiretap, is used in seizing a wire transfer. Montgomery Blair Sibley, a Miami attorney for some of the defendants, said the government should have been blocked because it had insufficient evidence to seize his client's money. He said a decision hasn't been made on whether to ask the full appeals court to reconsider the decision. (U.S. vs. Daccarett et al., Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 92-6229) =end= amp ___--BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLJ7DgTspSD5LbeKlAQE0mgP5Adfv3CH+pfAvCdrWUu0Aky5fheed0hlR C/Md4TF2BQP6WZSlQQQ4uqh6si9CJ5NmnED5fPAn3wNRFInIV52C5YR0Qu1KofOu fOrR3uxe5lPTTthIQoHrvb39LD50gBp22XJTMDtvOHm9o5+tOtfP/PyP0f2eo+Uw Nf25KKYPTZw= =arjW ___--END PGP SIGNATURE-----