Feds Steals $70,000 from Small Farms Bank Accounts
 

More Government Attacks on Farmers – Feds Steals $70,000 from Small Farms Bank Accounts

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Filed under Economic Preparedness, News April 25, 2012

Over the last couple of months, we have detailed numerous examples of how the government seems to be targeting small family farmers. From Michigan raiding small family farms and making it a crime to breed free range pigs, to the federal governments attempts to make it illegal for kids to work on farms, the attacks on farmers seem to be escalating.

In the governments latest assault on the small family farm, we learned about a family who is fighting the federal government after it seized their bank account and stole $70,000 of their hard earned money.

It seems the Sower family, who owns the South Mountain Creamery in Middletown, Maryland, is being prosecuted by the Department of Justice under the post-9/11 “Bank Secrecy Act”. The act makes it illegal to deposit less than $10,000 if you have deposits totaling more than that. Never mind the fact that it’s your money, the feds can literally freeze and seize your account if you don’t deposit your money in accordance with the federal governments new rules.

From May 6, 2011, though Feb. 27, 2012, The Sowers say that they deposited over $295,000 in earnings. They made 36 separate transactions, each totaling under $10,000. During that period the federal government is claiming that the Sowers receipts, from their farmers market sales, came to just over $320,000. And that’s where the trouble begins.

In February of this year, the Sowers earned over $10,000 from their farmers market sales. When they went to deposit the money they learned they would be required to fill out paperwork at the bank. This paperwork would then be submitted to the federal government for review.

The Sowers, decided it wasn’t worth the time and hassle and opted to role some of their deposit over until the next month. After all it was their hard earned money, why should the government be able to tell them how much they can or can’t deposit into their own account? The Feds had no warrant, no reason to suspect the Sowers were involved in terrorist activates and no reason to suspect that they were laundering money. But thanks to the “Bank Secrecy Act” that was passed shortly after 9/11, none of that seems to matter. In fact, it seems the Feds can do just about anything they want with your money.

According to the ACT:

After the Sowers visit to their bank, they were reported to the Federal Government who then seized their bank account of $70,000. Although the Sower family legitimately earned every cent in that account, committed no real crime, and in my opinion was just trying to maintain their privacy, the Department of Justice in now in the process of suing to keep $63,000 of families money.

Both Randy and Karen Sowers told The Frederick News-Post that they have done nothing wrong and had never heard of this structuring law until Treasury Department showed up at their farm to question them about deposits.

They told the local paper,

Without funds to operate, the family might not be able to do business this year. The government has yet again destroyed another small family farm, making the large corporate mega-farms that much more powerful. But maybe that’s exactly what they want. After all, this never would have happened to those large corporately owned farms. Those farms are Exempt.….

According to the Bank Secrecy Act Anti-Money Laundering Examination Manual

So once again, small business owners become the target of persecution while large corporate entities seem to fly right under the radar. Apparently the feds feel that corporations are above the law and would never engage in illegal activates.

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Black Blade: Convert cash into hard assets and keep those assets well hidden and use the "midnight gardening bank" if you know what I mean. Government is a criminal enterprise and they steal your hard earned wealth. It's what they do. It's the old "Lords and Serfs" carried over into the modern day and age. Nothing really has changed. We have moved away so far from what the founding fathers gave us that even they wouldn't recognize this country. Accumulate wealth but keep it well hidden and inaccessable by the forces of evil.

:( Your money is not your money...

Sounds like the Maryland prosecutors are power-mad douches,

BUT

With 7,000 home delivery customers and 110,000 laying hens, South Mountain Creamery hardly sounds like a "small farm." ( [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] )

My cousin runs a small farm. A section in dry-land farming pasture and crops, 30 head of dairy cows, hogs and chickens.

I also have a small farm. We sell our Fescue hay. This year we had EIGHT large round bales. My hay cutter man gets half, so we sold FOUR gol damn bales @ $20.00. Total farm income for this year: EIGHTY fricken dollars!! Great year for hay.I usually get 30 or so large rounds. The cattlemen will have to have it shipped in this year. Dang glad I did not lime or fertilize this year or I would have lost a bundle. My UPS guy farms 500 acres & spent $11,000 on fertilizer! He's selling off his beefs as fast as he can haul them to the auction barn. No water in the ponds & barely any hay.

I'm not quite 100% cash, but I only keep $100 in the bank and I make a deposit before dropping the bills off at the post office.

I used to think that people who stuffed money in their mattress or buried it in the yard were nuts, but I kept coming across stories like that - the DEA has a whole passel of bank-related regulations for its convenience, long predating 9/11 - and a friend of mine, an active-duty E7, got audited three years in a row. Each time, his first knowledge of it was when checks started bouncing, because the IRS froze his checking account. Didn't help his formerly-perfect credit rating much.

The rest of the world seems to have gone nuts for debit cards. I don't have one. Last month I paid the insurance on the van, $176.36. Handed over two hundreds. Had to wait for the agent to send someone to the back to get change. They said nobody had paid cash there for years. Which wasn't actually true, since I always pay in cash, but before they hadn't had to make change with such a huge sum as $34.67... who could expect them to keep that much money on hand?

A cashless society is the goal, nothing is more freedom limiting than electronic money. One is at the mercy of others when all of his money is in electron form. I do pay for something with prepaid debits that are disposable but i don't use bank debit cards or credit cards anymore and I will not engage in the practice ever again.

Acts are not legal law.

You guys are aware of this one, right. It seems the farmer is not paying the correct corrupt bureaucrat.

The bank secrecy act is set up by bankers, for bankers. And maybe the drug cartels if the money is right.

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Never deposit more than $10,000 in any bank, on any one day..
The bank "must" reoprt it too the IRS and red flags go up.
$9,999.99 your fine. Just watch the extra dollar.
Now how to get around the red flag.
Read the post tanvil put up..
Banks are more than happy too launder "illegal" money.
Sorry about the small farmers problems, but they just did not know how the game works. They were to honest, not good in todays world.
- Did they buy the president of the banks kid a pony?
- Did they drop a large envelope of cash on the floor and say, "Must be yours, that aint mine?
-Did they buy the president of the banks wife a new car?
This is not new, been going on for years. Can you spell "share the wealth."
Now when the pony arrives at the bank dudes home, why hell he just overlooked reporting it.
Read the fines "tanvil post" the banks got for forgetting. Peanuts. :)
Sorry small farmers. But your problem was you were too damn honest.
Oh. Flying out of the country..
Never carry $10 grand or more "cash" on your person.
They will take you in a dark room and water-board you.
Don't ask me how I know.
Hope those hard working farmers learned their lesson.
Next time, drop an envelope $$$. They will be fine. :)