A weekend topic starting with Morningstar. "Morningstar’s director of research defines an investment as 'an…
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From the first 11:28 video:
Houston TX Market Update | Is it now a BUYER’S MARKET???
Premiered Sep 24, 2022 This Houston TX Market Update dives into what changes we have seen in the last month here in the Houston TX housing market. the past 2 years have been a seller’s market, but things seem to be quickly shifting. This videos covers all the factors that are contributing to this market shift, and we walk through all the reasons it is now a buyer’s market here in Houston TX. With rising interest rates, increased inventory and a looming recession, things have slowed. BUT, this is great news for all of our buyers that have been waiting to buy here in Houston! Prices are being reduced, and builders are finally starting to offer incentives on their homes. Sellers no longer have all the negotiating leverage. Finally!
The second 10:21 video:
El Paso Housing Market | 2022
Premiered Sep 24, 2022
Denver Real Estate Market Update August 2022 – The Market IS CHANGING!
Jill Upleger
Sep 25, 2022 The market continues to change! There are signs of slowing, prices have dropped and close to list price ratio dipped below 100% as mortgage interest rates inch higher.
The last 8 minute video:
Are High Interest Rates Starting to Tank the Average Sale Price in Portland?
Ron Milligan
Sep 24, 2022 September 23, 2022 – Here’s the latest update on the Porland Oregon real estate market. With the 30-year fixed pushing 7%, what sort of affect is that having on our market?
The cost of shipping goods from China has slumped to the lowest level in more than two years as the world economy stumbles, dimming prospects for container carriers that turned in record profits during the pandemic.
A 40-foot shipping box from the world’s largest port of Shanghai to Los Angeles fetched $3,779 last week, the first time the spot price was below $4,000 since September 2020 and half the level of three months ago, according to Drewry.
While the value of Chinese exports was still rising through August, it’s expected to continue to slow down. That’s a symptom of multiple headwinds hitting developed and developing economies alike, from soaring inflation and a surging dollar to central bank interest-rate hikes and trade disruptions blamed on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“It’s fair to say that the demand outlook for the trans-Pacific and container shipping generally is receding quickly,” said Simon Heaney, a senior manager of container research at Drewry.
Al Gore, the former US vice president turned climate activist, said investors are growing increasingly impatient with evidence of potential “greenwashing” amid signs that net-zero pledges made by some members of the financial industry weren’t credible.
Gore, who spoke in an interview just before Climate Week in New York got under way last week, said commitments made by members of the No. 1 green club for bankers and investors — the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero — are “very welcome” and “not meaningless.”
“But obviously they have to be followed up,” he said.
Giorgia Meloni won a clear majority in Sunday’s Italian election, setting herself up to become the country’s first female prime minister at the head of the most right-wing government since World War II.
Her alliance, which also includes Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, claimed about 43% of the vote, according to projections for RAI, the public broadcaster. That would give the bloc at least 114 seats in the Senate, where 104 votes are required for a majority.
Meloni emerged from the political fringes after leading the opposition to Mario Draghi’s technocratic administration which stabilized the country over the past 18 months following the trauma of the pandemic.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — As Europe heads into winter in the throes of an energy crisis, offices are getting chillier. Statues and historic buildings are going dark. Bakers who can’t afford to heat their ovens are talking about giving up, while fruit and vegetable growers face letting greenhouses stand idle.
In poorer eastern Europe, people are stocking up on firewood, while in wealthier Germany, the wait for an energy-saving heat pump can take half a year. And businesses don’t know how much more they can cut back.
“We can’t turn off the lights and make our guests sit in the dark,” said Richard Kovacs, business development manager for Hungarian burger chain Zing Burger. The restaurants already run the grills no more than necessary and use motion detectors to turn off lights in storage, with some stores facing a 750% increase in electricity bills since the beginning of the year.
The stability of the EU’s natural gas reserves now depends on a mild winter. But new weather forecasts for next week indicate that “Arctic chill will blow across western Europe through next week will be the first test of how willing people are to delay switching on the heating in a bid to save energy and ease household budgets,” according to Bloomberg.
Forecaster Maxar WeatherDesk said temperatures in London would sink 5 degrees Celsius below average, falling as low as 6.5 degrees Celsius overnight on Sept. 27. In Frankfurt, Germany, temperatures will fall 3.5 degrees Celsius below normal levels on the 28th, while France and Spain will see temperatures 3-4 degrees lower than the seasonal norm.
“Europeans are stupid.”
Two world wars wiped out those with moxie leaving the pacified.
“IEA Head Warns ‘Wild West’ Energy Scenario Could Unravel Europe”
he unity of EU member states could be in jeopardy as a dark winter fast approaches set to trigger a ‘continental scramble’ for energy resources. European countries would be in a “wild west scenario” in their attempt to pursue energy security which would result in souring relations with neighbors and cause worsening fuel and power shortages with risks of social unrest, warned Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, who was quoted by the Financial Times.
Birol spoke Thursday in an interview at the inaugural Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when he explained the energy crisis threatens to shatter EU unity as countries could restrict or stop trading energy resources with neighbors to ensure their own energy security.
“The implications will be very bad for energy, very bad for the economy, but extremely bad politically … if Europe fails this test in energy, it can go beyond energy implications,” Birol said
The head of the Paris-based watchdog energy group was very straightforward about the two possible scenarios:
“EU and members will work in solidarity, supporting each other . . . or there is another scenario, if everybody is for himself.”
Meanwhile, earlier this month, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was firm in her state of the union address that the unity of EU member states will prevail through this energy crisis.
But there has already been a breakdown in unity among some member states, as FT explains:
Norway’s Nordic neighbours last month blasted Oslo for “selfish” behaviour as it considered pausing electricity exports while it refilled its hydroelectric reservoirs.
Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, state secretary in Norway’s petroleum and energy ministry, denied it would halt exports, however, telling the Financial Times that the country was simply “prioritising filling reservoirs for the same reason as Europe is filling its gas (storage)”.
The EU has faced opposition from Hungary and some other member states as it deepened sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Birol also said complacency in Europe is unwarranted at this moment with natural gas storage facilities filled because a colder-than-expected winter can quickly draw down on supplies, resulting in “bruises” for the continent in the coming months.
There was no indication the energy crisis would abate next year, he said, given lack of spare capacity in energy production worldwide would drive market tightness, adding competition for liquefied natural gas would increase with Chinese demand.
“When we look around there are not many new gas [projects] coming . . . And the Norway, Algeria, Azerbaijan pipelines are near their maximum capacity. It will be another challenging period,” he said.
Birol was adamant about Russia losing its top client [Europe] “forever … this client paid the money on time and didn’t create any political problems.”
He dismissed any claims Russia could quickly replace lost European demand with exports to Asia:
“You are not selling onions in the market. You have to build pipelines, infrastructure, logistics. This will take at least 10 years,” he said.
Birol said precisely what we noted earlier Friday about Russian energy exports set to shrink by the end of the year and well into next year. This may indicate energy prices are set for a rebound this winter.
On the social aspect, if one EU member country restricts power or fuel to another and triggers blackouts or rationing to protect its own security, this would certainly create social instability across the bloc.
Europe is on the list of impending social unrest areas in the “next six months” by Verisk Maplecroft, a UK-based risk consulting and intelligence firm.
It seems dark times are ahead for the bloc if EU unity shatters over energy security.
Median prices for existing homes sold in Pennsylvania dropped 4.7% in August, the first month-over-month drop since February.
Asian markets risk a reprise of crisis-level stress as two of the region’s most important currencies crumble under the onslaught of relentless dollar strength. The yuan and yen are both tumbling due to the growing disparity between an uber-hawkish Federal Reserve and dovish policy makers in China and Japan. While other Asian nations are digging deep into foreign-exchange reserves to mitigate the dollar’s damage, the yuan and yen’s slump is making things worse for everyone, threatening the region’s mantle as a preferred destination for risk investors.
“The renminbi and yen are big anchors and their weakness risks destabilizing currencies to trade and investments in Asia,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank Ltd. in Singapore, using another name for China’s currency. “We’re already heading toward global financial crisis levels of stress in some aspects, then the next step would be the Asian financial crisis if losses deepen.”
‘50% was a mistake’: Seattle City Council abandoned the idea of defunding police
Seattle Times|21 hours ago
As Seattle City Council considers police department funding, calls for defunding by 50% two years ago begin to fade.
I have to laugh at this mealy-mouthed Seattle politician …
“Herbold and Lewis signed on to the idea of defunding, with Herbold drafting but never introducing a proposal to reduce SPD’s remaining 2020 budget by half.
“’On Twitter, I just responded to a bunch of people who are tweeting at me and said I’m going to make a proposal for a 50% cut,’ Herbold explained in July. ‘It was never a proposal on paper. It was never a piece of legislation.’
“’It was never an amendment; it was sort of the framework for what could have, if it was realistic, become an amendment,’ she added.”
As Seattle City Council considers police department funding
Too little, too late. Those cops are gone (probably to the suburbs) and are not coming back.
(NOTE: This outrageous article is not housing related …)
“Lawsuit filed after FBI agents raided 1,400 deposit boxes at a US Private Vaults branch claims owners’ items have still not been returned”
Deposit box holders whose property was seized by the FBI in a March 2021 raid are suing the bureau.
The agency raided US Private Vaults and seized the contents of 1,400
A lawyer involved in the class-action said the FBI raid was the “largest armed robbery in US history.”
Sam Tabahriti
Sun, September 25, 2022 at 1:15 PM
FBI agents raided the Beverly Hills branch of US Private Vaults in
Deposit box holders whose property was seized by the FBI in a March 2021 raid are suing the bureau.
The agency raided US Private Vaults and seized the contents of 1,400 safety deposit boxes.
A lawyer involved in the class-action said the FBI raid was the “largest armed robbery in US history.”
A lawsuit filed after FBI agents raided a Beverly Hills vault company, seizing more than $86 million in cash as well as jewelry and gold from 1,400 safety deposit boxes, claims owners’ items have still not been returned and that agents misled a judge to get the warrant.
Agents raided a branch of US Private Vaults in Beverly Hills in March 2021 and seized assets from boxes held by hundreds of people who were not suspected in any crimes, state court papers reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The FBI and the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles obtained search and seizure warrants against US Private Vaults by concealing critical details from the judge who approved them, according to the lawsuit.
Robert Frommer, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice which brought the lawsuit, said in the court papers: “The government did not know what was in those boxes, who owned them, or what, if anything, those people had done.”
After the raid many box-holders asked the FBI for their property back, Frommer told Insider.
“We brought suit on behalf of seven clients, but we were representing a class of at least 400 people. What we’ve been trying to show for the past several months is that the government’s actions violated the search and seizure protections of the US constitution in the Fourth Amendment,” he said.
“The scope of what the FBI did is unprecedented,” Frommer added. “This was the largest armed robbery in United States history, and it was committed by the FBI.”
After a two-year investigation that began in 2019, leaders of the FBI’s Los Angeles office believed boxes at US Private Vaults were being used by criminals to store illicit proceeds.
The FBI requested and obtained warrants to seize US Private Vaults’ business property. However, a senior FBI agent recently testified that the warrant omitted a key part of the bureau’s plan – to permanently seize everything in every box that contained at least $5,000 in cash or goods, the LA Times reported.
Frommer said in an Institute for Justice press release last month: “The FBI lied about its intentions in claiming to only be interested in the property of the business, and not the box holders. Ultimately, the lure of civil forfeiture turned these federal cops into robbers.”
Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman, told the LA Times the warrants were lawfully executed “based on allegations of widespread criminal wrongdoing. At no time was a magistrate misled as to the probable cause used to obtain the warrants.”
US Private Vaults has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder drug money, and the investigation was continuing, Eimiller added.
The FBI and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
Frommer wants the government to destroy any information or records obtained from customers’ boxes in what he said was a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
The Fourth Amendment protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures.” It requires the government to get a warrant by showing probable cause explaining why a location needs to be searched and describing specifically what it is seizing.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit have asked for the FBI raid to be deemed unconstitutional by a district judge, the LA Times reported. Doing so could force the return of assets worth millions of dollars to box holders.
FBI agents raided the Beverly Hills branch
And I’ll bet all those chumps who haven’t got their sh!t back are still writing checks for Dem candidates’ campaigns.
Yep.
US Private Vaults
Vegas version was robbed years ago. When we first moved here, Mr. Elliot was a radio star with his gravelly voice promoting 24/7 Private Vaults. My brother was interested in getting a box. I laughed and said the whole place has probably got hidden wheels underneath it. Somebody else made off with the loot, though. Story by the reporter who was murdered by the Dem politician. https://www.reviewjournal.com/investigations/mr-elliot-promised-clients-his-private-vegas-vault-was-safe-he-was-wrong-1954566/
From the first 11:28 video:
Houston TX Market Update | Is it now a BUYER’S MARKET???
Premiered Sep 24, 2022 This Houston TX Market Update dives into what changes we have seen in the last month here in the Houston TX housing market. the past 2 years have been a seller’s market, but things seem to be quickly shifting. This videos covers all the factors that are contributing to this market shift, and we walk through all the reasons it is now a buyer’s market here in Houston TX. With rising interest rates, increased inventory and a looming recession, things have slowed. BUT, this is great news for all of our buyers that have been waiting to buy here in Houston! Prices are being reduced, and builders are finally starting to offer incentives on their homes. Sellers no longer have all the negotiating leverage. Finally!
The second 10:21 video:
El Paso Housing Market | 2022
Premiered Sep 24, 2022
The third 15:16 video:
Market update DFW – Frisco – Southlake – Prosper
Dana Pollard
Sep 25, 2022
The fourth 6 minute video:
Denver Real Estate Market Update August 2022 – The Market IS CHANGING!
Jill Upleger
Sep 25, 2022 The market continues to change! There are signs of slowing, prices have dropped and close to list price ratio dipped below 100% as mortgage interest rates inch higher.
The last 8 minute video:
Are High Interest Rates Starting to Tank the Average Sale Price in Portland?
Ron Milligan
Sep 24, 2022 September 23, 2022 – Here’s the latest update on the Porland Oregon real estate market. With the 30-year fixed pushing 7%, what sort of affect is that having on our market?
The cost of shipping goods from China has slumped to the lowest level in more than two years as the world economy stumbles, dimming prospects for container carriers that turned in record profits during the pandemic.
A 40-foot shipping box from the world’s largest port of Shanghai to Los Angeles fetched $3,779 last week, the first time the spot price was below $4,000 since September 2020 and half the level of three months ago, according to Drewry.
While the value of Chinese exports was still rising through August, it’s expected to continue to slow down. That’s a symptom of multiple headwinds hitting developed and developing economies alike, from soaring inflation and a surging dollar to central bank interest-rate hikes and trade disruptions blamed on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“It’s fair to say that the demand outlook for the trans-Pacific and container shipping generally is receding quickly,” said Simon Heaney, a senior manager of container research at Drewry.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weaker-demand-goods-asia-marks-022430576.html
Al Gore, the former US vice president turned climate activist, said investors are growing increasingly impatient with evidence of potential “greenwashing” amid signs that net-zero pledges made by some members of the financial industry weren’t credible.
Gore, who spoke in an interview just before Climate Week in New York got under way last week, said commitments made by members of the No. 1 green club for bankers and investors — the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero — are “very welcome” and “not meaningless.”
“But obviously they have to be followed up,” he said.
https://www.yahoo.com/now/al-gore-calls-greenwashing-risks-173135094.html
Giorgia Meloni won a clear majority in Sunday’s Italian election, setting herself up to become the country’s first female prime minister at the head of the most right-wing government since World War II.
Her alliance, which also includes Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, claimed about 43% of the vote, according to projections for RAI, the public broadcaster. That would give the bloc at least 114 seats in the Senate, where 104 votes are required for a majority.
Meloni emerged from the political fringes after leading the opposition to Mario Draghi’s technocratic administration which stabilized the country over the past 18 months following the trauma of the pandemic.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/meloni-wing-bloc-set-big-211903553.html
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — As Europe heads into winter in the throes of an energy crisis, offices are getting chillier. Statues and historic buildings are going dark. Bakers who can’t afford to heat their ovens are talking about giving up, while fruit and vegetable growers face letting greenhouses stand idle.
In poorer eastern Europe, people are stocking up on firewood, while in wealthier Germany, the wait for an energy-saving heat pump can take half a year. And businesses don’t know how much more they can cut back.
“We can’t turn off the lights and make our guests sit in the dark,” said Richard Kovacs, business development manager for Hungarian burger chain Zing Burger. The restaurants already run the grills no more than necessary and use motion detectors to turn off lights in storage, with some stores facing a 750% increase in electricity bills since the beginning of the year.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/lights-out-ovens-off-europe-preps-for-winter-energy-crisis/ar-AA12eLH7
Europeans are stupid.
“Europe is plagued with an energy crisis, and the cold season is coming ahead of schedule.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/europes-first-cold-snap-begins-next-week-amid-worsening-energy-crisis
(snip)
The stability of the EU’s natural gas reserves now depends on a mild winter. But new weather forecasts for next week indicate that “Arctic chill will blow across western Europe through next week will be the first test of how willing people are to delay switching on the heating in a bid to save energy and ease household budgets,” according to Bloomberg.
Forecaster Maxar WeatherDesk said temperatures in London would sink 5 degrees Celsius below average, falling as low as 6.5 degrees Celsius overnight on Sept. 27. In Frankfurt, Germany, temperatures will fall 3.5 degrees Celsius below normal levels on the 28th, while France and Spain will see temperatures 3-4 degrees lower than the seasonal norm.
“Europeans are stupid.”
Two world wars wiped out those with moxie leaving the pacified.
“IEA Head Warns ‘Wild West’ Energy Scenario Could Unravel Europe”
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/iea-head-warns-continental-scramble-wild-west-scenario-could-unravel-europe\
(snip)
he unity of EU member states could be in jeopardy as a dark winter fast approaches set to trigger a ‘continental scramble’ for energy resources. European countries would be in a “wild west scenario” in their attempt to pursue energy security which would result in souring relations with neighbors and cause worsening fuel and power shortages with risks of social unrest, warned Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, who was quoted by the Financial Times.
Birol spoke Thursday in an interview at the inaugural Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, when he explained the energy crisis threatens to shatter EU unity as countries could restrict or stop trading energy resources with neighbors to ensure their own energy security.
“The implications will be very bad for energy, very bad for the economy, but extremely bad politically … if Europe fails this test in energy, it can go beyond energy implications,” Birol said
The head of the Paris-based watchdog energy group was very straightforward about the two possible scenarios:
“EU and members will work in solidarity, supporting each other . . . or there is another scenario, if everybody is for himself.”
Meanwhile, earlier this month, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was firm in her state of the union address that the unity of EU member states will prevail through this energy crisis.
But there has already been a breakdown in unity among some member states, as FT explains:
Norway’s Nordic neighbours last month blasted Oslo for “selfish” behaviour as it considered pausing electricity exports while it refilled its hydroelectric reservoirs.
Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, state secretary in Norway’s petroleum and energy ministry, denied it would halt exports, however, telling the Financial Times that the country was simply “prioritising filling reservoirs for the same reason as Europe is filling its gas (storage)”.
The EU has faced opposition from Hungary and some other member states as it deepened sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Birol also said complacency in Europe is unwarranted at this moment with natural gas storage facilities filled because a colder-than-expected winter can quickly draw down on supplies, resulting in “bruises” for the continent in the coming months.
There was no indication the energy crisis would abate next year, he said, given lack of spare capacity in energy production worldwide would drive market tightness, adding competition for liquefied natural gas would increase with Chinese demand.
“When we look around there are not many new gas [projects] coming . . . And the Norway, Algeria, Azerbaijan pipelines are near their maximum capacity. It will be another challenging period,” he said.
Birol was adamant about Russia losing its top client [Europe] “forever … this client paid the money on time and didn’t create any political problems.”
He dismissed any claims Russia could quickly replace lost European demand with exports to Asia:
“You are not selling onions in the market. You have to build pipelines, infrastructure, logistics. This will take at least 10 years,” he said.
Birol said precisely what we noted earlier Friday about Russian energy exports set to shrink by the end of the year and well into next year. This may indicate energy prices are set for a rebound this winter.
On the social aspect, if one EU member country restricts power or fuel to another and triggers blackouts or rationing to protect its own security, this would certainly create social instability across the bloc.
Europe is on the list of impending social unrest areas in the “next six months” by Verisk Maplecroft, a UK-based risk consulting and intelligence firm.
It seems dark times are ahead for the bloc if EU unity shatters over energy security.
Median prices for existing homes sold in Pennsylvania dropped 4.7% in August, the first month-over-month drop since February.
https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/pennsylvania/median-price-for-existing-homes-in-pennsylvania-drops-to-209-794-in-august-realtor-group/article_cf41d5aa-3d01-11ed-972c-9f4f79dc0489.html
Asian markets risk a reprise of crisis-level stress as two of the region’s most important currencies crumble under the onslaught of relentless dollar strength. The yuan and yen are both tumbling due to the growing disparity between an uber-hawkish Federal Reserve and dovish policy makers in China and Japan. While other Asian nations are digging deep into foreign-exchange reserves to mitigate the dollar’s damage, the yuan and yen’s slump is making things worse for everyone, threatening the region’s mantle as a preferred destination for risk investors.
“The renminbi and yen are big anchors and their weakness risks destabilizing currencies to trade and investments in Asia,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank Ltd. in Singapore, using another name for China’s currency. “We’re already heading toward global financial crisis levels of stress in some aspects, then the next step would be the Asian financial crisis if losses deepen.”
https://www.yahoo.com/now/financial-crisis-redux-looms-asia-160000271.html
‘50% was a mistake’: Seattle City Council abandoned the idea of defunding police
Seattle Times|21 hours ago
As Seattle City Council considers police department funding, calls for defunding by 50% two years ago begin to fade.
Her is a link …
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/50-was-a-mistake-how-seattle-city-council-abandoned-the-idea-of-defunding-police/
I have to laugh at this mealy-mouthed Seattle politician …
“Herbold and Lewis signed on to the idea of defunding, with Herbold drafting but never introducing a proposal to reduce SPD’s remaining 2020 budget by half.
“’On Twitter, I just responded to a bunch of people who are tweeting at me and said I’m going to make a proposal for a 50% cut,’ Herbold explained in July. ‘It was never a proposal on paper. It was never a piece of legislation.’
“’It was never an amendment; it was sort of the framework for what could have, if it was realistic, become an amendment,’ she added.”
As Seattle City Council considers police department funding
Too little, too late. Those cops are gone (probably to the suburbs) and are not coming back.
(NOTE: This outrageous article is not housing related …)
“Lawsuit filed after FBI agents raided 1,400 deposit boxes at a US Private Vaults branch claims owners’ items have still not been returned”
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/lawsuit-filed-fbi-agents-raided-201539623.html
(snip snip)
Deposit box holders whose property was seized by the FBI in a March 2021 raid are suing the bureau.
The agency raided US Private Vaults and seized the contents of 1,400
A lawyer involved in the class-action said the FBI raid was the “largest armed robbery in US history.”
Sam Tabahriti
Sun, September 25, 2022 at 1:15 PM
FBI agents raided the Beverly Hills branch of US Private Vaults in
Deposit box holders whose property was seized by the FBI in a March 2021 raid are suing the bureau.
The agency raided US Private Vaults and seized the contents of 1,400 safety deposit boxes.
A lawyer involved in the class-action said the FBI raid was the “largest armed robbery in US history.”
A lawsuit filed after FBI agents raided a Beverly Hills vault company, seizing more than $86 million in cash as well as jewelry and gold from 1,400 safety deposit boxes, claims owners’ items have still not been returned and that agents misled a judge to get the warrant.
Agents raided a branch of US Private Vaults in Beverly Hills in March 2021 and seized assets from boxes held by hundreds of people who were not suspected in any crimes, state court papers reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The FBI and the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles obtained search and seizure warrants against US Private Vaults by concealing critical details from the judge who approved them, according to the lawsuit.
Robert Frommer, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice which brought the lawsuit, said in the court papers: “The government did not know what was in those boxes, who owned them, or what, if anything, those people had done.”
After the raid many box-holders asked the FBI for their property back, Frommer told Insider.
“We brought suit on behalf of seven clients, but we were representing a class of at least 400 people. What we’ve been trying to show for the past several months is that the government’s actions violated the search and seizure protections of the US constitution in the Fourth Amendment,” he said.
“The scope of what the FBI did is unprecedented,” Frommer added. “This was the largest armed robbery in United States history, and it was committed by the FBI.”
After a two-year investigation that began in 2019, leaders of the FBI’s Los Angeles office believed boxes at US Private Vaults were being used by criminals to store illicit proceeds.
The FBI requested and obtained warrants to seize US Private Vaults’ business property. However, a senior FBI agent recently testified that the warrant omitted a key part of the bureau’s plan – to permanently seize everything in every box that contained at least $5,000 in cash or goods, the LA Times reported.
Frommer said in an Institute for Justice press release last month: “The FBI lied about its intentions in claiming to only be interested in the property of the business, and not the box holders. Ultimately, the lure of civil forfeiture turned these federal cops into robbers.”
Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman, told the LA Times the warrants were lawfully executed “based on allegations of widespread criminal wrongdoing. At no time was a magistrate misled as to the probable cause used to obtain the warrants.”
US Private Vaults has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder drug money, and the investigation was continuing, Eimiller added.
The FBI and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
Frommer wants the government to destroy any information or records obtained from customers’ boxes in what he said was a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
The Fourth Amendment protects against “unreasonable searches and seizures.” It requires the government to get a warrant by showing probable cause explaining why a location needs to be searched and describing specifically what it is seizing.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit have asked for the FBI raid to be deemed unconstitutional by a district judge, the LA Times reported. Doing so could force the return of assets worth millions of dollars to box holders.
FBI agents raided the Beverly Hills branch
And I’ll bet all those chumps who haven’t got their sh!t back are still writing checks for Dem candidates’ campaigns.
Yep.
US Private Vaults
Vegas version was robbed years ago. When we first moved here, Mr. Elliot was a radio star with his gravelly voice promoting 24/7 Private Vaults. My brother was interested in getting a box. I laughed and said the whole place has probably got hidden wheels underneath it. Somebody else made off with the loot, though. Story by the reporter who was murdered by the Dem politician.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/investigations/mr-elliot-promised-clients-his-private-vegas-vault-was-safe-he-was-wrong-1954566/