Federal agents and a California sheriff's department seized more than a million dollars in cash from vehicles transporting funds from marijuana dispensaries to financial institutions during multiple traffic stops last year, a new lawsuit claims.
The civil suit was filed in federal district court and shows that lawyers from Empyreal, a Pennsylvania-based company that transports money on behalf of institutions that include cannabis dispensaries, accuse the FBI and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department of coming up with a scheme to illegally pull over company vehicles and seize the money.
According to the lawsuit's claims, Empyreal vehicles have been stopped by local law enforcement five times between Kansas and California since May 2021. Authorities seized cash totaling more than a million dollars twice, and the money was then turned over to the FBI.
"These repeated, ongoing stops, searches, and seizures are costly to Empyreal and extremely disruptive to its business. Empyreal has been forced to suspend business operations in the largest county in the United States, San Bernardino County, and has stopped driving through Kansas," the lawsuit said, according to CNN.
The company has allegedly lost customers because of these incidents. They have also not released any new services across multiple states because of these concerns.
"If these incidents continue to occur -- and there is every indication they will -- it will threaten Empyreal's business model and its ability to continue providing financial infrastructure for the state-legal medical cannabis industry by safely moving cash from business premises into the legal banking system for greater transparency."
It remains unclear what violations authorities asserted to seize the money from Empyreal.
"Empyreal and its clients operate in full compliance with applicable state cannabis laws and all applicable federal and state money laundering compliance requirements," the company claims in the lawsuit.
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on the pending litigation, per CNN.
The Justice Department said in a written response to the lawsuit filed in court that Empyreal lacked legal standing in the suit. They said the company served as a transportation service for money owned by the marijuana dispensaries.
San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus tweeted a statement in response to the lawsuit, saying that "over 80% of marijuana at dispensaries was grown illegally" and added that "illegal cultivation sites have created quality-of-life issues for many of our county's residents."
San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department allegedly made traffic stops in November and December 2021 that are crucial to the lawsuit.
Empyreal's lawyers claim that during the November incident, authorities seized "approximately $700,000 in legal currency from one of Empyreal's vehicles, seized the vehicle itself, and seized the driver's business and personal cellphones," according to the complaint. They also allegedly covered up security cameras on the vehicle while executing the traffic stop.
In the December traffic stop, the company alleges in the lawsuit that deputies seized nearly $350,000 belonging to state-licensed cannabis businesses operating legally under California state law.
"Defendants know that Empyreal vehicles are transporting the cash proceeds of state-legal cannabis businesses and want to seize that money and forfeit it using civil forfeiture," the lawsuit claims.
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