How the government uses a ‘legal maze’ to ‘wage war’ on Americans’ property, according to this attorney

Institute for Justice senior attorney Dan Alban says the federal government is using the "legal maze" of civil forfeiture to wage war on Americans and their bank accounts.

"It's designed to cleanly and efficiently take money away from people and give it to the government and not really give them the due process that they're entitled to," added Alban, who represents a number of Americans in their civil forfeiture battles against the government. "It’s designed to cleanly and efficiently take money away from people and give it to the government" Teny Sahakian is an Associate Producer/Writer for Fox News. Follow Teny on Twitter at @tenysahakian. 

Asset forfeiture is a process that allows the government to seize money or other property it suspects is linked to criminal activity. Most federal forfeitures are civil, meaning the government can keep the seized assets without charging or convicting the property owner with a crime.

Fighting to get seized property back is often difficult and expensive since forfeiture effectively places the burden of proof on the property owner, according to Alban. And because it's a civil case, there's no right to a public defender.