United States' Unopposed Application To Continue CAFRA Deadline.

(Eight Request)

CARL W. HOFFMAN, Magistrate Judge.

COMES NOW the United States of America and moves this Court to extend the CAFRA (Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act) deadline for the Government to file its forfeiture complaint, in rem, for 90 days, or until June 16, 2018. The current CAFRA deadline for the Government to file its complaint is March 18, 2017.

This is the Government's Eighth request for an extension of the CAFRA deadline. Initially, this Court granted a 90-day continuance until April 11, 2017. The parties have agreed to previous extensions of time as they fastidiously attempt to resolve their differences regarding this seizure of nearly one-half million dollars in monetary assets. This iteration of a continuance motion is based upon the Government's actions to procure business bank records for G-One Smoke Shop and personal bank records for Zalamai Basharyar, the owner of G-One Smoke Shop and the administrative claimant of all of the seized cash.

This motion is unopposed by Claimants' Counsel.

Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 983(a)(2)(E), the United States has 90 days to file a civil complaint, if an interested party files a timely administrative claim with the seizing agency. In this case, Customs and Border Patrol seized the above-referenced defendant monetary assets on August 17, 2016; and the claimants, Zalamai and Sona Basharyar, filed administrative claims with the Department of Homeland Security (United States Customs and Border Patrol) on November 10, 2016. As such, the United States was obliged to file its civil complaint in this case by February 10, 2017. As the parties have continued to wade through the reams and volumes of documents in this case, the Government has made additional, periodic, continuance motions (stipulated to by opposing counsel) to accommodate that voluminous search and analysis.

Since this Court granted the most recent continuance motion on December 20, 2017, the Government has, with Mr. Basharyar's consent, and pursuant to this Court's order, ordered all of Mr. Basharyar's JP Morgan Chase bank records from Chase's out-of-state data processing facility in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. Basharyar had already given the Government his Chase bank records from 2011 to present; but to thoroughly assess the case—since Mr. Basharyar claims that he was making large sums of legitimate income dating back to 2005-03—the Government requested Chase to research and retrieve all of Mr. Basharyar's bank records dating back from the establishment of both his personal and corporate accounts. It took Chase several weeks to retrieve, copy and transport those records from Indianapolis to Las Vegas. The United States Attorney's office finally received those records on February 24, 2018. That record production constitutes hundreds of pages of documents. Although the Government received the documents from Chase a week ago, the financial analyst who will analyze these records has been out of town on training since their receipt by the Government. He will not be able to begin analyzing those records until March 5, 2018, when he returns to his office. In conjunction with his other assigned tasks it will take him several weeks to review these documents and to produce a synthesized conclusion as to their efficacy in reaching a settlement in this case. Analysis of all of Mr. Basharyar's bank records, both those that he has provided and those that had to be retrieved and produced by Chase, is necessary to determine the accuracy and authenticity of the Claimants' assertion about the source of their income.

As noted above, verification and analysis of the records will facilitate the settlement discussions one way or the other regarding the extent to which the seized funds can be traced to legitimate (or illegitimate) sources. Once the bank records have been analyzed, the parties will be able to make an informed decision as to whether the case can be settled or whether a trial is necessary.

Accordingly, the United States requests an additional 90 days (or until June 16, 2018) to complete its financial analysis and determine whether to file a complaint in this matter.

Counsel for the Government has consulted with the Claimants' counsel, Gabriel Grasso, and he has authorized Government counsel to represent to this Court that he does not object to this motion.

This motion is not submitted solely for the purpose to delay or for any other improper purpose.

WHEREFORE, for all of the reasons stated above, the United States moves this Court to continue the CAFRA deadline ninety (90) days or until June 16, 2018.