Background
Galina and Michael Rozenberg pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges involving health care fraud and wire fraud. The district court entered preliminary forfeiture orders totaling over five million dollars and seized approximately two point one million dollars from a bank account. A third party, Galina Vorobieva, filed a claim asserting ownership of four hundred twenty-five thousand dollars within that account. The district court denied her claim, finding the Rozenbergs owned the funds.
The court’s reasoning
The court explained that district courts have jurisdiction over all offenses against the United States and must determine forfeitable property. Once a preliminary order is entered, ancillary proceedings allow third parties to claim an interest in the property. However, federal law bars third parties from intervening in the trial or appeal of the criminal case or challenging the forfeitability of the property. A third party can only prevail by showing a right, title, or interest in the property itself, not by relitigating the forfeitability determination.
What it means going forward
Third-party claimants in federal forfeiture cases cannot challenge whether the property was properly forfeited or traceable to the crime. They are limited to proving their ownership interest in the specific property at issue.