The US Supreme Court on Monday limited the government’s right to require forfeitures from people convicted in drug cases but who received a small fraction of profits obtained illegally.
The court decision resulted from an unusual meth case concerning two brothers, Tony and Terry Honeycutt, who were selling camping gear at their Chattanooga hardware store in southern Tennessee.
In 2008, they pretended not to notice when profits soared from the sale of a water purifier — an iodine-based product also used to cook up the drug methamphetamine.
The brothers turned a deaf ear to police who had advised them to stop selling “Polar Pure.” The product generated $269,000 in profits over three years for the store, which was partially owned by Tony — but where Terry was but an employee.
The two brothers were indicted for conspiring to and distributing iodine, while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that it would be used to make meth.
Tony pleaded guilty and as part of the plea bargain he forfeited $200,000 of the money made from selling Polar Pure.
The US government wanted Terry to pay the remaining amount — nearly $70,000 — but he appealed, saying that as a salaried employee of the “Brainerd Army Store” he did not benefit from the bumper sales.
The Supreme Court took his side on Monday in a unanimous decision, ruling against the government’s argument that Terry, as an accomplice of his brother, was indebted for the dishonestly-earned profits.
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