Thread by @latimes

The company that ran a Beverly Hills store that rented out safe deposit boxes has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring with customers to launder drug money.

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The company admitted that it recruited drug traffickers as customers and used the illicit proceeds to run the business.

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It also acknowledged that people at the company sold cocaine, arranged drug deals at the store and instructed customers how to structure cash transactions to dodge currency reporting requirements. latimes.com/california/sto…

The U.S. Private Vaults store on Olympic Boulevard was put out of business in March 2021, when federal agents hauled away all of its safe deposit boxes, along with at least $86 million in cash and millions of dollars more in jewelry and valuables.

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Assistant U.S. Atty. Andrew Brown, who is leading the investigation, has branded most of the store’s roughly 800 customers as “criminals” in court papers. But the government has charged no customer with any crime.

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Yet the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office have sought to confiscate the contents of 369 of the boxes that were seized, alleging that the money, precious metals, watches and other goods that they contained were the fruit of unspecified criminal activity.

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After a slew of lawsuits accusing prosecutors of trampling on the rights of box holders, the government has returned tens of millions of dollars in cash and valuables to customers who said they were falsely accused of wrongdoing.

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Lawyers for box holders have denounced the U.S. Private Vaults operation as a “money grab.” latimes.com/california/sto…

Under the plea deal with U.S. Private Vaults Inc., the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles agreed not to file criminal charges against the company’s two owners.

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