美國政府打擊向中國倒賣豪車以失敗告終

The Mercedes-Benzes, the BMWs and the Land Rovers were largely brand new when federal agents seized them in late 2013, claiming that the small Tennessee company that planned to resell them to wealthy buyers in China was engaging in an insidious fraud.

在2013年底，一批梅賽德斯-奔馳、寶馬和路虎汽車被聯邦特工扣押的時候，大部分都是全新的。聯邦特工聲稱，田納西的一家小型公司暗中欺詐，計劃將這些車轉售給中國的富裕買家。

But a federal jury in Manhattan disagreed.

但曼哈頓的聯邦陪審團不同意這種說法。

It took jurors three hours on Wednesday to determine that there was not enough evidence to support a civil forfeiture lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors. The jury, in ruling in favor of the Efans Trading Corporation, ordered the government to return the luxury cars and $3 million in cash that was also seized from a company bank account.

本週三，在經過了三個小時的討論後，陪審員裁定沒有足夠的證據支持聯邦檢察官提起的這起民事沒收訴訟。陪審團做出了有利於伊凡斯貿易公司(Efans Trading)的決定，命令政府退還這些豪車以及從該公司銀行賬戶中沒收的300萬美元現金。

“We are grateful that the jury saw this case for the government overreach that it was,” said Benjamin J. Razi, a partner with the law firm Covington & Burling, which represented Efans. “Even with the victory they deserved, this case took a tremendous toll on our client.”

“我們很感謝陪審團看清了這件案子中政府的過分做法。”科文頓·柏靈律師事務所(Covington＆Burling)的合夥人本傑明·J·拉奇(Benjamin J. Razi)說，“即使我們的客戶獲得了理所當然的勝利，這個案件也給他們帶來了巨大傷害。”

Efans, based in Memphis, is owned by Yifan Kong and Erxin Zhou, a husband and wife who are Chinese immigrants. The government action effectively forced the couple to shut their car export business, although they still operate a tire importing company.

伊凡斯的總部位於孟菲斯，所有者是從中國移民到美國的孔一帆（音）、周而新（音）夫婦。政府的行爲迫使夫婦倆中止了汽車出口業務，不過他們仍然經營着一家輪胎進口公司。

It was a rare courtroom defeat for Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan. It represents something of a conclusion to an aggressive crackdown by federal law enforcement on a cottage industry of auto export companies that used middlemen and “straw buyers” to buy luxury cars from dealerships in the United States and quickly resell them for big profits in China.

對於聯邦檢察官普里特·巴拉拉(Preet Bharara)來說，這是一次罕見的法庭失敗。這代表着聯邦執法機構積極打擊一系列小型汽車出口公司的行動就此終結。這些小公司利用中間商和“稻草人買家”(straw buyers)從美國經銷商手裏購買豪華車，然後迅速轉售到中國，賺取高額利潤。

The auto export companies sought to take advantage of the demand for luxury cars in China and get around efforts by manufacturers to control the number of cars sold in China and other countries.

這些汽車出口公司想利用中國對豪華轎車的需求，避開製造商對其產品在中國和其他國家銷量的控制。

The auto manufacturers claimed that the export firms were violating standard business practices and using deception to buy cars in the United States. They pressed federal law enforcement to crack down on the exporters. The crackdown was the focus of a 2014 article in The New York Times.

汽車製造商聲稱，這些出口公司違反了標準商業慣例，在美國使用欺騙手段購買汽車。他們敦促聯邦執法部門對這些出口商予以打擊。《紐約時報》曾在2014年就此事做過報道。

In 2015, federal prosecutors began to back away from bringing straw-buyer luxury export cases as part of an overall review of the federal government’s asset forfeiture program. Justice Department officials in Washington counseled prosecutors to either drop or settle forfeiture cases filed against auto export firms unless the authorities could find evidence of real criminality — like tax fraud or evidence that export firms had hired people using forged driver’s licenses to buy cars for quick resale in China.

2015年，在對聯邦政府資產沒收行動進行全面審查的時候，聯邦檢察官開始放鬆關於通過稻草人買家購買奢侈品出口的案件。華盛頓的司法部官員向檢察官提出建議：針對汽車出口公司的沒收案件或者撤訴，或者庭外和解，除非能找到可靠的犯罪證據——例如稅務欺詐，或者是有證據表明，出口公司僱用了僞造駕駛執照的人購買汽車，然後快速轉售給中國的顧客。

A number of open civil forfeiture cases brought by federal prosecutors against auto export firms were either settled or dropped — but not the case that Mr. Bharara’s office had brought against Efans.

聯邦檢察官對汽車出口公司提起的公開民事沒收案件中，一些被撤銷，一些進行了庭外和解，但是巴拉拉的辦公室對伊凡斯公司提起的訴訟不包括在內。

Mr. Razi and another lawyer at Covington, Bruce Baird, said they had asked prosecutors in Mr. Bharara’s office to drop the case in light of the Justice Department’s guidance, but to no avail.

拉奇和科文頓·柏靈律師事務所的另一名律師布魯斯·貝爾德(Bruce Baird)說，他們已經要求巴拉拉辦公室的檢察官根據司法部的指導方針撤銷該案，但是對方不同意。

A spokeswoman for Mr. Bharara declined to comment.

巴拉拉的發言人拒絕就此事予以置評。

In November 2013, when Mr. Bharara’s office filed the forfeiture case, he issued a statement that said Efans had “defrauded dealerships, insurance companies and authorities in its scheme to export luxury automobiles in violation of the law.”

2013年11月，當巴拉拉的辦公室就該案提出指控時，他發表聲明說，伊凡斯公司“違反法律出口豪華汽車的安排，對經銷商、保險公司和當局進行了欺詐”。

The jury reached a unanimous verdict in favor of Efans after a seven-day trial before Judge Katherine Polk Failla of Federal District Court in Manhattan.

在曼哈頓的聯邦地方法院的凱瑟琳·波爾克·法伊拉(Katherine Polk Failla)法官進行了爲期七天的審判後，陪審團達成了一致意見，做出了有利於伊凡斯的裁定。

In recent years, asset forfeiture proceedings have come under broad criticism because of the ability of federal and state authorities to seize property without necessarily filing criminal charges and before proving that a crime has occurred. The Justice Department under the Obama administration moved to reform some of these practices in light of that criticism.

近年來，資產沒收行動遭受了廣泛批評，因爲聯邦和州當局可以在證明有犯罪行爲發生之前，不必提出刑事指控就沒收財產。有鑑於這種批評，奧巴馬在任期間的司法部門對一些這樣的做法進行了改革。

It is not clear how the Trump administration will proceed on civil forfeiture. At a White House meeting with sheriffs from around the country, the president made an offhand remark that seemed to suggest support for aggressive state asset forfeiture laws.

目前尚不清楚特朗普政府將如何處理民事沒收問題。來自全國各地的警長在白宮參加了一個會議，特朗普發表了即興講話，他似乎要支持大力沒收資產的法律。

The lawyer for Efans, Mr. Razi, said he hoped that Wednesday’s jury verdict would send a message to law enforcement about being judicious in seizing assets through civil forfeiture because the burden often rests on the defendants to prove they did nothing wrong.

伊凡斯的律師拉奇表示，希望本週三陪審團的裁決可以向執法機構發送一個信息，告訴執法人員，通過民事沒收查封資產需要更審慎一些，因爲被告常常需要承擔證明自己沒有做錯的責任。

“There is a great risk of abuse with these laws, and we hope they take that into account,” he said.

“這些法律有很大的濫用風險，我們希望他們考慮到這一點，”他說。