International Law

International Recoveries Requires Uncommon Evidence Gathering

By Rick Rein

In a recent 11th Circuit case, United States v. King, 2007 U.S. App. Lexis 28912 (11th Cir. Dec. 14, 2007), the court addressed the legitimacy of evidence seized from a computer in a dorm room in Saudi Arabia. The 4th Amendment protects against unreasonable searches where one can demonstrate a reasonable expectation of privacy. The 11th Circuit had early held that there was no reasonable expectation of privacy where: (1) records are left by tenants of a multi-unit apartment building in the common area of a building (U.S. v. Miravalles, 280 F. 3d 1328 (11th Cir. 2002), (2) a company fails to restrict public access to shredded records placed in a garbage bag in a private dumpster (US v. Hall, 47 F. 3d 1091 (11th Cir. 1995), and (3) garbage is left for collection outside adjacent to a private home and in open view to the public (US v. Segura-Baltazar, 448 F. 3d 1281 (11th Cir. 2006).

The court in King considered that the computer files could be remotely accessed over a computer network. Since everyone could "share" access, the court found that the contents of the computer's hard drive were akin to items stored in the unsecured common areas of a muti-unit apratment or put in a dumpster accessible to the public. The expectation of privacy was unreasonable and therefore no violation of 4th amendment rights occurred when the computer files were searched through the computer's connection to the base network.

Consequently, in gathering evidence in support of an international recovery, if there is public access, even though contained on private property, that evidence is available for discovery. Often, it is that evidence that the party thought was secure from discovery that leads one to recovery sources. 

Full post as published by International Asset Recovery Law Blog on January 08, 2008 (boomark / email).