To those who don't know, the government is allowed to seize items that are illegal or illegally gained. This is nothing new and the founding fathers were probably well informed of the practice.
This article is basically written by the man trying to get his money back. Does the article mention how many arrests for selling drugs the man has? Does the article mention if a drug detector dog alerted on the cash? Does the article mention whether the cash is in low demoninations? Do the robbers have anything to say about why they targeted that particular home? Were the guns used legally purchased or were they seized also? Doesn't have cash to pay for a lawyer?--Go to the FBI and make a claim to get your money back. If they refuse, go to court and make the claim. No lawyer needed.
People think $400 grand can just be seized for no legitimate reason? I seize items all the time after an arrest--mostly drugs, weapons, and phony identification. Occasionally a car or boat is seized when used for a felony, but I have only personally seen a couple cash seizures because tying cash to a crime is difficult--even if the criminal is carrying it on him at the time he is arrested. In other words, he gets arrested with $1500 in cash, he may or may not go to prison, but will leave with $1500.
The procedure to seize $400K isn't to throw it in a grocery bag and leave. There is a big paper trail and tons of photocopying of the bills by two agents (one copies, the other witnesses). The FBI may be a lot of things, but they aren't stupid. They aren't going to seize that kind of cash without having some serious evidence that it is illegally obtained--if just to avoid all the work of doing the seizure.