Yes, there was an IRS lien placed. When one "gets behind" with the IRS the first thing they do is ask for a list of your assets, even down to any cash value in life insurance policies. They want to collect. If it becomes established that you don't have assets to pay them off, then they will establish a time payment plan with you. Now that it has become public that MS was sitting on all this cash, I would think the IRS has some legal means of going after it. But it would take time for them to implement a court action to get it. (They can't just break into the house, crack the safes and grab it.) In the meanwhile, MS can spend it - as in paying it to his attorney as a retainer. Or even give it away, theoretically.
As for police confiscating cash they find in a house or even on the person of someone they arrest, that would be when they suspect it was part of a crime - such as in a drug deal. They've also been known to confiscate vehicles used for transporting drugs.
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I am real curious about payment by MS to CWW. If JRR was supposed to be getting $10K for his participation - which he would have been getting from CWW - then how much was CWW supposed to get? And did CWW get some cash up front from MS?
What about that brand new storage shed CWW and AW came home to? Where did the money come from to pay for it?
Maybe MS had even more cash in those safes at one time? Remember CWW was paying for gas with $100 bills during the murder trip. Gas and meals for two during the week long "funeral trip"?
Oh, yes, I think some cash changed hands both prior to the murder and during the Florida trip.
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Last but not least, I just saw the Walmart purchases list. A 4 piece lock picking set???