United States of America, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Alan Julian and Shirley F. Crowell, Defendants-appellants, 85 F.3d 638 (9th Cir. 1996)

Before: BROWNING and NOONAN, Circuit Judges, and MERHIGE, Senior District Judge.^* 

MEMORANDUM^** 

Filing of a Petition for Remission (pardon)/Mitigation does not represent a contesting of forfeiture of property administratively seized; rather it is "a request for an executive pardon of the property based on the petitioner's innocence or, for a wrongdoer, on a plea of leniency." United States v. Vega, 72 F.3d 507, 514 (7th Cir. 1995), quoting United States v. Ruth, 65 F.3d 599, 604 n. 2 (7th Cir. 1995). Having received notice of an intended forfeiture and failing to file an ownership claim as provided for in 19 U.S.C. § 1608 constitutes "abandonment" of any interest in property, and the taking of such property imposes no punishment and does not implicate a former owner's jeopardy rights. United States v. Cretacci, 62 F.3d 307 (9th Cir. 1995).

AFFIRMED.