Carpenter v. Allen, No. 22-1057 (2d Cir. 2023)
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In Carpenter v. Allen, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit examined a case involving a dispute over the return of seized property following the completion of a criminal case. The plaintiff, Grist Mill Capital LLC ("GMC"), filed a motion for return of property under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g) against the government. The property in question consisted of financial documents seized by the Department of Labor during a criminal investigation and prosecution of Daniel E. Carpenter.
The district court granted GMC's motion in part, ruling that the government failed to demonstrate a need to keep the seized materials given that Carpenter's criminal conviction had been affirmed and his petition for certiorari denied by the Supreme Court. The district court ordered the government to destroy the materials rather than return them to GMC, citing the presence of third parties' personal identifying information used by Carpenter in his fraudulent scheme.
The government appealed the district court's order, arguing that it needed to retain the materials due to Carpenter's pending collateral attack on his criminal convictions. The Second Circuit vacated the district court's order, finding that the government had demonstrated a legitimate need to retain the property to defend against Carpenter's pending Section 2255 motion and to preserve evidence for a potential retrial if the motion succeeded. The court remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with its opinion and dismissed GMC's cross-appeal as moot.
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