Pretty much a must-read for anyone that has “uncleared” UMW funds:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=27876637&postcount=22

Some excerpts from Skallagrim:

The main distinction between players in this UMW/Quicktender/Changestream (UMW for short) and the FTP/Cereus case is that in the UMW situation players have the ability to identify a specific seized bank account with funds in it that were clearly and specifically directed to them. If the reported information is correct, the total seized should equal the amount of “uncleared” transfers reported by UMW. This allows the UMW claimants to easily argue that they are more than “unsecured creditors” – UMW claimants can say that the money seized is not merely “UMW money and they owe me money”; they can claim that the money was money UMW had already credited to me and was merely in transit to me. IOW, it is not money owed to me (unsecured creditor) it is money already “mine.”


But this only gets you over the “identify the specific property claimed” and “identify the claimant and state the claimant’s interest in the property” parts of what is required to file a claim. It does not by any means guarantee a victory in court that leads to the government having to give you the money.


Ultimate victory depends on defeating the government’s claim that the money is forfeitable “proceeds of illegal activity.”

And another:

To explain it by way of a not perfect but more familiar analogy, say you were playing poker in an underground card room in NY. In NY the law is also clear that the player is not subject to prosecution, only the room operator is breaking the law. The room is raided and all money found seized. Money on the table, money in the cage – that is clearly money subject to forfeiture. Money in your wallet you never even put on the table is clearly money not subject to forfeiture. Money in a sealed envelope with your name on it held by the room’s doorman for you to pick up on your way out – that is the kind of question you are facing here ….


And the answer is not certain. Where the answer is not certain, sometimes the best move is to litigate to get an answer. Sometimes not.