In November 2025, detectives with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office obtained an ex parte search and seizure eWarrant signed by Circuit Court Judge Donna M. Padar in connection with an investigation into alleged money laundering, grand theft, organized scheme to defraud, and dealing in stolen property. The warrant commanded the cryptocurrency exchange OKX to freeze and transfer our client’s digital assets.
Following service of the seizure warrant on OKX, the exchange placed an administrative freeze on our client’s account, effectively locking our client out of five different digital asset holdings totaling more than $82,000 in market value.
Our client did not find out about the warrant until his OKX account was frozen. Then OKX gave him the contact information for the lead detective with Criminal Investigation Section of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Attorney Leslie Sammis was hired shortly thereafter.
The property listed in the seizure e-warrant included:
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Ethereum (ETH): 17.37858780585
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Tether (USDT): 8,093.71121808675
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USD Coin (USDC): 4,246.0997880716
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Solana (SOL): 22.666879832549998
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Tron (TRX): 4,158.8382718106
While the exchange complied with the directive to lock the account, the cryptocurrency tokens remained within OKX and were never transferred into law enforcement custody.
Our firm intervened directly with the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office and the General Counsel’s Office. We challenged the continued validity of the seizure warrant and the ongoing administrative restraint on multiple grounds:
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Failure of Forensic Tracing & Nexus: Law enforcement affidavits frequently rely on proprietary blockchain tracing software that conflates high-volume exchange intermediary addresses and hot wallets with an individual suspect’s personal wallet. We demonstrated that the state could not establish a direct evidentiary nexus connecting the specific tokens in our client’s account to criminal proceeds.
- Lack of Subject-Matter Jurisdiction: We challenged the circuit court’s subject-matter jurisdiction to issue and maintain a standalone, ex parte seizure warrant over out-of-state exchange assets without an underlying criminal case, an information or indictment, or a pending civil forfeiture action. Under Florida law, Chapter 933 search warrants are designed for physical searches and evidence preservation within a magistrate’s territorial jurisdiction—not as a substitute for the statutory procedural requirements of the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act (FCFA). Because the state never initiated a formal forfeiture proceeding under §§ 932.701–932.7062, Florida Statutes, nor filed criminal charges, the circuit court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to keep an indefinite administrative freeze in place.
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Defects in Custody and Pre-Indictment Delay: The warrant sat partially executed for over nine months. Florida law and constitutional due process do not permit law enforcement to place an indefinite freeze on private assets without formal charges, an arrest, or timely civil forfeiture proceedings under the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act.
Confronted with our challenge and the lack of evidentiary basis to maintain the seizure, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office conceded that no arrests had been made, no prosecution was pending, and no good-faith basis existed to believe prosecution would commence in the immediate future.
On September 4, 2026, the Sheriff’s Office filed an Ex Parte Motion to Vacate Partially Executed Search and Seizure Warrant. Judge Donna M. Padar granted the motion and entered an order vacating the eWarrant in its entirety and formally directing OKX to lift all holds and restore full access to the account. The order vacating the seizure warrant was subsequently served on OKX’s legal compliance team to execute the unfreeze.
Read more about how we represent innocent owners in cryptocurrency seizures for forfeiture under Florida law.
