Hattiesburg Patriot Continues to Receive and Post Much Information about the Compounding Pain Cream Scandal-- including listing huge amount of real estate subject to forfeiture

Note that the actual search and seizure warrant will most likely remain sealed in the court records until either a civil and/or criminal case is filed and unsealed.  The parties would have been served with the search and seizure warrants that relate to their respective property just prior to the search and seizure. 

Real property as a general rule is not seized prior to forfeiture as might be the case of bank accounts, planes and boats, etc.  In the case of real property, what normally happens is that the government will file a notice of lis pendens (which can be located in public records) and do a writ of entry to inspect and inventory the property.  Also note that there are a number of reasons and factors that go into what the government might initially seize in a case. Some of the factors include the equity or value of something, the amount of work and the ability of the government to maintain the property that it seizes (such as animals and businesses).  Some assets may be hidden and eventually be discovered or located as the investigation progresses.  Some assets may be located overseas and while most of those assets can be recovered and forfeited, it is a longer process and takes more time. Additional assets that can be traced as proceeds of the crime or used as substitute assets may be added to either a civil forfeiture complaint or a criminal indictment. Another important note is that the government also has the task of selling and recovering what money it can from assets that are seized and  forfeited.  For example, while someone might have used proceeds to buy a very expensive painting, the market might be very small for that type of painting. Another example is when the proceeds were spent on personal items such as clothes, shoes and purses.  These are hard to ever get back the actual or retail value spent on them because you have to find the right person who is the same size who wants the used items, and rarely do they want to pay retail for used items.     

Because this is an ongoing investigation with no arrest as of yet,  it could be some time before an indictment or indictments are actually issued by the grand jury and any arrests are made.  Based on news reports, a vast amount of documents will need to be reviewed, an indictment will have to be drafted and go through an internal review process before it is presented to the grand jury. The grand jury can ask questions and make a request for additional informational or investigation be done on the case before it votes on and returns an indictment.  Also during this process, people involved can make proffers of what they know, cut deals, plead guilty (in which case the United States Attorney's office might file a complaint rather than a federal grand jury returning an indictment) and the person pleads to the complaint saving time and resources).  This federal criminal process takes more time than most probably realize and there are a number of very important steps that must be taken behind the scenes to ensure that a federal crime has been committed, the right charges are brought, and in the end that justice is done.