After police and authorities have possession of cash or other seized property, there are two ways in which the seized assets become permanently theirs: first, if a prosecutor can prove that seized assets were connected to criminal activity in a courtroom, or second, if nobody tries to claim the seized assets.
[35] What happens in many instances is that the assets revert to police ownership by default. If a victim challenges the seizure, prosecutors sometimes offer to return half of the seized funds as part of a deal in exchange for not suing.
[16] Sometimes police, challenged by lawyers or by victims, volunteer to return all of the money provided that the victim promises not to sue police or prosecutors; according to
The Washington Post, many victims sign simply to get some or all of their money back.
[29] Victims often have "long legal struggles to get their money back".
[29] One estimate was that only one percent of federally taken property is ever returned to their former owners.
[36]
Civil forfeiture in the United States - Wikipedia