Convicted NYC Robber Sees Forfeiture Order Vacated on Appeal

A getaway driver involved in a New York City stash house robbery doesn’t have to pay a forfeiture for proceeds he never received, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday in a reversal.

Matthew Elias, convicted under the Hobbs Act, didn’t get any of the proceeds from the robbery, and the district court’s order to have him forfeit $10,000 was contrary to US Supreme Court precedent, Judge Beth Robinson said in an opinion for the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

The holding put the court in the middle of a circuit split involving how to apply the Supreme Court’s ...