Case: 18-10312 Date Filed: 07/08/2019 Page: 1 of 21 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 18-10312 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 1:15-cv-23616-DPG UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus $70,670.00 IN U.S. CURRENCY, et al., Defendants, KURVAS SECRET BY W, WILSON COLORADO, MILADIS SALGADO, Interested Parties-Appellants. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ________________________ (July 8, 2019) Before WILLIAM PRYOR, NEWSOM, and BRANCH, Circuit Judges. WILLIAM PRYOR, Circuit Judge: Case: 18-10312 Date Filed: 07/08/2019 Page: 2 of 21 This appeal requires us to decide whether the district court abused its discretion when it permitted the government to dismiss its complaint for forfeiture without prejudice and whether the dismissal entitled the claimants to attorney’s fees under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, see 28 U.S.C. § 2465(b)(1). The government filed a complaint for forfeiture against certain funds as the proceeds of criminal activity. Wilson Colorado and his business Kurvas Secret by W claimed most of the funds, and Miladis Salgado claimed the remainder. During the litigation, AnnChery Fajas USA, the victim of the alleged criminal activity, obtained a state judgment against Colorado and Kurvas Secret. To satisfy the judgment, the state court transferred the judgment debtors’ interests in the funds to AnnChery. The government then moved to dismiss its complaint voluntarily without prejudice on the ground that the state-court judgment made the outcome of the forfeiture action irrelevant. The district court granted the motion, denied the claimants’ motion to dismiss the action with prejudice, and denied the claimants’ motion for an award of attorney’s fees. Because the district court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing the action without prejudice and the claimants did not “substantially prevail[],” id., we affirm. I. BACKGROUND AnnChery Fajas USA, Inc., a company based in Colombia and Florida, manufactures and sells fajas, a genre of garments that includes corsets, girdles, and 2 Case: 18-10312 Date Filed: 07/08/2019 Page: 3 of 21 waist cinchers. In response to growing demand—apparently a result of unofficial endorsements by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian—AnnChery instituted a policy limiting the number of fajas a retailer could purchase to 1,500 per week. In late 2014, Wilson Colorado moved from Spain to Miami, where he resided with his ex-wife, Miladis Salgado. At the suggestion of Tatiana Narvaez- Caicedo, the general manager of AnnChery in Florida, Colorado decided to enter the faja retail business. He established Kurvas Secret by W, Inc., a Florida corporation, for that purpose. In April 2015, AnnChery determined that Narvaez-Caicedo was helping Colorado and Kurvas Secret circumvent its quota system and receive AnnChery merchandise without paying for it. AnnChery fired Narvaez-Caicedo; sent Colorado a demand letter alleging that he had stolen its merchandise; and filed a complaint in Florida court against Narvaez-Caicedo, Colorado, Kurvas Secret, and two other defendants alleging that they had conspired to steal from and defraud the company. After receiving the demand letter, Colorado liquidated his Wells Fargo and Chase bank accounts and secured the ...
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