On the last day of Ramadan, which ended Friday, Khalid (Ken) Quran was headed to work.
The owner of a convenience store in Greenville, N.C., Quran works seven days a week with little opportunity for vacation, and has been since he first arrived in the United States in 1997. The ending of the month of fasting was supposed to be a day of celebration for Quran, who worked as a fireman in a town north of Jerusalem before immigrating, but instead it’s just like any other day.
For nearly two decades, Quran has been working to provide for his wife and four children here in the United States. He’s been successful, putting all four of them through college with the money his store makes, and saving for retirement.
But on a June day last year, Quran nearly lost it all after the Internal Revenue Service seized $153,907.99 from his store’s bank account
He was never charged with a crime.
“The United States government—they stole my money,” he said in an interview with The Daily Signal. “I’m working all my life, seven days a week, and they just came in here and took it.”
When two IRS agents came into Quran’s convenience store last year, he didn’t know he’d done anything wrong. But the agents told him he had committed multiple structuring violations, which involves making cash deposits or withdrawals of under $10,000 to skirt reporting requirements.
“The United States government—they stole my money.I’m working all my life, seven days a week, and just came in here and took it,” said Khalid Quran.
When the government officials came into Quran’s store to tell him his money had been seized, they provided him with a form confirming his “consent to forfeit.” Quran, whose first language is Arabic, said he had trouble understanding the form’s legal jargon.
The officers offered to read it for him, Quran recalled, and they ordered him to sign it, yelling in his face. If he didn’t, the IRS agents said they would go to Quran’s wife, Dina, and get her signature instead–which he viewed as a veiled threat.
