United States v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321 (1998), is a U.S. Supreme Court case holding that asset forfeiture is unconstitutional when it is "grossly disproportional to the gravity of the defendant’s offense", citing the Excessive Fines clause of the Eighth Amendment.

In 1994, Syrian immigrant Hosep Bajakajian and his family tried to fly from Los Angeles to Cyprus via Italy with $357,144 in their luggage in order to pay a debt.

The federal government sought forfeiture of the entire sum under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), which requires all international currency transfers exceeding $10,000 in value to be reported on a Currency and Other Monetary Instruments Report (CMIR); the BSA also allows forfeiture of "any property, real or personal" in cases of violations.

A United States district court judge found the forfeiture of the whole $357,144 to be grossly disproportionate and in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

It is larger than the $5,000 fine imposed by the District Court by many orders of magnitude, and it bears no articulable correlation to any injury suffered by the Government.

[10] In United States v. Stebbins (2005), the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces upheld a $75,000 fine to punish a soldier found guilty of raping a minor.