News
Southern District’s Forfeiture Collection Drops 52 Percent in 2008
printThe Southern District of New York collected over 52 percent less in asset forfeitures in fiscal year 2008 than it did in the previous year, the agency said Thursday. The district collected $341 million in civil and criminal forfeitures in the fiscal year ending September 2008, down from a record year during the same period in fiscal year 2007 when the agency collected over $717 million in assets. The Southern District, which includes Manhattan, tallied its claimed but uncollected assets for 2007 at $450 million. In addition to asset forfeitures, the agency collected $54.3 million from civil judgments and $153.5...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Subscribe
Learn More
Related News
Proposals by California's top prosecutor to strengthen the state's anti-money laundering laws are expected to find broad support among lawmakers.
Attorneys for a Florida couple accused of selling black-market medical devices argued before the Supreme Court Wednesday that the government's power to freeze the assets of defendants should be further limited.
The U.S. government's landmark case against HSBC Holdings Plc for knowingly turning a blind eye to financial crime is seemingly fated to end much as it began: complex and messy.
An intergovernmental group's revised expectations of how countries should seize looted assets may prove difficult to meet, and could lower the mutual evaluation scores nations receive for their anti-money laundering controls.
U.S. banks will face additional freeze orders and banking data requests from federal prosecutors when a new asset-freezing measure adopted Wednesday by U.S. lawmakers takes effect next year, say analysts.
Inconsistent international forfeiture laws continue to hamper global asset forfeitures, according to Stefan D. Cassella, chief of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering section of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.
The United States is "very weak" in retrieving assets lost abroad to criminals, and should make better use of international treaties designed to aid asset recovery, according to the head of a company that helps investigate lost funds.
Information on tax evasion and asset recovery cases will likely top data-sharing requests filed by foreign governments with the United States over the next three to five years, say analysts.
A group of seasoned attorneys and investigators is launching a non-profit organization to help developing countries recover some of the billions of dollars in assets plundered by corrupt political leaders.
An anti-money laundering watchdog group today released guidelines on how countries can best identify and freeze assets tied to terrorist financing.
The United Nations Tuesday released its finalized recommendations on how member states should draft legislation to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, including provisions to seize criminal assets.
At least four international banks with operations in the United States are in negotiations with the Chilean government to repatriate as much as $40 million tied to former dictator Augusto Pinochet, an attorney involved with the case confirmed Friday.
The bank, which is based in London, expects to reach a "resolution" with the U.S. Justice Department, U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and New York District Attorneys office, Lloyd's said in a statement Friday.
Lloyds and the Bank of Cyprus are subject to U.S. jurisdiction because Title 18 USC 1956 (b) grants such extraterritorial reach to U.S. courts and because both signed "Consent of Jurisdiction" letters in order to do business in the U.S., according to the Justice Department.
The cases, seeking nearly $300 million in fines, should be dismissed because they constitute an "unprecedented attempt to apply the U.S. money laundering statute beyond its explicit, but limited" extraterritorial reach, Bank of Cyprus and Lloyds TSB Bank argued in court documents released today.
The fallout from the securities fraud and anti-money laundering case involving the two institutions may continue, suggest compliance consultants, who say financial institutions involved in correspondent transactions with the defendants may face pressure from regulators and law enforcement.
Prosecutors are seeking nearly $300 million in penalties, charging that the two foreign-based banks helped to launder the proceeds of a massive securities fraud involving shares of software maker AremisSoft.
The U.S. Justice Department is seeking the forfeiture of $110 million in proceeds from an allegedly corrupt Italian bankruptcy case.