Tough on Criminal Wealth: Exploring the Practice of Proceeds from Crime Confiscation in the EU

166 Pages·2006·2.191 MB·English

by  Barbara Vettori (auth.)

TOUGH ON CRIMINAL WEALTH
Tough on Criminal Wealth
Exploring the Practice of Proceeds
from Crime Confiscation in the EU
by
BARBARA VETTORI
TRANSCRIME, Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime,
Università di Trento - U niversità Cattolica di Milano, Italy
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN-10 1-4020-4128-4 (HB)
ISBN-13 978-1-4020-4128-0 (HB)
ISBN-10 1-4020-4129-2 (e-book)
ISBN-13 978-1-4020-4129-7 (e-book)
Published by Springer,
P.O. Box 17, 3300 AADordrecht, The Netherlands.
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© 2006 Springer
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Printed in the Netherlands.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii
INTRODUCTION xi
1. THEREVIVALOFCONFISCATIONINTHEFIGHTAGAINST
CRIMINALORGANISATIONS:THEINTERNATIONAL/EU
AGENDAANDTHEEVOLUTIONOFTHEMEASUREINTHE
ORIGINALFIFTEENEUMEMBERSTATES 1
1.1 THEREVIVALOFCONFISCATIONINTHEFIGHTAGAINSTCRIMINAL
ORGANISATIONS 1
1.2 THEINTERNATIONALANDTHEEUAGENDA 3
1.3 THEEVOLUTIONOFNATIONALCONFISCATIONREGIMESINTHEEU
FRAMEWORK 7
2. WHYANEXPLORATORYSTUDYINTOTHEPRACTICEOF
PROCEEDSOFCRIMECONFISCATIONACROSSTHEORIGINAL
FIFTEENEUMEMBERSTATES? 13
2.1 THELACKOFSTATISTICSONTHEIMPLEMENTATIONOFCONFISCATION
PROVISIONSINTHEEUFRAMEWORK 13
2.2 THESCANTLITERATUREPRODUCEDONTHEIMPLEMENTATIONOF
CONFISCATIONPROVISIONSINTHEEUFRAMEWORK 17
2.3 THENEEDFORANEXPLORATORYSTUDYOFTHEPRACTICEOF
PROCEEDSFROMCRIMECONFISCATION 20
3. HOWTOEXPLORETHEPRACTICEOFPROCEEDSOFCRIME
CONFISCATIONACROSSTHEORIGINALFIFTEENEUMEMBER
STATES? 23
3.1 DEFININGCONCEPTS 23
3.2 METHODOLOGICALSTEPS 25
4. LAWINTHEBOOKS,LAWINACTION 41
4.1 AUSTRIA 41
4.2 BELGIUM 45
4.3 DENMARK 51
4.4 FINLAND 54
4.5 FRANCE 57
v
vi CONTENTS
4.6 GERMANY 61
4.7 GREECE 66
4.8 IRELAND 70
4.9 ITALY 78
4.10 LUXEMBOURG 84
4.11 THENETHERLANDS 89
4.12 PORTUGAL 94
4.13 SPAIN 97
4.14 SWEDEN 101
4.15 THEUNITEDKINGDOM 104
5. MAPPINGTHEMAINPROBLEMSANDHIGHLIGHTINGTHE
BESTPRACTICES:AHORIZONTALANALYSIS 111
5.1 MAINPROBLEMSINTHEPRACTICEOFPROCEEDSOFCRIME
CONFISCATION 111
5.2 BESTPRACTICESINPROCEEDSOFCRIMECONFISCATION 116
5.3 CONCLUSIONS 119
BIBLIOGRAPHY 121
ANNEX1. THEQUESTIONNAIRES 127
ANNEX2. METHODOLOGICALAPPENDIX 145
INDEX 155
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Iwouldliketoexpressmygratitudetothefollowingexpertswhocontributed,intheir
variousroles,tothedevelopmentofthisbook.Withouttheirverykindandgenerous
helpthisworkwouldhaveneverbeenpossible.
ForAustria
– W.Pilgermair,PresidentoftheCourtofAppeal,Innsbruck;
– F.Zeder,DeputyHeadofUnit,AustrianMinistryofJustice,Vienna.
ForBelgium
– V.DeWolf,HeadoftheProceedsofCrimeUnit,BelgianFederalPolice,Brussels;
– E.Francis,PublicProsecutor,DirectoroftheCentralOfficeforSeizureand
Confiscation,Brussels.
ForDenmark
– S.Ponikowski,DeputyPublicProsecutor,ThePublicProsecutorforSerious
EconomicCrime,DanishMinistryofJustice,Copenhagen.
ForFinland
– L. Kuitunen, National Bureau of Investigation—Money Laundering Clearing
House,Vantaa;
– M.Sunell,DistrictProsecutor,Prosecutor’sOfficeoftheHelsinkiLocalDistrict,
Helsinki.
ForFrance
– A. Kostomaroff, Magistrat, Bureau de la lutte contre la criminalite´ organise´e,
letraficdestupe´fiantsetleblanchiment,FrenchMinistryofJustice,Paris;
– J.-F.Pascal,AvocatGeneral,CourtofAppealAixenProvence,AixenProvence.
ForGermany
– J.Klaas,ReferatsleiterOrganisierteKriminalita¨t,NorthRhein-WestphalianMin-
istryofJustice,Du¨sseldorf;
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
– H.H.Plump,LeaderoftheJointFinancialTaskForceBundeskriminalamt/
Zollkriminalamt,Bundeskriminalamt,Wiesbaden.
ForGreece
– P.Nikoloudis,PublicProsecutor,GreekMinistryofJustice,Athens;
– A.Vgontzas,Adviser,GreekMinistryofJustice,Athens.
ForIreland
– B.Galvin,SolicitorinCorkandformerBureauLegalOfficeroftheCriminalAssets
Bureau,Dublin;
– W.Ryan,DetectiveSuperintendent,CriminalAssetsBureau,Dublin.
ForItaly
– P.L.Dell’Osso,SostitutoProcuratoreNazionaleAntimafia,DirezioneNazionale
Antimafia,Rome;
– G.Fidelbo,DirezioneGeneraleAffariPenali—OfficeI,ItalianMinistryofJustice,
Rome.
ForLuxembourg
– J.-P.Frising,Procureurd’Etatadjoint,ParquetduTribunald’Arrondissement,
Luxembourg;
– C.Konsbruck,Conseillerdedirection,LuxembourgMinistryofJustice,
Luxembourg.
FortheNetherlands
– E.vanderSteeg,LegalAdvisoronInternationalAffairs,CriminalAssetsDepri-
vationBureau(BOOM),DutchPublicProsecutionService,Leeuwarden;
– T.Brandsma,FinancialDetective,OfficeofFinancialSupport,Policeofthe
Netherlands,Heeuwarden.
ForPortugal
– J.Davin,PublicProsecutor,ProcuradoriaGeralRepublicaDIAP,Portuguese
MinistryofJustice,Lisbon;
– M.Roma˜o,LegalAdviser,LegalPolicyandPlanningOffice,PortugueseMinistry
ofJustice,Lisbon.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
ForSpain
– J.M.AlvarezLuna,HeadofGroupIoftheLaunderingSection—Economicand
FinancialCrimeSquad,NationalPolice,Madrid;
– I. Navia Osorio, Public Prosecutor, Audiencia Nacional—Fiscalia Antidroga,
Madrid.
ForSweden
– N.Wa˚gnert,LegalAdvisor,SwedishMinistryofJustice,Stockholm;
– A.vonSydow,ChiefProsecutor,ProsecutorGeneral’sOffice,Stockholm.
FortheUnitedKingdom
– D.Evans,JudicialCooperationUnit,HomeOffice,London;
– C.Hugill,HeadofAssetForfeitureUnit,HMCustomsandExcise,London.
INTRODUCTION1
Overthepasttwentyyears,awarenessoftheimportanceofdestabilisingthefinancial
basis of criminal organisations has grown significantly. In the 1980s, as the illicit
productionofdrugsandtheirtraffickinggrewapace,organisedcrime’sfinancialpower
increased substantially, and so did its ability to penetrate and corrupt the legitimate
spherebyintroducingdirtymoneyintothelegalsystem.Thesocalled‘WaronDrugs’,
launchedatthattimeintheUnitedStatesandwhichthenspreadelsewhere,inaugurated
a new era in the fight against criminal organisations which Gallant (1999, 323) has
aptly labelled ‘the age of proceeds’. Given the awareness that the traditional device
usedtocombatcrime,thatis,imprisonment,isentirelyinadequatetocounteractwhat
isessentiallyanentrepreneurialcriminalphenomenonwhosestrengthliesmoreinits
financialbasis(theproceedsfromcrime)thaninitspersonalone(criminalmembers),
internationalpolicymakersrethoughtthestrategiesadoptedtotacklecriminalgroups.
The slogan ‘tough on criminal wealth’ quickly spread, and as a consequence of the
emphasis now placed on criminal revenues, a tool familiar to most of the European
Union countries—albeit one used intermittently and with narrow scope in national
legislation at that time—was rediscovered: namely the confiscation of the proceeds
fromcrime.
Various documents issued at both the international and European Union levels
in the past two decades have stressed the importance of a well-developed proceeds-
orientedstrategyindisruptingcriminalorganisationsandinvitednationstostrengthen
their confiscation provisions. In response to these recommendations, the European
UnionMemberStateshavegraduallyenhancedtheirexistingconfiscationregulations
orintroducedsuchprovisionsexnovo.
The problem, however, is that although a considerable amount of legislation—
inspired by the idea that it is necessary to be ‘tough on criminal wealth’ to combat
criminalorganisationseffectively—hasbeenpassedontheconfiscationofcrimepro-
ceeds,thereisverylittlequantitativeandqualitativeinformationonhowconfiscation
provisions are enforced within the European Union. No statistics—or at most very
limited,partialandunreliabledata—arecollectedontheimplementationofsuchpro-
visions,andthelackofsuchasignificantplatformforanalysishasaffectedthestudies
produced on the topic. Such literature as does exist refers to just under half of the
1Thisbookisbasedontheauthor’sPh.D.thesis.Alsoworthmentioningisthattheauthorofthisbook
starteddevelopingknowledgeofthetopicdealtwithherewhensheactedastheProjectManagerforthe
studyTheSeizureandConfiscationoftheProceedsfromCrimeintheEuropeanUnionMemberStates:What
Works,WhatDoesNotandWhatisPromising,awardedbytheEuropeanCommissiontoTranscrimeunder
theFalcone2000AnnualProgramme,andasco-authorofthefinalreportonthestudy.
xi