Asset Search News Roundup: December 18, 2009
Holocaust-era assets and Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties are the subjects of this "Asset Search News Roundup":
- My article "During A War Everybody Loots A Little Bit", discusses Nazi-looted art. A December 1, 2009, press release also raises this issue. The December press release explains that U.S. authorities recently recovered a painting in a Holocaust-era assets case. The "Jeune Fille à la Robe Bleue" painting depicted below, had been looted from a Jewish family that fled Belgium during WWII. A Long Island, N.Y. gallery owner ultimately cooperated in the painting's forfeiture.
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Image: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties are sometimes used to locate assets that are parked or hidden offshore. A Swiss prosecutor proceeded in Florida last month under such a treaty in The Matter of Jarred Kaplan, 2:09-mc-00040-UA-DNF. As outlined by a memorandum of law, the prosecutor sought to interview a possible witness in Florida pursuant to The Treaty for Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, May 25, 1973, United States-Switzerland, 27 U.S.T. 2019, T.I.A.S. 8302. This suspected witness was believed to be related to the purchase of a watch stolen from Watchmaker's Watch Center in Lugano, Switzerland on September 11, 2008.
Copyright 2009 Fred L. Abrams
During World War II, many art objects, such as paintings, statues, etc. are stolen and brought out of the country. Is it still possible to reconstruct who is the original owner of these treasures, and where they are today? Many of these objects are still easily lost.