Asset Forfeiture

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When assets are hidden in a foreign bank account or are otherwise offshore, domestic authorities might be able to seek asset forfeiture, discovery or other relief pursuant to a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (“MLAT”).  Depending on the circumstances, MLAT’s can particularly help domestic authorities trying to locate, (and then possibly forfeit), criminal proceeds which have…

My post “Domestic Shell Companies & An Asset Search” explained that assets are sometimes concealed by shell companies used in a variety of financial frauds.  In fact, states like Nevada and Delaware are especially prone to the formation of shell companies lacking transparency.  Once such shell companies are established in Nevada, Delaware or…

Financial Intelligence Units or other government agencies throughout the world have a keen interest in searching for illicit assets and then forfeiting them.  This global interest in asset forfeiture is perhaps marked by the growth of  “goAML” software from The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.  “GoAML” even includes “goATR”, which…

The Asia / Pacific Group on Money Laundering explains on its typologies webpage, that one way to hide assets is by purchasing portable valuable commodities like diamonds.  The typologies webpage provides the example of a beneficial owner concealing assets by transferring diamonds to another jurisdiction.  One man who may have tried this kind of…

U.S. authorities are seeking the sanction of asset forfeiture in connection with a 36-story Fifth Avenue N.Y.C. building, alleged to be partly owned by Iran’s Bank Melli.   "Assets Seized at Company Suspected of Funneling Money to Iran" and / or a U.S. Treasury Department press release, also report that Bank…

Data mining predicts patterns through electronic data base technologies like statistical analysis and modeling.  Some U.S. law enforcement agencies data mine to predict the criminal patterns of money launderers, terrorist financiers or other criminals.  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security for example, mentioned the following four data mining programs in its February 11, 2008 Letter…

According to Kohl v. Kohl, the Manhattan District Attorney had investigated N.Y.C. contractor Ted Kohl in 1995 for alleged money laundering, larceny and tax evasion.  Mr. Kohl had also been the subject of an asset forfeiture claim because of the District Attorney’s investigation.  As a countermeasure to the forfeiture claim, Mr. Kohl conveyed assets…

Parking assets offshore in one jurisdiction and then exercising control over them through another, sometimes indicates money laundering.  One example of how multiple jurisdictions may have been used to facilitate money laundering, is the case of  United States v. Proceeds of Crime Transferred to Certain Domestic Financial Accounts, U.S. District Court for the…

“I’m out of the asset forfeiture business and Title-III wiretaps too”, Donnie remarked as we discussed the Drug Enforcement Administration’s on-going effort to find hidden assets related to drug trafficking and other crime.  Donnie had retired from the DEA after serving twenty-one years as a Special Agent.  Now he was deployed to the…