DOJ to strengthen kleptocracy asset recovery

Financial Crimes DOJ Digital Assets Russia Ukraine Ukraine Invasion Of Interest to Non-US Persons Biden RICO OFAC Sanctions Department of Treasury Department of State

On April 28, the DOJ issued a fact sheet outlining legislative proposals to strengthen kleptocracy asset recovery as part of the Biden administration’s efforts “to isolate and target the crimes of Russian officials, government-aligned elites, and those who aid or conceal their unlawful conduct.” The proposed measures would “streamline asset forfeiture proceedings in certain circumstances” and also:

• Enable the DOJ and Treasury and State Departments to work together to return forfeited kleptocrat funds to remediate harms caused to Ukraine;
• Expand forfeiture authorities under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to include property used to facilitate the violations of sanctions and “amend IEEPA’s penalty provision to extend the existing forfeiture authorities to facilitating property, not just to proceeds of the offenses”;
• Expand the definition of “racketeering activity” in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to include criminal violations of IEEP and the Export Control Reform Act to improve the U.S.’s ability to investigate and prosecute sanctions evasion and export control violations;
• Extend the statute of limitations for prosecuting sanctions violations and the statute of limitations for seeking forfeitures based on foreign offenses from five years to 10 years; and
• Improve the U.S.’s ability to work with international partners to facilitate enforcement of foreign restraint and forfeiture orders for criminal property and improve the ability to take these actions in the U.S.

As previously covered by InfoBytes, the DOJ launched “Task Force KleptoCapture,” an “interagency law enforcement task force dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export restrictions, and economic countermeasures that the United States has imposed, along with allies and partners,” in order to “isolate Russia from global markets” in March. The task force has since engaged in numerous transatlantic efforts to sanction numerous Russian elites, Russia’s largest privately-owned aircraft, and one of the world’s largest superyachts (covered by InfoBytes here), and has “seized approximately $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties held at nine U.S. financial institutions.”

Find continuing InfoBytes coverage on the U.S. sanctions response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine here.