A REDUCTION in the waiting period before the State can permanently acquire seized proceeds of crime is being considered as part of a review of Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) legislation.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern announced the review yesterday as he published the bureau’s annual report for 2008, which was completed in June.
The report shows the agency collected just over €6 million in taxes and interest last year and obtained interim restraint orders for assets worth more than €5 million and final restraint orders worth €2.5 million.
The Cab also made savings in social welfare investigations of €712,000 and recovered €358,000 during those inspections.
However, chief bureau officer Supt John O’Mahoney warned that the economic downturn meant many properties held in receivership had to be devalued. The book value of all properties subject to Cab receivership was close to €20 million.
Supt O’Mahoney said: “These properties, which must be retained for seven years before disposal, many of which are subject to outstanding mortgages, will have been devalued significantly.”
Referring to the requirement to hold assets for seven years, the Minister said: “While the legislation underpinning the work of Cab has been hugely successful, I believe that it is timely to see whether the law in this area can be strengthened further.”
The review would consider “decreasing the amount of time which must elapse before criminal assets which have been frozen become the property of the State”.
He said other measures under consideration included “increasing the powers of receivers over properties so as to immediately deprive criminals of the use of those properties” and “short-term seizure of assets believed to be the proceeds of crime pending determination by the courts”.
The review of the legislation which underpins the work of the bureau will also consider further improvements in arrangements to share information with similar criminal asset organisations internationally and to make agreements to share assets which are forfeited through joint investigations.
Mr Ahern praised the continued development of the Divisional Asset Profiler Programme, which, “with the bureau’s policy of targeting the lower value assets of up-and-coming and mid-ranking criminals, serves to present a more visible and effective presence amongst local communities”.
The profiler programme to identify criminal assets throughout the State trained an additional 65 profilers, bringing the total number of profilers within the bureau to 93.
The Cab carried received court orders for 207 search warrants in 2008, obtained 25 receivership orders to seize or dispose of properties, cash, bank accounts, jewellery and cars.
As a result of actions under proceeds of crime legislation, the bureau paid almost €6.13 million to the Department of Finance.
A total of 25 legal cases were begun in 2008 and the bureau was involved in a total of 71 “active” receivership cases, where property and other assets have been frozen and must be held for seven years before being disposed of.
The bureau established an audit-and-risk committee based on the large number of receiverships and an external auditor was appointed to review all 2009 receivership files.
The annual report is the 13th since the Criminal Assets Bureau was established in October 1996. Mr Ahern said that in that period, the bureau obtained interim restraint orders worth more than €76 million and final orders valued at €38 million.
“In the same period, taxes and interest demanded was almost €136 million, with over €124 million collected.”
Social welfare savings of €4.12 million were made and almost €3 million in overpayments was recovered.
