Criminal Assets Deprivation Bureau of the Public Prosecution Service (BOOM)

1. Paul Notenboom Deputy Director Criminal Assets Deprivation Bureau Public Prosecution Service Senior Public Prosecutor Head of ARO Criminal Assets Deprivation Bureau of the Public Prosecution Service (BOOM)

2. MOTTO and GOAL • Crime should not and will not pay • To keep criminal assets away from the criminals forever

3. Sketch of the Dutch deprivation procedure Dutch procedure = value confiscation (not object confiscation) Deprivation procedure is a separate procedure. Apart from the criminal investigation procedure. Deprivation procedure is a criminal procedure itself. - Rules of the Dutch Criminal Proceedings; - ECHR rules are applied; Conviction in the criminal case is needed. (in rem procedure = not possible) deprivation procedure ≠ new criminal charge

4. Criminal Assets Deprivation Bureau of the Public Prosecution Service (BOOM) • The BOOM since 1994 • June 2006: the BOOM is organised in a new way • More public prosecutors, forensic accountants, civil and international advisors, asset tracers • Opening of branches in Zwolle, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Bosch

5. Position of the BOOM • Part of the PPS • Separate organisation with dedicated personnel and specific goals • Chain of deprivation • To improve results of deprivation

6. Tasks of the BOOM Prosecuting the most important deprivation cases Asset tracing and precautionary seizure Management of the precautionary seizure of capital assets (AMO) Expert centre = knowledge centre Supporting the central fine collection agency(CJIB) regarding the execution of deprivation measures International contactpoint (ARO)

7. Asset Recovery Office BOOM = ARO = new organisation since 1 January 2010 Central point for requests for mutual legal assistance in deprivation cases (national and EU) Expertice centre Sharing best practices Sharing information on police-police level in deprivation cases

8. ARO

9. The Dutch ARO In practise need for: administration asset tracing expertise with regard to international mutual legal assistance - other specialism Occupation of the ARO – window (3 officials): - Administration (1 official); - Asset tracer (1 official); International legal advisor (1 official);

10. Occupations in each branch • Public prosecutor • Assistant of the public prosecutor • Administrative officers • Advisors: auditor civil advisor international advisor • Asset tracer

11. Asset Management Office (AMO) Centralized administration at BOOM minimize costs maximize revenue’s (artt. 117 and 118 Dutch Criminal Procedure Act)

12. Asset management Seized items • Cash • Bank accounts • Vehicles • Vessels • Airplanes • Jewelry • Art • Real estate • Stocks • Seized goods in the Netherlands on behalf of foreign countries • Seized goods in foreign countries on behalf of the Netherlands

13. Asset management The estimated value of the seized goods current estimated value of seized goods Cash money in the account of BOOM € 110.000.000,-- supplemental € 510.000.000,--

14. IRC/ARO/BOOM exchange of police information management of assets registration and monitoring of the seized assets and the MLA requests expert centre irc (centre for international legal assistance) rendering of judicial mutual legal assistance (MLA) requests aro (asset recovery office) amo (asset management BOOM)

15. IRC/ARO/BOOM IRC = Centre for International Legal Assistance; Cooperation Police – PPS; Connection to LURIS system (national registration system for MLA requests); 6 regional IRC’s and 1 national IRC; Ministry of Justice (department for Legal assistance) has also IRC status.

16. Structure centre for International legal assistance in the Nederlands Ministry of Justice IRC Amsterdam ICP/ARO (boom/irc/aro) IRC North and Eastern part of the Netherlands EU Arrest Warrant IRC North, West and the middle part of the Netherlands National IRC IRC The Hague IRC Rotterdam Dordrecht Ipol Tribunals, ICC and int. Legal ass. In Civil maters IRC Southern part of the Netherlands

17. IRC/ARO/BOOM Why ARO/BOOM in IRC structure?: Need for better overview with regard to international confiscation and international seizure; Need for better overview (monitoring) with regard to MLA requests and possibility to signal the bottlenecks; Need for better efficiency with regard to the follow up of the MLA requests (managing of seized assets, transfer of execution); Transparency with regard to the international confiscation: 1 contact for national chain partners and foreign authorities; Because of (multidisciplinairy) expert knowledge at BOOM: more efficiënt and quicker seizure in the Netherlands and abroad; Practical experience leads to knowledge for IRC/BOOM as expertise centre.

18. Asset Recovery Office • Improving the quality on requests for mutual legal assistance in deprivation cases • Better registry of amount of requests for mutual legal assistance in deprivation cases • Better registry of international pre-judgement seizure => better management of the seized items

19. Mutual legal assistance and confiscation Very specific knowledge (combination of expertices, expertice within expertice, special approach is needed); Much development, much interrest for international confiscation; Often new legislation (lack of expertise); Different law systems , different forms of confiscation; Often complicated investigations;

20. Questions? IRC/ARO BOOM P.O. Box 264 2501 CG The Hague Tel: 0031 70 – 424 1680 (1682 or 1670) Fax: 0031 70 – 424 1671 e-mail: irc.aro.boom@om.nl Thank you for your attention!

22. Sketch of the Dutch deprivation procedure Two different schemes of confiscation: a) ‘ordinairy’ confiscation (verbeurdverklaring): punishment; direct link between offence – item; object confiscation;

23. Sketch of the Dutch deprivation procedure Two different schemes of confiscation: b) special confiscation (deprivation of illegally obtained assets) non-punitive order; link between offence – item = not (always) neccesairy; value based confiscation;

24. Sketch of the Dutch deprivation procedure How does it work practically? The amount of the assets that have been obtained illegally can be estimated; Estimation is based on legal evidence that is collected during criminal investigation or criminal financial investigation (CFI); To collect the amount of the criminal assets, any item that is of value and belongs to the suspect can be seized precautionary (pre-judgement seizure); Third party seizure/confiscation is possible; The judge determines the estimated amount of the illegally obtained advantage;

25. New legislation (since 01/07/2011) a) Wider range of the possibility to deprive instrumentalities of crime; b) Introduction of the shifting of the burden of proof; c) Wider range of the possibility to precautionary seize items that belong to another person than the suspect (third party confiscation); d) Possibility to start a CFI (with the possibility to use coersive measures) in the phase between confiscation order and execution (‘SEO’).

26. Developments Minister of Security and Justice: The deprivation procedure of criminal assets must be followed more frequently and automatically. Both the Police and the Public Prosecution Service must become more acquainted with this procedure (not only with regard to financial crimes); Need for better incasso results; Reinforcement of Police and Public Prosecution Service;

27. Developments Better focus on confiscation: a) Regional Public Prosecution Services have to reach targets with regard to prejudgement seizure (a percentage of their budget); b) Special confiscation teams; c) Each year a specific amount with regard to the imposed confiscation orders that have become final has to be collected; (€ 55 mio in 2010, € 50 mio in 2011 and eventually € 100 mio in 2018). d) therefore growth in seized assets 50 mio per annum.

28. Section 117 Dutch Criminal procedure Act The seized objects cannot be alienated....unless an authorisation has been obtained. The authorisation mentioned in section 1 may be given by the Public Prosecutor’s Service as regards objectsa. which are not suitable for storage;b. of which the storage costs stand in no relation to their value;c. which can be replaced and the counter value of which can easily be determined Asset management

29. IRC/ARO/BOOM exchange of police information management of assets registration and monitoring of the seized assets and the MLA requests expert centre irc (centre for international legal assistance) rendering of judicial mutual legal assistance (MLA) requests aro (asset recovery office) amo (asset management BOOM)

30. Section 118a Dutch Criminal Procedure Act The Public Prosecutor’s Service can either officially or on behalf of the person involved or another interested party order the return against surety of an object seized based on article 94a. The surety implies the transfer of money by the party subject to the seizure or a third party, or in relation to a third party, as a guarantee for an amount and payment method accepted by the Public Prosecutor’s Service Asset management

31. In actual fact According to UNodc report (published on 25.10.2011) All over the world in 2009 crime brought in: $ 2,1 trillion (= € 1.500.000.000.000) Which is equal to 4 percent of the world economy; The largest part of this amount is laundered by the criminals; According to the report in 2009 less than 1% was seized; There is still a lot of work to do!