Enforcement of foreign restraining orders
| Pages | 290-297 |
| Published date | 07 October 2013 |
| Date | 07 October 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-05-2013-0018 |
| Author | Stefan Dante Cassella |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & Finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial compliance/regulation |
Enforcement of foreign
restraining orders
Stefan Dante Cassella
US Attorney, District of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Abstract
Purpose – This article aims to discuss the problems that the USA encountered when it first
attempted to enact and apply legislation designed to facilitate the enforcement of foreign
asset-preservation orders, the remedial legislation enacted to address those problems, and the recent
success the US Government has had under that new legislation in restraining assets at the request of
foreign courts so that they may be forfeited under foreign law.
Design/methodology/approach – The article reviews the legislative history of the statute enacted
to permit the enforcement of foreign restraining orders and analyzes the cases applying that statute
before and after its amendment in 2010.
Findings – Legislation in the USA now permits the federal courts to register and enforce orders issued
by foreign courts for the purpose of preserving assets that are subject to forfeiture under foreign law.
Originality/value – This is a cutting edge topic in which there has been a great deal of new law in
the past three years.
Keywords Money laundering,Asset recovery, Confiscation orders,Enforcement of foreign orders,
Restrainingorders
Paper type Case study
Legislation in the United States now permits the federal courts to register and enforce orders
issued by foreign courts for the purpose of preserving assets that are subject to forfeiture
under foreign law.
Introduction
For as long as anyone can remember, the proceeds of crime have been flowing across
international borders, unhindered by law enforcement or financial regulations, yet
policy makers and law enforcement officials are still searching for ways to freeze
criminally-derived assets where they are found so that they may be returned to the
country from which they came and forfeited under that country’s laws. Happily, after a
series of false starts, progress has finally been made in this area in the USA.
This article discusses the problems that the USA encountered when it first
attempted to enact and apply legislation designed to facilitate the enforcement of
foreign asset-preservation orders, the remedial legislation enacted to address those
problems, and the recent success the US Government has had under that new
legislation in restraining assets at the request of foreign courts so that they may be
forfeited under foreign law.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1368-5201.htm
This paper is a revised version of the author’s presentation at the 30th Cambridge International
Symposium on Economic Crime, Jesus College, Cambridge University, on September 5, 2012.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or
policies of the US Department of Justice or any of its agencies.
Journal of Money Laundering Control
Vol. 16 No. 4, 2013
pp. 290-297
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1368-5201
DOI 10.1108/JMLC-05-2013-0018
JMLC
16,4
290
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