The Domain Forfeiture Law is not yet applied
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- 24 Mar 2022
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Counterfeit medicines move $200 billion, prostitution $186 billion, counterfeit electronic products $169 billion and drug trafficking more than $ 90 billion in America and Ecuador, according to the Havocscope page , which specializes in sharing information on the global black market.
The illegal trade of organized crime moves between 1.6 and 2.2 trillion dollars worldwide, according to a study by Global Financial Integrity.
In 2011, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Undoc) proposed to the Latin American countries to establish a Domain Forfeiture Law , which would imply a whole regulation that can quickly retain money of illicit origin and thus fight against the economic power of organized crime . It has already been implemented by Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and, in 2021, Ecuador.
In the country, it was approved on April 23, 2021 . The socialization of the process was difficult , according to Anabel Guerrero, a lawyer and part of the Commission for Citizen Participation and Social Control of the previous Assembly, who presented the Law before the Plenary.
What has been achieved with the Law?
In Ecuador, nothing . In Guatemala, in the first three years of its application, with the Asset Forfeiture Law, around $ 3.2 million in assets were seized , according to the newspaper La Hora de Guatemala.
To implement the Law in Ecuador, there needs to be judges specialized in anti-corruption and organized crime , that the Attorney General's Office have a unit that works only on this type of crime, since they are the ones who must make the individual accusations, and that the Attorney General's Office also have a department for this type of research.
Lawyer Anabel Guerrero believes that the main thing is to understand that the objective of the Asset Forfeiture Law is to retain money of illicit origin.
Of the institutions involved, the Prosecutor's Office has the check . In other words, it has already created the Domain Forfeiture Unit with its trained agents. Despite this, it cannot start working until there are anti-corruption judges, who must be appointed by the Judicial Council (CJ).
The Council of the Judiciary confirmed to La Hora that in November 2021, the regulations for the judges contest had already been determined and that two articles of the regulations were reformed earlier this year. In mid-March, with resolution 065-2022, the CJ defined the instructions specifying the requirements and the phases of the process with which 14 judges specialized in crimes of corruption and organized crime will be chosen.
On the side of the Attorney General's Office, it was reported that they are making progress towards the formation of the department that will be in charge of following up on private accusations.
Every Law has its regulations and it is the Executive who issues them . In this case, it has not yet ruled on the subject.
The National Assembly also has an important role. Among its functions, it has the power to monitor the laws it has issued and check their application.
The director of the Legislative Technical Unit, Paulo César Gaibor, told La Hora that there are two stages: follow-up to the norm and evaluation. The Asset Forfeiture Law is in the process of being followed up so that the institutions prepare the ground to implement it. (GVL)
How will the process work?
When all the parties are ready, the country could start capturing the illegal money.
The application of the Law has two stages: the first is the investigation, this should be carried out by the Prosecutor's Office based on an ex officio complaint and even through news in the media. In any situation where there are doubts about the origin of money or assets, the Public Prosecutor's Office can act.
If enough elements are found, it would pass into the hands of the Attorney General 's Office , which must make formal accusations about the illegality of the assets.
This complaint would, in turn, pass into the hands of the judges specialized in this type of crime. They will be in charge of issuing a sentence that, if accusatory, would proceed with the withholding of money or assets that would go immediately into the hands of the State.
According to article 72 of the Law, the proceeds will have to go to " programs aimed at comprehensive child development with an emphasis on early childhood and the eradication of child labor"
According to article 19 of the Domain Forfeiture Law, it can be applied when the assets:
to). They originate, directly or indirectly, from an illicit activity.
b). Correspond to the material object of the illicit activity.
c). They come from the partial or total transformation or conversion , physical or legal, of the product, instruments or material object of illicit activities.
d). They form part of or constitute an unsupported increase in their assets,
and). They have been used as a means or instrument for the execution of illicit activities.
F). According to the circumstances in which they were found, it is possible to establish that they are related to illicit activities.
g). Are of material legal origin or legally confused with illicit origin. Read More...
