The United States Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and the National Center for States Courts (NCSC) Financial Crimes Team handed over three guides to its Dominican Partners. These guides include standard operating procedures for handling seized cash and a confiscation and restraint guide.
These partners are the Financial Intelligence Unit, the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force, the Chambers of the Attorney General, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Customs and Excise Division
The Handing over ceremony took place at the fort young hotel on Tuesday, August 2nd.
The Guides mainly focuses on the following including the power to search for and seize recoverable property including cash pursuant to the Proceeds of Crime Act, the procedures for handling and storing recoverable property that has been seized, the procedures for applying for further detention and forfeiture of recoverable property, the procedures for applying for restraint orders of recoverable property; and the procedures for applying for a confiscation order after the accused has been convicted.
According to a press release, Confiscation remains one of the most effective tools available to prosecutors. There is no better deterrent to criminal activity than stripping offenders of their ill-gotten gains. Conviction and sentence of offenders must routinely extend to separating criminals from their criminally acquired assets.
The purpose of this Guide is to assist prosecutors by providing an overview of the confiscation process and best practice. It has been developed with reference to relevant cases and case scenarios to assist with the understanding, preparation and conduct of cases.
The Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) provides a prosecutor/investigator with a pre-emptive tool in the restraint order. The effect of this order is that it gives the prosecutor the right to restrain a person’s assets even before they are charged with an offence. This means that a person who is under investigation for a scheduled offence may have his property restrained before he is arrested or charged for the suspected offence.
The restraint order is a pre-charge, preemptive order under POCA and has been recognized by the courts as one of the most draconian tools in the proceeds of crime armoury. It has the capacity to limit dealings with businesses and can cause hardship especially where third parties are concerned. It is not an order that the court issues lightly.
“There are safeguards both at common law and in the POCA to prevent abuse and or breach of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Dominica.”
The Standard Operating Procedures (“SOPs”) set out the procedure for handling and storing cash that has been seized pursuant to Section 65 of the Proceeds of Crime Act (“POCA”). A Law Enforcement Officer (“LEO”) has the power to search for and seize recoverable cash or any part of the cash that is recoverable and seek further detention and forfeiture of cash that is, or represents, recoverable cash or cash intended by any person for use in unlawful conduct. There is no minimum amount of cash that can be seized.
