Confiscation

Where seizure or freezing holds assets in place, confiscation takes them for good. Two broad models exist. Under conviction-based confiscation, a court orders it after a criminal conviction, often as a sum of money equal to the offender's benefit, which the person can pay from any assets. Under non-conviction-based systems, the state can take property linked to crime through a civil process without a criminal verdict. Courts may also order the surrender of assets of equivalent value when the original proceeds have been spent or hidden. The same idea applies to bribery: a confiscation order can strip a bribe taker or giver of the bribe and the gain it produced, and it can reach a company that profited. Prosecutors, financial investigators and asset recovery offices work together to trace and value the assets before the order is made. Prosecutors who stop at a prison sentence leave the offender holding the profit, so the order is what removes the reward; where the law allows, the recovered sum also compensates victims.

A court convicts the owner of a construction firm of paying bribes to win public contracts. Prosecutors show he gained a benefit of 2 million from the contracts. The judge makes a confiscation order for that sum. Because he has spent part of it, the order is met from a flat and a bank balance he owns, and the state uses the proceeds to compensate the public body.