NCJ Number
164127
Date Published
1996
Length
300 pages
Annotation
This manual, intended to replace the "Asset Forfeiture Manual, Volume III: Policy Compendium," reorganizes the policies on asset forfeiture to make it easier to locate the policies that relate to specific issues, such as the seizure, forfeiture, disposition, and sharing of assets and forfeiture proceeds.
Abstract
The chapter on seizure contains guidelines for preseizure planning, ex parte pre-seizure judicial review and other procedures, real property seizures, contaminated real property, financial instruments, seized cash management, and international seizures. Another chapter explains procedures for administrative and judicial forfeiture, including the disposition of cost bonds. A chapter on settlement addresses forfeiture by settlement and plea bargaining in civil and criminal actions, along with expedited payment of lienholders in forfeiture cases. Procedures for third-party interests encompass State and local real property taxes and waiver of costs to owner victims in remission cases. A chapter on the use and disposition of seized and forfeited property considers the management and disposal of seized assets, the use of seized property, disposition of forfeited property, the Attorney General's authority to warrant title, the purchase of personal use of forfeited property by Department of Justice employees, and a review of officials use of forfeited property. Three other chapters explain procedures for equitable sharing, the assets forfeiture fund, and the Attorney General's guidelines on seized and forfeited property. In the miscellaneous section, the manual contains a list of approval and consultation requirements as well as reprints of the chapter from the U.S. Attorneys' Manual on attorney-fee forfeitures and money laundering prosecutions and forfeiture; the FIRREA Memorandum of Understanding; the Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Money Laundering Investigations; and policy concerning working with DynCorp contract employees. Appended supplementary information