Napthine-Clark – New laws to seize criminals’ unexplained wealth

· New legislation will require those suspected of serious crime to prove
the lawful origins of property
· Unexplained wealth laws a powerful tool to disrupt and deter serious
and organised crime
· Napthine Government building a safer Victoria

The Victorian Coalition Government will today introduce legislation into
Parliament to establish an unexplained wealth confiscation scheme in
Victoria.

The scheme will allow a court to order the restraining of all the
property of a person suspected on reasonable grounds of serious criminal
activity. The onus will then be on the person concerned to have property
released from the restraint by showing that it has lawful origins. Where
they cannot do so, the assets will be forfeited.

The legislation will also allow a court to order the seizure and
restraint of a particular asset or assets suspected on reasonable grounds
of being unlawfully acquired. The onus will then be on persons claiming
ownership to come forward and demonstrate the lawful origins of the
property.

Premier, Dr Denis Napthine said “Unexplained wealth laws are a powerful
tool to disrupt and deter serious and organised crime. If serious
criminals can’t show where their wealth came from, they’ll have to hand
it over.”

Attorney-General, Robert Clark said “At present, before an asset can be
confiscated, authorities have to be able to show either that the asset
was used in committing a crime or that the particular asset was derived
from the proceeds of crime.

“Under these reforms, authorities won’t need to show a link between
particular assets and crime – if a person’s total assets are greater than
they can explain by legitimate sources, the excess will be forfeited.

“In future, anyone who seeks to profit from organised crime will know
that anything they can’t show was lawfully acquired is at risk of being
forfeited.

“Unexplained wealth laws are potentially a powerful tool to target and
disrupt serious and organised crime, and these laws will facilitate joint
operations between Victoria and other jurisdictions.”

Mr Clark said the power to authorise the seizure and restraint of
individual assets would particularly assist front-line police in tackling
and disrupting lower level drug traffickers and other criminal elements.

“Where a suspected drug trafficker has an expensive car, boat or other
asset that police suspect was purchased with the proceeds of crime, they
will be able to obtain an order to seize that asset, in a similar manner
to obtaining a warrant to seize suspected stolen goods,” Mr Clark said.

“The court will then decide whether the asset seized was lawfully
acquired or not, just as the court now decides whether or not suspected
stolen goods were stolen.”

Mr Clark said the legislation included a range of safeguards:

· where a restraint order is sought on the basis that the person was
engaged in serious criminal activity, this will need to be based on
reasonable grounds. Serious criminal activity will be defined in
legislation, and will generally capture offences punishable by five
years or more imprisonment and involving the generation or concealment
of criminal wealth.
· a person subject to an unexplained wealth restraint order will be able
to appeal against that order, including on the grounds that they were
not in fact engaged in serious criminal activity.
· the court will be able to authorise reasonable living expenses and
legitimate business payments to be made out of restrained property
until it is determined whether or not the property was lawfully
acquired.
· third parties with a lawful interest in restrained property will be
able to apply to have their interest in the property excluded from any
forfeiture.
· family members and others who can demonstrate they would suffer undue
hardship from the forfeiture will be able to apply to the court for a
payment from the forfeited assets as relief from that undue hardship.

The legislation will also:

· contain anti-avoidance provisions that will allow the State to target
lawfully acquired assets where a person tries to frustrate the laws by
hiding unlawfully acquired assets from confiscation.
· require it to be demonstrated that property given as a gift was
lawfully acquired by the person who gave it – this will stop people
seeking to evade the laws by passing wealth to relatives or friends.

Unexplained wealth laws similar to those contained in the Bill currently
exist in all other Australian jurisdictions, other than the Australian
Capital Territory. The new laws will operate alongside existing asset
confiscation laws and the penalty in legislation currently before the
Parliament for those convicted of trafficking in large commercial
quantities of drugs to forfeit almost everything they own.

Mr Clark said improving consistency in confiscation laws between
jurisdictions was important to ensure organised crime groups could not
exploit gaps in a state or territory’s legislation.

“Increasing national cooperation in the area of unexplained wealth and
criminal asset confiscation was discussed in July by Attorneys-General
and Police Ministers at the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council,” Mr
Clark said.