Biggest ever win for Jersey's Criminal Offences Confiscation Fund
The biggest ever win for Jersey's Criminal Offences Confiscation Fund has been revealed.
Jersey's Criminal Offences Confiscation Fund (COCF) is due to receive over $10,000,000 following a successful application under the Forfeiture Law.
Following a report commissioned into suspect funds held in Jersey, a connection was established to organised crime in the US.
The Forfeiture Law which came into force in Jersey in August 2018, enables applications to be made for tainted money to be forfeited by the banks holding the funds, and transferred into the Criminal Offences Confiscation Fund, which will use it for the benefit of islanders.
The application in question related to funds held in the Truk Settlement, which originated from the Abordo Foundation in Liechtenstein.
The beneficiaries of the now defunct foundation was a lawyer (now deceased) at a US law firm whose client list included high profile individuals connected to organised crime.
Jersey Police referred the matter to the Law Officers' Department's Economic Crime and Confiscation Unit for further investigation.
It was as a result of that investigation that proceedings were brought under the Forfeiture Law.
The funds, totalling $16,828,956.98 will be split between the COCF, who will get 65%, and local charities, who will receive the rest.
How the COCF is used is regulated by Art 4 of the Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Law 1999, which stipulates that the funds shall be used to promote or support measures that may assist:
In preventing, suppressing or otherwise dealing with criminal conduct, and
In dealing with the consequences of criminal conduct, or
In facilitating the enforcement of any enactment dealing with criminal conduct.
In the past funds have been allocated to the building of the new police station, a support centre for ex-prisoners, development at La Moye Prison, body worn cameras for the police and forensic software.