As he informs “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna”, preventive confiscation would complement the so-called extended confiscation. The Ministry of Justice has been working on them for several months and everything indicates that the solution will soon be entered on the list wash Chancellery of the Prime Minister. According to “DGP”, in the next few years the draft regulation will be submitted to public consultations.
Preventive confiscation scares entrepreneurs
Preventive confiscation raises serious controversy, including among entrepreneurs. In May, the heads of the most important business organizations in Poland included in the Entrepreneurship Council signed an appeal to suspend work on new regulations, including Business Center Club, the Polish Chamber of Commerce, the Polish Business Council, Employers of the Republic of Poland and the Lewiatan Confederation.
The Entrepreneurship Council argues that the provisions would be inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, and more specifically with the provision that the forfeiture of items may only take place on the basis of a final court decision. He adds that the condition for seizure of assets would no longer have to be a conviction and that preventive confiscation would also cover the property of persons against whom no criminal proceedings are pending but who are unable to prove the legal origin of the property.
Ministry of Justice: extended confiscation is needed
These fears indeed stem from the design of preventive confiscation, but the Ministry of Justice argues that the law would only be used in the fight against organized crime groups. Indeed, the seizure of the property would be possible regardless of who is formally its owner, but – as “DGP” vividly explains, it was, for example, about taking over the house or car formally belonging to the girlfriend of the head of a criminal group (when, of course, the prosecutor’s office decides that in fact the funds for their purchase came from the criminal activities of her partner). The court would decide whether to apply preventive confiscation in a given situation, upon the prosecutor’s request.
The property seizure procedure could indeed be launched even if the person accused of crimes has not been convicted.
Marcin Warchoł, deputy minister of justice, he explained a few weeks ago in TVP Info, that the introduction of preventive confiscation is an EU requirement.
The EU requirement is (…) to introduce in rem confiscation. This is stated in the regulation on mutual recognition of freezing orders, which will come into force in December this year. We also want it to apply to us, because it will be even more effective to take away criminals’ assets in situations where there is a glaring disproportion between the assets they declare and their income
Warchoł commented.
