DPR Commission III chairman Habiburokhman said the proposed Asset\nForfeiture Bill is intended to allow the seizure of assets belonging to\nperpetrators of fraudulent investment schemes, so that victims can be\ncompensated.<\/p>\n
He said the measure could apply to cases of fraudulent investments\nand other financial crimes, including fictitious stock and commodity\ntrading, cooperatives that default on repayments, and fraud involving\nthe organisation of umrah pilgrimages. Law enforcement practice to date,\nhe said, has shown that victims of financial crime face great difficulty\nobtaining compensation, or restitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conventional criminal justice system focuses too much on\npunishment through imprisonment (in personam), rather than making\nvictims whole,\u201d Habiburokhman said in Jakarta on Friday.<\/p>\n
He said perpetrators often choose to serve several years in prison in\norder to protect the assets obtained through crime, or conceal them\nthrough money laundering before a court ruling becomes final and\nbinding.<\/p>\n
More ironically, he said, legal deadlocks have sometimes resulted in\nthe assets being ordered confiscated by the state. Yet the money came\ndirectly from members of the public who were defrauded, rather than from\nlosses to state finances, as in corruption cases.<\/p>\n
He said these cases are clearly reflected in several major scandals\nthat attracted public attention, including the Binomo binary-options\nscheme involving Indra Kenz and the Quotex scheme involving Doni\nSalmanan; a series of fraudulent robot-trading schemes, including DNA\nPro, Fahrenheit and Net89; and fraud by umrah travel agencies such as\nFirst Travel and Hannien Tour, as well as similar operators.<\/p>\n
In the Binomo case, he said, victims faced considerable uncertainty\nafter a court of first instance ruled that the seized assets should be\nconfiscated by the state. They then had to work exceptionally hard to\nform an association and pursue multiple legal avenues simply to seek the\nreturn of their own money.<\/p>\n
Similarly, in umrah fraud cases such as First Travel and Hannien\nTour, thousands of pilgrims who had saved for years were left in limbo\nbecause the perpetrators\u2019 assets had been depleted or seized by the\nstate, with no clear mechanism for returning the funds to the\npilgrims.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/asset-forfeiture-bill-could-seize-fraudsters-assets-to-compensate-victims-1793343065", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }