Seized assets fund activated by the Treasury

As the government intensifies it’s crackdown on money laundering and criminal networks, the Treasury has created a fund to manage assets seized from illicit activity.
The Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering (Criminal Assets Recovery Fund) Regulations were formally published by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u, launching the fund and facilitating the appointment of a director to act as the fund administrator and the creation of an asset recovery advisory board.
The director will oversee and administer the day-to-day management of the fund, including opening and running it’s bank accounts, while the asset recovery advisory board is anticipated to provide the agency with advice largely on fund administration and management.
“The purpose of these regulations is to provide a framework for the administrative operations of the fund and the utilisation of properties and monies standing to the credit of the fund,” said the Treasury in a gazette notice covering the new regulations.
Established by the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act, the criminal assets recovery fund is the repository for all funds obtained from finalized orders of confiscation and forfeiture, as well as properties retrieved from those orders.
The remaining funds from foreign confiscation orders after payments to the countries making the requests, appropriations made by Parliament, grants from both domestic and international sources, and funds or property recovered under the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act are additional sources of funding for the fund.
The revised regulations outline additional funding sources for the fund, such as money from restitution orders and incidental compensation, profits from investments made into the fund, and money accruing from the management of property that has been seized or forfeited.
Nonetheless, the fund is anticipated to pay 5% of the entire revenues realized from any property seized or forfeited to the government to the asset recovery agents, as well as funds obtained from completed confiscation and forfeiture orders to the government’s consolidated fund.
Additionally, the fund will reimburse the Finance Reporting Center for 3% of all proceeds that are recovered or realized from any property that has been confiscated or surrendered to the government.
Administrative costs and a third party’s claims over a forfeiture order are among the other payments made from the fund.
Money laundering is made illegal under the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act, which also establishes procedures to combat the crime, including identifying, tracking, freezing, seizing, and confiscating proceeds of crime, among other things.
According to the Act, property or financial gain obtained or realized as a direct or indirect consequence of, or in connection with, an offense is considered the profits of crime.