Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 21 June 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Proceeds of Crime (Gross Human Rights Abuses) Bill 2020: Discussion

Mr. Brendan Bruen:

I will briefly answer and will ask the CAB representatives to come in on this as well. The question of at what point assets can be considered the proceeds of crime is very much at the root of this. In the situations we have looked at, the human rights abuse does not generate the asset. Even in the Sergei Magnitsky case, I do not think the argument is that the abuse itself generated the asset; the key question in that situation is what generated the asset. In those cases where it is clearly corrupt behaviour, or the argument is that it is corrupt behaviour, embezzlement or fraud, there is no current impediment to being able to chase or freeze those assets. The question of could it be connected else-----