Forfeiture

IRS Criminal Investigation casework mainly focused on significant legal source tax investigations, with increasing numbers of high-quality, high-impact criminal investigations with international tax administration aspects.  The public may be surprised to know that IRS Special Agents have a significant impact in the area of public corruption.  

You’ve been told about the importance of social networks ad nauseum, but between casework, your personal life and actual in-person networking, finding the time to tend to these profiles can be demanding. However, any asset recovery^* and financial crime professional trying to build a name in the field – even if your position precludes you from being prominent – should know the basics.

The traditional mindset of investigators when it comes to the use of nominees by the subjects of their investigations is connected to the ownership of assets; and that only trusted individuals or companies, that they can exercise some type of dominion and control over, will be used to hold title to their assets.

At least one lawmaker seems to want the Securities and Exchange Commission to become irrelevant. The regulator has had its problems. But a Republican bid to reshape it seems meant to hinder, not help. There’s room for improvement, but with its duties growing, the watchdog needs more staff, more money and a buffer against Congress. The New York Times, Thursday, August 4, 2011

While the News of the World phone hacking investigation is still in its early stages, the possibility of parent company News Corp. being forced to make restitution to victims, families, shareholders and even the UK and US governments through civil and criminal litigation, and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, is very real.

A Manhattan federal judge has frozen the assets of three Swiss asset managers accused of illegally profiting from trades made ahead of the $1.2 billion sale of Arch Chemicals to the Lonza Group, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Monday. The S.E.C.

Switzerland has blocked Syrian assets worth 27 million Swiss francs ($32 million), Swiss news agency SDA reported on Sunday, citing a Swiss newspaper report that the Swiss Secretariat for Economics (SECO) confirmed. The news agency said SECO declined to comment on whether the assets of President Bashar al-Assad had been frozen. Reuters, Sunday, July 3, 2011

HSBC asked a judge to dismiss a $9 billion lawsuit by the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s firm, saying he isn’t allowed by law to bring such cases on behalf of the confidence man’s former customers. Irving Picard, the trustee, sued HSBC and a dozen so-called feeder funds for $9 billion in December, accusing them of aiding Madoff’s fraud. Bloomberg, Friday, June 24, 2011

It has been two weeks since the operation that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and seized untold amounts of data from his Pakistani stronghold was carried out, and as the mainstream media focus on inconsequential materials like pornography found on the machines, a critical matter is unresolved: Where is the money?