President Luis Abinader signed Law 60-23 for the administration of seized, seized, and abandoned assets in criminal proceedings and in asset forfeiture trials. The law sets the principles that govern the administration of all assets subject to the scope of its application, among which are transparency and publicity, efficiency and economy, objectivity, equality and hierarchy.
Law 60-23 creates the National Institute for Custody and Administration of Seized, Confiscated and Assets in Forfeiture (Incabide), with administrative, financial and technical autonomy, attached to the Ministry of Hacienda, as the government body responsible for the administration and destination of the assets.
For its part, in article 25, the law indicates that once the Public Prosecutor’s Office carries out the seizure of assets, directly or following a court order, it will proceed to deliver these to Incabide with certain conditions. rules and exceptions. In the cases when drugs, weapons and ammunition are seized, confiscated and whose ownership has been declared extinct, these will remain under the control of the Public Ministry, who will proceed with them in accordance with the legal provisions on the matter.
About seized assets, it is indicated that Incabide, for reasons of public interest or for the needs of developing criminal investigations, may grant provisional institutional use to public entities under the conditions and with exceptions provided for in the law.
The law also provides for the creation of a Special Fund for Confiscated and Forfeited Assets (Febide), under the administration of Incabide, made up of the confiscated money, the money resulting from the sales of the forfeited or confiscated property, the money resulting from advance sales of assets that have subsequently been confiscated.
Once the fund is formed, the expenses related to the administration of the assets or any other expense or obligation generated by the asset will be paid from it, as well as payments to third parties in good faith, payments to victims. arranged by court ruling, among others. The remaining money will be deposited in the Treasury’s Single Account and the central government may use the funds to support, strengthen, finance, develop or execute prevention or treatment programs for drug use, poverty reduction, protection or support of minors, support and protection of victims of criminal offenses, border protection, among others, always with strict adherence to the principles of transparency and publicity.
This new law adjusts the seizure of criminally-obtained assets to the current constitutional mandates, the recently passed domain extinction law, and the interest and commitment of the present administration with institutional strengthening and increased levels of transparency and administrative efficiency.
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El Dia
30 October 2023