Assets Recovery Agency freezes £25,000 in money laundering case
The Assets Recovery Agency has been granted a Property Freezing Order over assets estimated at £25,890 held by Mr Min Shen who was previously resident in Cardiff but is now believed to have returned home to China. The Agency contends that the respondent acquired assets from the proceeds of unlawful activity connected to money laundering.
(Media-Newswire.com) - The Assets Recovery Agency has been granted a Property Freezing Order over assets estimated at £25,890 held by Mr Min Shen who was previously resident in Cardiff but is now believed to have returned home to China.
The Agency contends that the respondent acquired assets from the proceeds of unlawful activity connected to money laundering. The case was referred to the Agency by South Wales Police who were investigating the sale of large quantities of small 'hi-tech' items via the internet and who had gained a restraint order over Mr Shen's assets - monies held in seven different accounts. He failed to answer bail and has since indicated that he has no intention of returning to the UK so South Wales Police were unable to proceed with a prosecution.
Jane Earl, Director of the Assets Recovery Agency said, "The Agency is fully committed to recovering the proceeds of crime at all levels. In this case the police were unable to proceed as the respondent has fled the jurisdiction. Even though this is a relatively small amount ARA is using its unique powers to take action through the civil courts to recover assets that could not have been funded from legitimate income. "
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Notes for Editors:
1. The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 created the Assets Recovery Agency and provided completely new powers to allow ARA to seek civil recovery of the proceeds of unlawful activity by an action in the High Court. The Agency can also issue tax assessments where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that there is taxable income, gain or profit from criminal conduct. Property Freezing Orders allow the Agency to continue investigations into a respondent's financial affairs in order to determine whether assets have been acquired through unlawful activity whilst at the same time ensuring that the assets under investigation cannot be dissipated.
2. The Agency is playing its part in the multi-agency approach to deliver the Government's Asset Recovery Strategy. Under the cross government initiative 'Payback', the tracing of and recovery of assets is seen as an important element in the delivery of justice, and sends out a strong deterrent message. The overall aims of the strategy are to make greater use of the investigations of criminal assets in the fight against crime; recover money that has been made from crime or which is intended for use in crime; prevent criminals and their associates from laundering the proceeds of criminal conduct, and detect and penalise such laundering where it occurs; to use the proceeds recovered for the benefit of the community.
3. On 11th January 2007, the Home Office laid a Written Ministerial Statement before Parliament setting out Government proposals to merge the Assets Recovery Agency ( ARA ) with the Serious Organised Crime Agency ( SOCA ), and to extend to prosecutors the power to launch civil recovery action under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. The Written Ministerial Statement can be viewed at http://www.assetsrecovery.gov.uk/AboutARA/. Any proposed merger will require primary legislation. In the meantime ARA will continue to operate as before and use its powers to the full in proceeding with all cases under active litigation as well as adopting new cases from referring agencies in the criminal enforcement community.
Assets Recovery Agency, PO Box 39992 London EC4M 7XQ
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