Confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of corruption crimes in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

 
was acquired legally. In 
Czech Republic
, for money laundering, the confiscation of property may be ordered 
by the court as an alternative primary punishment options for aggravated elements of such crime (paragraph 
3 and 4 of Article 216 of the Criminal Code)
24
. 
 
 
24
See OECD/WGB (2013), Phase 3 report on Czech Republic, page 60, https://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-
bribery/CzechRepublicphase3reportEN.pdf
.

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50 
 
VIII. TYPOLOGY OF CONFISCATION MEASURES 
Analysis of the results of questionnaire survey and analysis of legislation of ACN member countries allows 
for the conclusion that different confiscation regimes and their combinations exist, which can be roughly 
divided into three main types: 

Criminal confiscation 
(criminal confiscation as a sanction for committing crime; criminal 
confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of crime (special confiscation); extended criminal 
confiscation; conviction and non-conviction based one; confiscation resulted from satisfaction of 
civil suit in a criminal trial; confiscation arising from plea bargaining; confiscation arising out of the 
trial 
in absentia
); 

Civil forfeiture
(conviction or non-conviction-based confiscation under criminal proceeding; 
extended confiscation under civil proceeding); 

Administrative forfeiture
(conviction or non-conviction-based confiscation under criminal 
proceeding; administrative forfeiture as a sanction or administrative confiscation of instrumentalities 
and proceeds of corruption offences; extended confiscation). 
Within the European Union, for example, all member countries apply criminal confiscation in one or the 
other way. Confiscation of proceeds of crimes is possible outside the criminal proceedings as well only in 
its seven countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom). 
Regimes of civil forfeiture in EU countries differ from each other substantially by scope. Non-criminal 
confiscation systems in such countries as Bulgaria, Italy, Ireland and the United Kingdom, have broader 
sphere of application covering a wide range of serious crimes. 
Regimes of criminal confiscation (or confiscation in the course of criminal proceedings) in EU countries are 
usually based on criminal conviction (Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, 
Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom). Legislation of nearly half of EU 
countries does not provide for prior conviction as an obligatory condition for asset confiscation in criminal 
proceedings (for example, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro and other), however, 
mainly on very limited grounds (for example, if the convicted person dies or absconds during the trial).
Majority of EU countries provide for extended confiscation, which allows confiscation of other proceeds of 
crimes, not related to crime, the person had been convicted for, usually based on specific strictly limited 
grounds (for example, under several crimes committed by criminal organisation). EU countries that still do 
not provide for extended confiscation are Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Malta. In Poland, it had been 
introduced starting from April 27, 2017. All EU countries provide for both asset forfeiture and value-based 
confiscation
25
.
25
See Disposal of Confiscated Assets in the EU Member States: Laws and Practices. Center for the Study of Democracy. 2014, page 
18. 

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51 
 
For today, the legislation of the ACN countries that filled out questionnaires stipulates the following types 
of confiscation measures: