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

Confiscation arising out of conclusion of an agreement in the criminal proceedings 
In accordance with the legislation of some ACN member countries, criminal proceeding can be ended by 
conclusion of a procedural agreement between the parties, which shall further be approved by court and 
arranged by a sentence with conviction of the accused person and can include application of property 
confiscation as one of the conditions thereof. 
Confiscation of the property arising out of conclusion of an agreement in court proceeding is permitted 
particularly in Georgia, Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine, Croatia, Montenegro and Estonia. 
Thus, in accordance with the legislation of 
Moldova
, one of the forms of criminal proceeding is proceeding 
under plea agreement. According to Article 504 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Moldova, plea agreement 
is a deal between a prosecutor and the accused person or, depending on circumstances, defendant, who 
provided consent to admit guilt in exchange of reduction of penalty. The said agreement is prepared in writing 
provided for mandatory participation of the defender, accused person or defendant under the cases of minor 
offences, medium-gravity crimes and grave crimes. Thus, plea agreement under corruption offences and 
money laundering is possible only in the events such offences can relate to such categories of crime. In 
accordance with paragraph 5 of Article 509 of the Criminal Procedure Code, when imposing a sentence in 
case of plea agreement, the court is also to decide on the matters related to special confiscation. 
Under the legislation of 
Georgia,
procedural agreement between the prosecutor and the accused is to be 
considered by court. Based on certain criteria, court can accept procedural agreement, request parties to 
change or amend it, or can fully reject it. In case of approval of the agreement, the court decides on conviction 
and can at the same time apply special confiscation. Also, civil confiscation can be applied subsequently on 
the grounds of such criminal agreement-based conviction. 
One of the mandatory elements of plea agreement made between the prosecutor and the accused person and 
settlement agreement made between the prosecutor and the accused person under criminal proceeding of 

---

65