Mariano Rajoy inaugurates Office to strengthen fight against corruption and recover proceeds from crime

Madrid

The President of the Government recalled, during the course of the inauguration, that one of the most noteworthy measures in the field of democratic regeneration and the fight against corruption is the new regulation on forfeiture which empowers instruments to obtain the swift recovery of all goods that offenders are obliged to return.

The Office to Recover and Manage Assets, explained Mariano Rajoy, seeks to "more effectively fight crime by ensuring that offenders cannot keep the goods they have obtained as a result of criminal activity" and enjoy them at a later date. It also allows the investigation of the assets related to the criminal activity in order to proceed to their localization and seizure. Moreover, it seeks to reduce the costs derived from the management of goods seized and forfeited, reverting the situation to make them profitable.

The President of the Government added that this office will enable courts and tribunals to become less congested and "the product of crime will be reverted in social ends and in strengthening the institutions engaged in the fight against organised crime". Among them, he quoted the office for victim care, regional governments and NGOs in order for them to carry through programmes to care for those affected, the State law enforcement agencies, the National Institute for Toxicology and Forensic Science, forensic science institutes and international bodies.

Mariano Rajoy argued that the office has been set up "so that no offenders can benefit from what they have stolen", to look for goods, seize them and make them available to the office, and "to allocate the resources seized - in other words the proceeds of criminal activity - to social ends".