Silk Road forums
Discussion => Legal => Topic started by: AussieMitch on August 24, 2013, 01:20 pm
-
My country has recently introduced some very harsh new asset confiscation laws. If you are caught selling drugs you can lose all of your assets, even those that you have earned legally and paid for through your legitimate income.
How can I structure my finances to avoid having my house, car, furniture and other expensive items seized in a worse-case scenario?
I already have my car registered and insured in the name of a legitimate friend with no criminal record, and I keep most of my cash savings buried off property in a safe location. Would transferring ownership of my house to a trusted family member and having them bequeath it to me in their will protect it from being seized? What other steps could I take to secure myself so that it doesn't look like I own all my assets?
Any ideas are highly appreciated!
-
Hi AussieMitch, I was reading your post and could not help but reply, let's just say this has happened to me on a small scale a few years back in a different country to where I am now.
A car, or something with a decent amount of value, you can put it on a family member who probably works, it's fine, but anything greater then a 10,000 USD value of something is a no-no. That figure could be wrong but it depends on every country and a lot of other things also. I'll explain a little here...if you were to get caught let's say a gram or two of Class A, it could be possession of and left at that. If you were to get caught with more and they suspect dealing LEO will then determine how long you have been selling, how much you have selling and and what not. This is just basic procedure as come that court date, they want to confiscate what they can from you, which they call asset seizure. When this happens, your direct family will probably come under investigation and scrutiny, for example being able to prove to where the funds to purchase etc came from.
A while back I remember the days where they could only seize what they thought were the proceeds of crime. Your father gave you a USD 1million, you bought about 10,000 worth of cocaine and starting selling, make about 50k and shortly after get caught. Now...the million is justified but any cash or sum larger then that (not accounting for interest rates here guys, chill) would be seized unless you had a keyword 'justifiable explanation'
However, this day and age most western countries have in addition implemented a fine as a result of criminal proceedings. Example, read the paragraph above again, in addition to this, there is what's so called proceeds of crime fines and what not, my laws are too big to go through them right them, but what it means, is that even when you have the cash/assets justified when questioned, the fine or the what they think you made can leave you penniless if you get what I mean. For me to fully explain it would take page after page for each section here.
Anyway, my advice, don't think your safe by putting assets on those directly linked to you, LEO are a lot smarter and more resourceful then many of you think. Second, get your safe the whole set of 2013/2014 law books for your country. If you read the relevant information for yourself, they are more of an assets then consulting with a lawyer, honestly. They will tell you if you do such and such like this, we are going to penetrate you for this much time, but on the other hand if you do such and such like this, we can't do much to you. Get what I mean?
Meerkovo
-
On the forum index it reads "structuring your ass..."
-
On the forum index it reads "structuring your ass..."
that's a pre-requisite to stripping 101
-
Make a different identity, and hide the assets there.
-
I'm not going to hold your hand on the issue as I can't take more clients on right now but I'll give you a very brief pointer in the right direction at least since Meerkovo answered most of it. You need to take the possessions out of your hands and into the property of another legal entity, meaning a sole proprietor for example won't work, it'll need to be a limited company or one whereby it is a legal entity within itself. This doesn't solve the problem, but research in that direction about moving it away from the control of your government and co-operating agencies, then convert it from raw form (cash) to integrated forms (equities, securities, commodities etc), this will at least put several layers between you and the cash, also giving the police a headache getting it back. From there, get creative, apply common sense. Laundering, asset protection and other financial areas of interest to crime aren't that hard once you've given it proper thought (ie, staying away from search terms like "how to launder money" and instead putting "FATF Methods and Trends" for example for recent FATF publications).
Scattering assets around the world isn't a bad idea I should note if you ever need to tuck tail from a country too.
-
Acquiring and investing in assets outside of your country would be the way. Has been done by many people over the years in order to hide money made illegally....generally tax avoidance. Know of many communities who would regularly visit the "home country" with a suitcase full of cash. Of course they had the benefit of family, connections and past experience in doing business there. But as far as I can see it is beyond the knowledge and jurisdiction of the local LE. Also, don't forget many countries do not have legal arrangements for the transfer of wanted persons.
-
I really appreciate the help guys thank you.
I think I've got the basic idea, I've got some trusted family members overseas and should be able to get money out the country quite easily and into accounts and investments in their name, by using exchanges to sell btc directly into overseas accounts in countries that will not hand the money back to Australia without a fight, and especially considering there is no provable paper trail if done with tumbled btc :)
It's the house I'm mainly concerned about, it would be a pity to lose such a large investment in a worst-case scenario. I'll have to do some research into property ownership in by overseas entities in Australia.