Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, S. 4005, the Preserving Foreign Criminal Assets for Forfeiture Act of 2010, makes a simple, yet very important, technical change to Federal law to facilitate asset preservation for foreign countries. I am pleased to be a cosponsor of this legislation, and I commend my colleague from California (Ms. Chu) in sponsoring this House companion to S. 4005. I would like to thank her for her work on this issue in bringing it before Congress. Federal law currently provides procedures by which the Federal Government can seek a court order to preserve or freeze certain domestic assets on behalf of a foreign government. This is an important tool to take out of the hands of criminals the proceeds that fund their illegal operations. Criminals will go to great lengths to stash their ill-gotten profits. And whether it is an international drug cartel, a terrorist group, organized crime syndicate, or simply a savvy computer hacker or corrupt corporation, the key to putting a stop to their crimes is to put a stranglehold on their money that they have illegally obtained. But a recent D.C. circuit court of appeals decision limits the ability of the United States to assist foreign governments in retaining and restraining those assets. The court interpreted section 2464 of title 28, governing the entry of foreign judgments, to authorize a U.S. court to freeze assets only after the foreign court's final forfeiture judgment.…”