6.115
78
in
As an measure to recover the debt, circumstances where it was clear the offender had some assets, the law could also provide for the Attorney General to institute bankcruptcy proceedings against the offender. The offender would be required to disclose his assets failure to do so being another offence of up to a maximum of ten years' imprisonment, depending on the amount of assets not disclosed. The legislation would need to incorporate extensive powers of investigation and provision for the restraint of assets at the investigation stage. The assets would continue to be managed by the suspect but he would not be allowed to transfer or otherwise dispose of them.
6.116 After serving the sentences, both for the drug offence and for failure to pay the debt, the debt would still be existent and would be recoverable at any time at the instance of the Attorney General.
New offence for handling the
proceeds of drug trafficking
6.117 A further part of the package is the creation of a new offence aimed at those who assist the traffickers and benefit from their crimes by laundering the proceeds. The offence would consist of possessing the proceeds of drug trafficking, or participating in the retention, removal, disposal or realisation of such proceeds, knowing or having reason to believe that they represented the proceeds of drug trafficking. Additionally, there could be a presumption that, where it is proved that the defendant knew or had reason to suspect that the person from whom he acquired any property was engaged in drug trafficking, he should be presumed to know or suspect that it represented the proceeds of drug trafficking unless he proves to the contrary. The offence would extend to activities in Hong Kong relating to proceeds located abroad, and to drug trafficking anywhere in the world.
6.118
(a)
(b)
(c)
The approach has three main objectives
to provide a basis for an attack on the assets of a drug trafficker without a requirement to prove that the offender made a profit on the activity which is the subject of his conviction;
to get the offender to disgorge his assets and thus avoid the need to use expensive resources to trace those assets; and
to attack those who assist the drug trafficker and benefit from his crimes by laundering the proceeds.
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