Asset Forfeiture Law in the United States

Price: $150.00 950 pages. 1 Hardcover Volume. Index. Published December 2006. CD-Rom.
ISBN-13: 978-1-929446-99-5 / ISBN-10: 1-929446-993

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Table of Contents

About the Book:
Asset Forfeiture Law in the United States collects in one place all of the law on administrative, civil and criminal forfeiture procedure, including the changes made in 2006. This handy one volume treatise serves as resource to anyone needing a comprehensive discussion of any of the recurring and evolving forfeiture issues that arise daily in federal practice.

Asset forfeiture has become a routine part of federal criminal law enforcement. The federal law enforcement agencies, including the DEA, the FBI, and the agencies of the Department of Homeland Security, initiate tens of thousands of administrative forfeiture cases every year, and federal prosecutors file civil and criminal forfeiture actions in federal courts in thousands of cases as well. Overall, in each of the last few fiscal years, the Government has confiscated over three-quarters of a billion dollars in criminally-derived property. This law enforcement activity has naturally generated a deluge of case law from the federal courts. New forfeiture cases are decided every week, making it difficult for the courts themselves, as well as practitioners, to keep current. Moreover, Congress is constantly amending the forfeiture laws and enacting new ones – including a set of new forfeiture provisions included in the USA Patriot Improvement and Reauthorization Act signed by the President in March 2006.

Finally, in response to the explosion in forfeiture litigation, the Supreme Court has issued a new Supplemental Rule G of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure dealing exclusively with civil forfeiture that took effect on December 1, 2006.

About the Author:
Stefan D. Cassella is one of the federal Government’s leading experts on asset forfeiture law. As a federal prosecutor, he has been litigating asset forfeiture cases since the late 1980's and is now the Deputy Chief of the Justice Department’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section. Mr. Cassella handled the forfeiture in the largest forfeiture case ever brought by the United States – the forfeiture of $1.2 billion in assets from the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), was the principal author of much of the federal forfeiture legislation, including the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA), and the applicable sections of the Federal Rules of Civil and Criminal Procedure, and is the author of numerous law review articles on asset forfeiture and money laundering. He teaches asset forfeiture procedure at the Federal National Advocacy Center at the University of South Carolina, and has given numerous presentations on the subject at Cambridge University and other institutions. In the 1980s, Mr. Cassella was Senior Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He has a J.D. from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Physics from Cornell University.

This book was writtent in the author's private capacity as a lawyer, and the book does not in any way constitute an official statement of the law or policy or otherwise reflect the views of the United States Department of Justice and the Section of Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering.

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