METHODOLOGICAL ASSISTANCE TO PROSECUTORS IN IMPROVING THE PRACTICE OF SEIZING ASSETS OF CRIMINAL ORIGIN

On 8 May 2023, the LCSS Institute of Law and the Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Lithuania signed an agreement on the expert evaluation of the practical effectiveness of the prosecution of economic and financial crime offences related to unlawful enrichment and the legalization of criminally acquired assets and the application of criminal measures of a property nature. During the 7-month project period, the project team (led by Dr Skirmantas Bikelis, Dr Darius Pranka, Justas Juodženis and Goda Dainauskaitė) carried out an analysis of discontinued pre-trial proceedings and court rulings. The analysis and recommendations are submitted to the Prosecutor General's Office.

The aim of this project is to find ways to increase the effectiveness of criminal prosecution in the investigation of unlawful enrichment and money laundering offences and in the application of criminal measures of a material nature, such as extended confiscation of assets, by improving the internal legislation of the Prosecutor's Office, identifying problems in practice and making concrete proposals on how to address them.

The project aims to develop, through data analysis, ways and means to ensure the quality of asset tracing and investigation during pre-trial investigations and to ensure the proper application of extended confiscation of assets in the context of a conviction or in the context of the qualification of the cases of illegal enrichment.