Forfeiture of assets - national proceedings

Republic of Estonia

Estonia - Penal Code 2001 (2020) EN

Part 1 GENERAL PART
Chapter 7 OTHER SANCTIONS

§ 83.1. Confiscation of assets acquired through offence
(1) A court shall confiscate of the assets acquired through an offence object if these belong to the offender at the time of the making of the judgment or ruling.
(1.1) For the purposes of this section, assets acquired by an offence are the assets directly acquired by an offence and anything acquired for account of these assets.
(1.2) If any assets acquired by an offence are mixed with other assets, these assets are assets partially acquired by an offence. Assets partially acquired by an offence shall be deemed to be the assets acquired by an offence to the extent provided for in subsection (11 ) of this section and the confiscation thereof shall be replaced pursuant to the procedure provided for in § 84 of this Code.

(2) The court shall impose subsections (1)-(12 ) of this section to the assets which belong to a third person at the time of making the judgment, if:
1) these were acquired, in full or in the essential part, on account of the offender, as a present or in any other manner for a price which is considerably lower than the normal market price; or
2) the third person knew that the assets were transferred to the person in order to avoid confiscation.

(3) The court may decide not to confiscate, in part or in full, property acquired through offence if, taking account of the circumstances of the offence or the situation of the person, confiscation would be unreasonably burdensome or if the value of the assets is disproportionally small in comparison to the costs of storage, transfer or destruction of the property. The court shall decrease the amount of the property or assets to be confiscated by the amount of the object of a satisfied civil action or proof of claim in public law.

§ 83.2. Extended confiscation of assets acquired through criminal offence
(1) If a court convicts a person of a criminal offence, the court may, in the cases provided for in this Code, confiscate a part or all of the criminal offender's assets if these belong to the offender at the time of the making of the judgment, and if the nature of the criminal offence, the difference between the legal income and financial situation, expenses or the of living of the person or another fact gives reason to presume that the person has acquired the assets through commission of the criminal offence or for account of these assets (hereinafter assets acquired by criminal offence). Confiscation is not applied to assets with regard to which the person certifies that such assets were not acquired by a criminal offence.
(1.1) If any assets acquired by a criminal offence are mixed with other assets, these assets are assets partially acquired by a criminal offence. Assets partially acquired by a criminal offence shall be deemed to be the assets acquired by a criminal offence to the extent provided for in the first sentence of subsection (1) of this section and the confiscation thereof shall be replaced pursuant to the procedure provided for in § 84 of this Code.
(2) The court may impose subsections (1) and (11 ) of this section to the assets which belong to a third person at the time of making the judgment, if:
1) these were acquired, in full or in the essential part, on account of the offender, as a present or in any other manner for a price which is considerably lower than the normal market price; or
2) the third person knew that the assets were transferred to the person in order to avoid confiscation.

(3) Confiscation shall not be applied to Assets of a third party which have been acquired:
1) earlier than ten years as of the commission of a criminal offence in the first degree, or
2) earlier than five years as of the commission of a criminal offence in the second degree.

(4) Upon extended confiscation of assets acquired through criminal offence, the court shall take account of the provisions of subsection 831 (3) of this Code.

Rome Statute

Article 93 Other forms of cooperation

1. States Parties shall, in accordance with the provisions of this Part and under procedures of national law, comply with requests by the Court to provide the following assistance in relation to investigations or prosecutions:

(k) The identification, tracing and freezing or seizure of proceeds, property and assets and instrumentalities of crimes for the purpose of eventual forfeiture, without prejudice to the rights of bona fide third parties; and