HCMC – Practices on the confiscation of proceeds of corruption and economic crimes this year surged over 2021, with HCMC accounting for over 91% of the country’s forfeiture of assets associated with criminal cases.

The Ministry of Justice held a meeting yesterday, December 19, on the implementation of judicial work in 2023.

During the meeting, the ministry reported a strong surge in property seizures from corrupt practices and economic crimes in HCMC, with VND13,200 billion confiscated in 2020, VND3,000 billion in 2021 and over VND14,700 billion in 2022.

The current law on enforcement of civil judgments only stipulates the handling of several specific properties and fails to deal with future assets, making the recovery work very challenging, the Vietnam News Agency reported, quoting the acting director of the HCMC Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement, Nguyen Van Hoa.

Besides, fraudulent practices have become increasingly complicated as violators can use modern technology to commit crimes or transfer proceeds from real estate sales to their foreign bank accounts. However, the country has yet to develop an international cooperation mechanism to seize criminal assets in such cases.

These are loopholes in the current law. The law enforcement and criminal asset confiscation work will accelerate and be more effective if the government and the ministry take prompt actions and revise the law, he said.