Courts seize record €136 million in 2014

The Courts confiscated a record amount of €136 million from criminals in 2014; almost €50 million more than 2013.

The increase is accredited to a sizeable €56 settlement that was reached in 2014 with oil company SBM Offshore. The record of 2014 is linked to measures authorities started in 2012 to hit criminals where it hurts, their wallets. Prior to that authorities already used to “pluck” criminals, but the totals never really met the expectations. In 2008 the total amount confiscated did not exceed €23 million. The new motto at the Prosecutor’s Office is that crime should not pay. “We have noticed in many cases that criminals seem to accept that they might have to go to prison for six months to a year; like some sort of calculated risk of doing business. They think that when they come out they will be able to live out the rest of their days like millionaires. We will not let that happen,” explained Public Prosecutor Dirk ten Boer. In the past criminal investigations focused primarily on compiling enough evidence to secure a verdict; confiscating goods held secondary priority and by the time it happened, the criminals had already channeled away their profits.