Sec. 302. Recovering assets stolen from the Venezuelan people
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/bill/115/hr/7245/ih/section-302A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress makes the following findings: Venezuela ranked 169th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2017. In March 2016, the International Center for Asset Recovery at the Basel Institute on Governance in Switzerland estimated that approximately $350,000,000,000 in public funding had been lost in Venezuela as the result of corruption, fraud, and graft. In March 2015, the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network determined that approximately $2,000,000,000 had been siphoned from Venezuela’s public oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., in conjunction with its designation of the Banca Privada d’Andorra as a Foreign Financial Institution of Primary Money Laundering Concern.
The Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General, shall advance a coordinated international effort— to carry out special financial investigations to identify and track assets taken from the people and institutions of Venezuela through theft, corruption, money laundering, or other illicit means; and work with foreign governments— to share financial investigations intelligence, as appropriate; to block the assets identified pursuant to paragraph (1); and to advance necessary civil forfeiture litigation, including providing technical assistance to help governments establish the necessary legal framework to carry out asset forfeitures.
The coordinated international effort described in subsection
(b)shall— include input from— the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury; the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Department of the Treasury; and the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section of the Department of Justice; identify appropriate steps to advance necessary civil forfeiture litigation in the United States; include an assessment of whether the United States or another member of the international community should establish a managed fund to hold the assets identified pursuant to subsection (b)(1) that could be returned to a future democratic government in Venezuela; and include recommendations for new legislative and regulatory measures in the United States that would be needed to establish and manage the fund described in paragraph (3). Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit a strategy for carrying out the activities described in subsection
(b)to— the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate ; the Committee on Finance of the Senate ; the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate ; the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives ; the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives ; and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives . Upon a request from 1 of the congressional committees listed in subsection (d), the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, or the Attorney General shall brief the requesting committee on the progress made in implementing the effort described in subsection (b).