The principle is that crime should never pay off.

It's better if the state takes the loot.

According to this principle, the state of Hesse received around 100 million euros in one case last year.

According to investigations by the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime in Frankfurt, three defendants were sentenced to several years in prison "for gang trafficking in large quantities of narcotics".

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

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In the past, at least in theory, perpetrators could hope to be able to enjoy the proceeds of their crime after they had served their sentence.

This has ended at the latest since the law reforming criminal asset confiscation came into force in July 2017.

Pay out sums to the victims of the crime

This law makes it easier for the state to confiscate assets of unclear origin.

This even applies in the event that a specific crime has not yet been proven, but there is every indication that the money came from a crime.

Authorities must pay out the sums confiscated to crime victims if they come forward within six months.

But it also often happens that the injured party prefers to leave things alone - for example when it comes to dealing in drugs.

For example, in around three and a half years by the end of 2020, the Hessian judiciary confiscated almost 184 million euros in assets illegally obtained through criminal offenses.

This was announced by Justice Minister Eva Kühne-Hörmann (CDU) in her response to a parliamentary question from the AfD parliamentary group.

A total of 18,192 convicts lost the proceeds of their crimes.

Assets obtained from crime

The extent to which the reform of the federal law had an impact in practice is shown by the fact that in the years 2012 to 2016 the assets of only 10,347 criminals were confiscated.

The Ministry of Justice does not yet have any figures for 2020 and 2021.

The statistics also do not provide any information about the number of cases in which the proceeds of the crime could be returned to the victims.

According to Kühne-Hörmann, she sees the law as an order that she takes very seriously.

"If the assets gained from criminal offenses are confiscated quickly and comprehensively, the judiciary makes a major contribution to prevention." This would deprive the perpetrators of the means for new crimes.

The incentive to commit new crimes is dwindling.

According to the Minister of Justice, Hesse has been pursuing the goal of skimming off the proceeds of crime for longer than other federal states.

Even before the reform of the law in 2017, the Central Office for Combating Organized Crime and Money Laundering in Frankfurt was particularly concerned with asset recovery.

However, the judiciary is not directly rewarded for this.

The Ministry of Finance attaches great importance to the fact that the money flows “into the state budget without earmarking”.