Justice for Victims of Kleptocracy Act of 2023

Subjects: Crime and Law Enforcement, Accounting and auditing, Criminal justice information and records, Foreign property, Fraud offenses and financial crimes, Government ethics and transparency, public corruption, Government information and archives, Government trust funds

Summary:  <p><strong></strong><b>Justice for Victims of Kleptocracy Act of 2023</b></p> <p>This bill requires the Department of Justice to publish and regularly update its website with an accounting of property that is forfeited to the United States as a result of foreign government corruption. It also expresses the sense of Congress that recovered assets shall be returned for the benefit of the people harmed by the corruption.</p>

<html><body><pre>[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 137 Introduced in House (IH)]

&lt;DOC&gt;






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 137

 To require an accounting of certain property forfeited to the United 
                    States, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 9, 2023

 Mr. Cohen (for himself, Ms. Salazar, and Mr. Fitzpatrick) introduced 
    the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the 
                               Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require an accounting of certain property forfeited to the United 
                    States, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Justice for Victims of Kleptocracy 
Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. FORFEITED PROPERTY.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 46 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 988. Accounting of certain forfeited property
    ``(a) Accounting.--The Attorney General shall make available to the 
public an accounting of any property relating to foreign government 
corruption that is forfeited to the United States under section 981 or 
982.
    ``(b) Format.--The accounting described under subsection (a) shall 
be published on the website of the Department of Justice in a format 
that includes the following:
            ``(1) A heading as follows: `Assets stolen from the people 
        of ______ and recovered by the United States', the blank space 
        being filled with the name of the foreign government that is 
        the target of corruption.
            ``(2) The total amount recovered by the United States on 
        behalf of the foreign people that is the target of corruption 
        at the time when such recovered funds are deposited into the 
        Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture Fund or the Department 
        of the Treasury Forfeiture Fund.
    ``(c) Updated Website.--The Attorney General shall update the 
website of the Department of Justice to include an accounting of any 
new property relating to foreign government corruption that has been 
forfeited to the United States under section 981 or 982 not later than 
14 days after such forfeiture, unless such update would compromise an 
ongoing law enforcement investigation.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 46 of 
title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 
following:

``988. Accounting of certain forfeited property.''.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that recovered assets be returned for 
the benefit of the people harmed by the corruption under conditions 
that reasonably ensure the transparent and effective use, 
administration and monitoring of returned proceeds.
                                 &lt;all&gt;
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