Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/518/267/case.php
Timestamp: 2018-08-21 05:52:03
Document Index: 661720992

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 846', '§ 371', '§ 1956', '§ 924', '§ 287', '§ 3729', '§ 3729', '§ 881', '§ 981', '§ 881', '§ 881', '§ 981', '§ 981', '§ 881', '§ 881', '§ 881', '§ 981', '§ 1956', '§ 881', '§ 881', '§ 881', '§ 881', '§ 881', '§ 881', '§ 881', '§ 1609', '§ 881', '§ 881', '§ 881']

REHNQUIST, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which O'CONNOR, KENNEDY, SOUTER, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ., joined. KENNEDY, J., filed a concurring opinion, post, p. 292. SCALIA, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which THOMAS, J., joined, post, p. 297. STEVENS, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part, post, p. 297.
tBriefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the State of Connecticut et al. by John M. Bailey, Chief State's Attorney of Connecticut, and Mary H. Lesser, Assistant State's Attorney, and by the Attorneys General for their respective jurisdictions as follows: Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Bruce M. Botelho of Alaska, Grant Woods of Arizona, Winston Bryant of Arkansas, Daniel E. Lungren of California, Gale A. Norton of Colorado, M. Jane Brady of Delaware, Robert A. Butterworth of Florida, Michael J. Bowers of Georgia, Margery S. Bronster of Hawaii, Alan G. Lance of Idaho, Jim Ryan of Illinois, Pamela Carter of Indiana, Tom Miller of Iowa, Carla J. Stovall of Kansas, A. B. Chandler III of Kentucky,cralaw
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American Civil Liberties Union by Susan N. Herman, Gerard E. Lynch, and Steven R. Shapiro; for Americans for Effective Law Enforcement, Inc., et al. by Fred E. Inbau, Wayne W Schmidt, James P. Manak, Richard M. Weintraub, and Bernard J. Farber; for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers by Richard J. Troberman and David B. Smith; and for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety et al. by Henry M. Jasny.cralaw
No. 95-346: Following a jury trial, Charles Wesley Arlt and James Wren were convicted of: conspiracy to aid and abet the manufacture of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U. S. C. § 846; conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 371; and numerous counts of money laundering, in violation of § 1956. The District Courtcralaw
We granted the Government's petition for certiorari in each of the two cases, and we now reverse. 516 U. S. 1070 (1996).cralaw
Because we conclude that the civil forfeitures involved in these cases do not constitute punishment under the Double Jeopardy Clause, see infra, at 292, we do not address those three arguments in this opinion.cralaw
One of the first cases to consider the relationship between the Double Jeopardy Clause and civil forfeiture was Various Items of Personal Property v. United States, 282 U. S. 577 (1931). In Various Items, the Waterloo Distilling Corporation had been ordered to forfeit a distillery, warehouse, and denaturing plant, on the ground that the corporation had conducted its distilling business in violation of federal law. The Government conceded that the corporation had been convicted of criminal violations prior to the initiation of the forfeiture proceeding, and admitted that the criminal conviction had been based upon "the transactions set forth ... as a basis for the forfeiture." Id., at 579. Considering the corporation's argument that the forfeiture action violated the Double Jeopardy Clause, this Court unanimously held that the Clause was inapplicable to civil forfeiture actions:cralaw
Had the Court in Various Items found that a civil forfeiture could constitute a "punishment" under the Fifth Amendment, its holding would have been quite remarkable. As that Court recognized, "[a]t common law, in many cases, the right of forfeiture did not attach until the offending person had been convicted and the record of conviction produced." Ibid. In other words, at common law, not only was it the case that a criminal conviction did not bar a civil forfeiture, but, in fact, the civil forfeiture could not be instituted unless a criminal conviction had already been obtained. Though this Court had held that common-law rule inapplicable wherecralaw
In our most recent decision considering whether a civil forfeiture constitutes punishment under the Double Jeopardy Clause, we again affirmed the rule of Various Items. Incralaw
Our inquiry proceeded in two stages. In the first stage, we looked to Congress' intent, and concluded that "Congress designed forfeiture under § 924(d) as a remedial civil sanction." 465 U. S., at 363. This conclusion was based upon several findings. First, noting that the forfeiture proceeding was in rem, we found it significant that "[a]ctions in rem have traditionally been viewed as civil proceedings, with jurisdiction dependent upon seizure of a physical object." Ibid., citing Calero-Toledo v. Pearson Yacht Leasing Co., 416 U. S., at 684. Second, we found that the forfeiture provision, because it reached both weapons used in violation of federal law and those "intended to be used" in such a manner, reached a broader range of conduct than its criminal analog. Third, we concluded that the civil forfeiture "further[ed] broad remedial aims," including both "discouraging unregulated commerce in firearms" and "removing from circulation firearms that have been used or intended for use outside regulated channels of commerce." 89 Firearms, supra, at 364.cralaw
Our cases reviewing civil forfeitures under the Double Jeopardy Clause adhere to a remarkably consistent theme. Though the two-part analytical construct employed in 89 Firearms was more refined, perhaps, than that we had used over 50 years earlier in Various Items, the conclusion was the same in each case: In rem civil forfeiture is a remedial civil sanction, distinct from potentially punitive in personam civil penalties such as fines, and does not constitute a punishment under the Double Jeopardy Clause. See Gore v. United States, 357 U. S. 386, 392 (1958) ("In applying a provision like that of double jeopardy, which is rooted in historycralaw
In Halper, we considered "whether and under what circumstances a civil penalty may constitute 'punishment' for the purposes of double jeopardy analysis." Halper, supra, at 436. Based upon his submission of 65 inflated Medicare claims, each of which overcharged the Government by $9, Halper was criminally convicted of 65 counts of violating the false-claims statute, 18 U. S. C. § 287 (1982 ed.), as well as of 16 counts of mail fraud, and was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $5,000. Following that criminal conviction, the Government successfully brought a civil action against Halper under 31 U. S. C. § 3729 (1982 ed. and Supp. II). The District Court hearing the civil action determined that Halper was liable to the Government for over $130,000 under § 3729, which then provided for liability in the amount ofcralaw
In Austin, we considered whether a civil forfeiture could violate the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which provides that "[e]xcessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed .... " Aware that Austin had sold two grams of cocaine the pre-cralaw
In Department of Revenue of Mont. v. Kurth Ranch, supra, we considered whether a state tax imposed on marijuana was invalid under the Double Jeopardy Clause when the taxpayer had already been criminally convicted of own-cralaw
It is difficult to see how the rule of Halper could be applied to a civil forfeiture. Civil penalties are designed as a rough form of "liquidated damages" for the harms suffered by thecralaw
The problem with JUSTICE STEVENS' interpretation of Halper, of course, and therefore with his entire argument, is that Halper did not announce two rules. Nowhere in Halper does the Court set forth two distinct rules or purport to apply a two-step analysis. JUSTICE STEVENS finds his "general rule" in a dictum from Halper: "'[A] civil sanction thatcralaw
The "general rule" discovered by JUSTICE STEVENS in Halper would supplant, not mimic, see post, at 306, the rule of United States v. One Assortment of 89 Firearms, 465 U. S. 354 (1984), and One Lot Emerald Cut Stones v. United States, 409 U. S. 232 (1972). Whether a particular sanction "cannot fairly be said solely to serve a remedial purpose" is an inquiry radically different from that we have traditionally employed in order to determine whether, as a categorical matter, a civil sanction is subject to the Double Jeopardy Clause. Yet nowhere in Halper does the Court purport to make such a sweeping change in the law, instead emphasizing repeatedly the narrow scope of its decision. Halper, supra, at 449 (announcing rule for "the rare case"). If the "general rule" of JUSTICE STEVENS were applied literally, then virtually every sanction would be declared to be a punishment: It is hard to imagine a sanction that has no punitive aspect whatsoever. JUSTICE STEVENS' interpretation of Halper is both contrary to the decision itself and would create an unworkable rule inconsistent with well-established precedent.cralaw
statutes serve a purpose quite different from civil penalties, ... Halper's method of determining whether the exaction was remedial or punitive simply does not work in the case of a tax statute." Kurth Ranch, 511 U. S., at 784 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also id., at 786 (REHNQUIST, C.J., dissenting) (Halper inapplicable outside of "'fixedpenalty provision[sJ''' that are meant "to recover the costs incurred by the Government for bringing someone to book for some violation of law"). This is not to say that there is no occasion for analysis of the Government's harm. 89 Firearms makes clear the relevance of an evaluation of the harms alleged. The point is simply that Halper's casespecific approach is inapplicable to civil forfeitures.
In the cases that we review, the Courts of Appeals did not find Halper difficult to apply to civil forfeiture because they concluded that its case-by-case balancing approach had been supplanted in Austin by a categorical approach that found a civil sanction to be punitive if it could not "fairly be said solely to serve a remedial purpose." See Austin, 509 U. S., at 610; see also Halper, 490 U. S., at 448. But Austin, it must be remembered, did not involve the Double Jeopardy Clause at all. Austin was decided solely under the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment, a constitutional provision which we never have understood as parallel to, or even related to, the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The only discussion of the Double Jeopardy Clause contained in Austin appears in a footnote that acknowledges our decisions holding that "[t]he Double Jeopardy Clause has been held not to apply in civil forfeiture proceedings ... where the forfeiture could properly be characterized as remedial." Austin, supra, at 608, n. 4. And in Austin we expressly recognized and approved our decisions in One Lot Emerald Cut Stones v. United States, 409 U. S. 232 (1972), and United States v. One Assortment of 89 Firearms, 465 U. S. 354 (1984). See Austin, supra, at 608, n. 4.cralaw
In sum, nothing in Halper, Kurth Ranch, or Austin purported to replace our traditional understanding that civil forfeiture does not constitute punishment for the purpose of the Double Jeopardy Clause. Congress long has authorized the Government to bring parallel criminal proceedings and civilcralaw
There is little doubt that Congress intended these forfeitures to be civil proceedings. As was the case in 89 Firearms, "Congress' intent in this regard is most clearly demonstrated by the procedural mechanisms it established for enforcing forfeitures under the statute[s]." Id., at 363. Both 21 U. S. C. § 881 and 18 U. S. C. § 981, which is entitled "Civil forfeiture," provide that the laws "relating to the seizure, summary and judicial forfeiture, and condemnation of property for violation of the customs laws ... shall apply to seizures and forfeitures incurred" under §§ 881 and 981. See 21 U. S. C. § 881(d); 18 u. S. C. § 981(d). Because forfeit-cralaw
3JUSTICE STEVENS mischaracterizes our holding. We do not hold that in rem civil forfeiture is per se exempt from the scope of the Double Jeopardy Clause. See post, at 300-305. Similarly, we do not rest our conclusion in these cases upon the long-recognized fiction that a forfeiture in rem punishes only malfeasant property rather than a particular person. See post, at 313-316. That a forfeiture is designated as civil by Congress and proceeds in rem establishes a presumption that it is not subject to double jeopardy. See, e. g., 89 Firearms, 465 U. S., at 363. Nevertheless, where the "clearest proof" indicates that an in rem civil forfeiture is "socralaw
punitive either in purpose or effect" as to be equivalent to a criminal proceeding, that forfeiture may be subject to the Double Jeopardy Clause. Id., at 365.cralaw
Other considerations that we have found relevant to the question whether a proceeding is criminal also tend to support a conclusion that § 981(a)(1)(A) and §§ 881(a)(6) and (a)(7) are civil proceedings. See Ward, supra, at 247-248, n. 7,249 (listing relevant factors and noting that they are neither exhaustive nor dispositive). First, in light of our decisions in Various Items, Emerald Cut Stones, and 89 Firearms, and the long tradition of federal statutes providing for a forfeiture proceeding following a criminal prosecution, it is absolutely clear that in rem civil forfeiture has not historically been regarded as punishment, as we have understood that term under the Double Jeopardy Clause. Second, there is no requirement in the statutes that we currently review that the Government demonstrate scienter in order to establish that the property is subject to forfeiture; indeed, the property may be subject to forfeiture even if no party files acralaw
In Austin v. United States, 509 U. S. 602, 619-622 (1993), we described the civil in rem forfeiture provision of 21 U. S. C. § 881(a)(7) at issue here as punitive. In Libretti v. United States, 516 U. S. 29 (1995), we reviewed 21 U. S. C.cralaw
The key distinction is that the instrumentality-forfeiture statutes are not directed at those who carry out the crimes, but at owners who are culpable for the criminal misuse of the property. See Austin, supra, at 619 (statutory "exemptions serve to focus the provisions on the culpability of the owner"). The theory is that the property, whether or not illegal or dangerous in nature, is hazardous in the hands of this owner because either he uses it to commit crimes, or allows others to do so. The owner can be held accountable for the misuse of the property. Cf. One 1958 Plymouth Sedan, supra, at 699 ("There is nothing even remotely criminal in possessing an automobile. It is only the alleged use to which this particular automobile was put that subjects [the owner] to its possible loss"). The same rationale is at work in the statutory provisions enabling forfeiture of currency "used or intended to be used" to facilitate a criminal offense, § 881(a)(6). See also 18 U. S. C. § 981(a)(1)(A) (property involved in money-laundering transactions or attempts in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 1956). Since the punishment befalls any propertyholder who cannot claim statutory inno-cralaw
Distinguishing between in rem and in personam punishments does not depend upon, or revive, the fiction alive in Various Items, supra, at 581, but condemned in Austin, supra, at 615, n. 9, that the property is punished as if it were a sentient being capable of moral choice. It is the owner who feels the pain and receives the stigma of the forfeiture, not the property. See United States v. United States Coin & Currency, 401 U. S. 715, 718 (1971). The distinctioncralaw
In Part II -C of its opinion, the Court conducts the twopart inquiry established in 89 Firearms, supra, at 362-366, as to whether, first, Congress intended the proceedings to be civil, and, second, the forfeitures are so punitive as to becralaw
The question the Court poses is whether civil forfeitures constitute "punishment" for purposes of the Double Jeopardy Clause. Because the numerous federal statutes authorizing forfeitures cover such a wide variety of situations, it is quitecralaw
The critical question presented in No. 95-345 arose, not out of the seizure of contraband by the Michigan police, but rather out of the decision by the United States attorney tocralaw
"(7) All real property, including any right, title, and interest (including any leasehold interest) in the whole of any lot or tract of land and any appurtenances or improvements, which is used, or intended to be used, in any manner or part, to commit, or to facilitate the commission of, a violation of this subchapter punishable by more than one year's imprisonment, except that no property shall be forfeited under this paragraph, to the extent of an interest of an owner, by reason of any act or omission established by that owner to have been committed or omitted without the knowledge or consent of that owner." § 881(a)(7).cralaw
"I am disturbed by the breadth of new civil forfeiture statutes such as 21 U. S. C. § 881(a)(7), which subjects to forfeiture all real property that is used, or intended to be used, in the commission, or even the facilitation, of a federal drug offense. As JUSTICE O'CONNOR points out, ... since the Civil War we have upheld statutes allowing for the civil forfeiture of real property. A strong argument can be made, however, that § 881 (a)(7) is so broad that it differs not only in degree, but in kind, from its historical antecedents .... Indeed, it is unclear whether the central theory behind in rem forfeiture, the fiction 'that the thing is primarily considered the offender,' J. W Goldsmith, Jr.-Grant Co. v. United States, 254 U. S. 505, 511 (1921), can fully justify the immense scope of § 881(a)(7). Under this provision, 'large tracts of land [and any improvements thereon] which have no connection with crime other than being the location where a drug transaction occurred,' Brief for Respondents 20, are subject to forfeiture. It is difficult to see how such real property is necessarily in any sense 'guilty' of an offense, as could reasonably be argued of, for example, the distillery in Dobbins's Distillery v. United States, 96 U. S. 395 (1878), or the pirate vessel in Harmony v. United States, 2 How. 210 (1844). Given that current practice under § 881(a)(7) appears to be far removed from the legal fiction upon which the civil forfeiture doctrine is based, it may be necessary-in an appropriate case-to reevaluate our generally deferential approach to legislative judgments in this area of civil forfeiture." Unitedcralaw
States v. James Daniel Good Real Property, 510 U. S. 43, 81-82 (1993) (opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part) (footnotes omitted).cralaw
We reaffirmed Boyd twice during the span of time between our decisions in Various Items and 89 Firearms. In One 1958 Plymouth Sedan v. Pennsylvania, 380 U. S. 693 (1965), the Court unanimously repeated Boyd's conclusion that "a forfeiture proceeding is quasi-criminal in character" and "[i]ts object, like a criminal proceeding, is to penalize for the commission of an offense against the law." The Court therefore held that the Fourth Amendment applied to a pro-cralaw
Emerald Cut Stones expressly recognized the continuing validity of Coin & Currency and One 1958 Plymouth Sedan. It distinguished the customs statute in that case because the forfeiture did not depend on the fact of a criminal offense or conviction. See 409 U. S., at 236, n. 6. See also United States v. Ward, 448 U. S. 242, 254 (1980) (discussing Boyd). That recognition is critical. For whatever its connection to the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment, the Double Jeopardy Clause is part of the same Amendment as the Self-Incrimination Clause, and ought to be interpretedcralaw
3 If anything, the Double Jeopardy Clause ought to apply to a broader set of proceedings than the Self-Incrimination Clause. While the latter applies only in a "criminal case," the former concerns any type of "jeopardy," presumably a larger class of situations. See U. S. Const., Arndt. 5.cralaw
The first was the subject of Halper itself. The defendant had been convicted for submitting 65 false claims for reimbursement (seeking $12 for each, when the actual services rendered entitled him to only $3) to a Medicare provider, and sentenced to imprisonment for two years and a $5,000 fine. The Government then brought a civil action against him for the same offenses. The penalty for violating the civil falseclaims statute consisted of double the Government's damages plus court costs and a fixed fine of $2,000 per false claim. See id., at 438. Accordingly, the Government sought a penalty of $130,000, although the defendant's fraud had caused an actual loss of only $585. Applying the definition of "punishment" given above, the Court first held that the fixed $2,000 fine served a remedial purpose because it was designed to compensate the Government "roughly" for the costs of law enforcement and investigation. Id., at 445. Despite finding that the fine was not by nature punitive, thecralaw
4 The Court stated the full rule as follows: "Where a defendant previously has sustained a criminal penalty and the civil penalty sought in the subsequent proceeding bears no rational relation to the goal of compensating the Government for its loss, but rather appears to qualify as 'punishment' in the plain meaning of the word, then the defendant is entitled to an accounting of the Government's damages and costs to determine if the penalty sought in fact constitutes a second punishment." United States v. Halper, 490 U. S. 435, 449-450 (1989).cralaw
5 Even if Austin had not followed Halper's rule for defining punishment, it would make little sense to say that forfeiture might be punishment "for the purposes of" the Excessive Fines Clause but not the Double Jeopardy Clause. It is difficult to imagine why the Framers of the two Amendments would have required a particular sanction not to be excessive, but would have allowed it to be imposed multiple times for the same offense.cralaw
7 It is true, as the Court asserts, that a fine will only be considered "excessive" if it is disproportionate to any remedial goal. But Austin established that a forfeiture can also be excessive, although it could serve multiple remedial goals. Hence, I do not understand why the Court maintains that Austin did not prove that forfeitures are punitive. In order to count as a "fine" in the first place, a forfeiture must be capable of being punitive. A penalty that is not a "fine" cannot violate the Excessive Finescralaw
8See, e. g., Peisch v. Ware, 4 Cranch 347, 364 (1808) (Marshall, C.J.) ("[T]he act punishes the owner with a forfeiture of the goods"); J. W Goldsmith, Jr.-Grant Co. v. United States, 254 U. S. 505, 510-511 (1921) (the owner of an automobile confiscated for its use in transporting liquor during Prohibition is "'properly punished by such forfeiture''') (quoting 1 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *301).
United States, 516 U. S. 29, 39 (1995) ("[T]he in rem civil forfeiture authorized by 21 U. S. C. §§ 881 (a)(4) and (a)(7) is punitive in nature").cralaw
10 The Court also speculates that nuisance abatement may provide a remedial interest. Ante, at 290-291. The abatement theory was questionable enough in Bennis v. Michigan, 516 U. S. 442 (1996), where under the State's theory the same acts might or might not turn an ordinary automobile into a nuisance, depending on the neighborhood in which the car happened to be parked. See id., at 464, n. 9 (STEVENS, J., dissenting). Here, there is no argument that Ursery's home constituted some kind of a nuisance.cralaw
For good measure, the Court also rejects two considerations that persuaded the majority in Austin to find 21 U. S. C. § 881(a)(7) a punitive statute. The Court first asserts that the statute contains no scienter requirement and property may be forfeited summarily if no one files claim to it. Ante, at 291-292 (citing 19 U. S. C. § 1609). Property that is not claimed, however, is considered abandoned; it proves nothing that the Government is able to forfeit property that no one owns. Any time the Government seeks to forfeit claimed property, it must prove that the claimant is culpable, for the statute contains an express "innocent owner" exception. Today the Court finds the structure of the statute irrelevant, but Austin said that the exemption for innocent owners "makes [the statute] look more like punishment." 509 U. S., at 619. In United States v. United States Coin & Currency, 401 U. S. 715 (1971), the Courtcralaw
12 "[A]lthough the owner of goods, sought to be forfeited by a proceeding in rem, is not the nominal party, he is, nevertheless, the substantial party to the suit; he certainly is so, after making claim and defence; and, in acralaw
14 "That case, United States v. La Franca, 282 U. S. 568 (1931), observed that the words 'tax' and 'penalty' 'are not interchangeable, one for the other' and that 'if an exaction be clearly a penalty it cannot be converted into a tax by the simple expedient of calling it such.' Id., at 572. See also Lipke v. Lederer, 259 U. S. 557, 561 (1922) ('The mere use of the word "tax" in an act primarily designed to define and suppress crime is not enough to show that within the true intendment of the term a tax was laid')." Department of Revenue of Mont. v. Kurth Ranch, 511 U. S. 767, 777, n. 15 (1994).cralaw
"* ... Vaughan, C.J., in Sheppard v. Gosnold, Vaugh. 159, 172, approved by Ch. Baron Parker in Mitchell qui tam v. Torup, Parker, 227, 236." Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S., at 637, and n.cralaw
16 As I have emphasized, the determination that 21 U. S. C. § 881(a)(7) is a punitive statute is perfectly consistent with a conclusion that other types of sanctions are remedial. For example, I would expect that many types of administrative licensing sanctions are remedial in the relevant sense of our cases. See Comment, Administrative Driver's License Suspension: A Remedial Tool That is Not in Jeopardy, 45 Am. U. L. Rev. 1151 (1996) (arguing that suspension of a driver's license after conviction for drunken driving is a remedial sanction under the logic of Halper, Austin, and Kurth Ranch).cralaw
The rule does, however, bar this conviction because the elements that the Government was required to allege and prove to sustain the forfeiture of Ursery's home under § 881(a)(7) included each of the elements of the offense for which he was later convicted. As in Illinois v. Vitale, 447 U. S. 410 (1980), and Harris v. Oklahoma, 433 U. S. 682cralaw
JUSTICE KENNEDY theorizes that civil forfeiture punishes for the misuse of property. Ante, at 294. It might be true that some forfeiture statutes are best described as creating a sanction for misuse, as opposed to (but perhaps in addition to) a sanction for the substantive criminal offense. But, again, this statute is not structured that way. Section 881(a)(7) incorporates the criminal offense itself as the predicate for the forfeiture. See 21 U. S. C. § 881(a)(7) (subjecting to forfeiture "[a]ll real property ... which is used ... to commit ... a violation of this subchapter punishable by more than one year's imprisonment"). Furthermore, the innocent owner exemption in the same subsection provides that "nocralaw
17 In Kurth Ranch we explicitly noted that the tax assessment and the prosecution were "separate legal proceedings." 511 U. S., at 772.cralaw
18 According to the Rule, once there is a finding that property is subject to a criminal forfeiture, the court may enter a preliminary forfeiture order. The order also authorizes the Attorney General to seize the property, conduct any necessary discovery, and begin proceedings to protect the rights of third parties. The order of forfeiture becomes a part of the sentence and is included in the judgment.cralaw