Eric Dupond-Moretti, Keeper of the Great Seal, is participating in the Seized and Forfeited Assets Management and Recovery Agency’s 10-Year Symposium and presents notable lots such as this yellow Lamborghini, These lots will then be auctioned off. November 4, 2021, Paris.
This is a beautiful villa of about 140 sqm in the 15th district of Marseille. It sits on a plot of almost 450sqm where there is a swimming pool and even a pool house, a shed for storing equipment. It is reached via the small impasse de la Discorde, a stone’s throw from the residential areas of the Northern Territory. An island of tranquility in an area with a bad reputation. This is the home of a drug dealer couple before their arrest and eventual conviction in 2022. The husband, a repeat offender, was serving a seven-year sentence for transporting and importing cocaine. The woman was suspended for eighteen months for unreasonable resources. But more importantly, the judiciary confiscated their house, estimated to be worth around half a million euros.
The house is the latest gem from the Agency for Seizure and Forfeiture Asset Management and Recovery (Agrasc). Its board of directors must take a decision on the social redistribution of the villa by mid-March. Under normal circumstances, it should be allocated to the Maasai Association to house battered women. Before that, some work was still necessary: in fact, the previous owners had already removed roller blinds, taps and electrical sockets… It must be said that, in general, the confiscation experience was particularly bad for lawbreakers and criminals.
“virtuous circle”
The idea of social redistribution of confiscated property has been in vogue since 2018, when Italy offered to provide France with Paris Mafia housing on the condition that it be repurposed for social purposes. The law of April 8, 2021, enacted by Seal Guardian Eric Dupond-Moretti, who wanted it as a demonstration of his actions, later endorsed the principle. He therefore handed over the keys of the first confiscated and redistributed building in Coudekerque-Branche (north) at the end of January. A plaque was even put up to commemorate the solemnity of the event. The building was taken from the slum landlords and, after extensive work, will be reused by Habitat and Humane for housing families. According to the Attorney General: “It is a virtuous circle, from the confiscation of the offender’s property until its social reattribution.” This is the case in Coudekerque. The building is now designed for people who have experienced the same misfortune as those who lived there before, but who will be able to live in decent conditions. »
“I was in Italy with Justice Minister Marta Cartabia on the ground to see how buildings confiscated from the Mafia are given to associations, for example in the areas of reintegration, progress, etc. If we pay, then It’s not the same thing at all. It’s real punishment.” Nicolas Bessone, director of Agrasc, agrees: “The appeal of serious offenders is limited to the sentence of confiscation. This proves that confiscation works,” he wants to believe.
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