Seized vehicles could be sold before their confiscation. The Cabinet has approved a bill that will enable the Agency for the Recovery of Criminal Assets (ARBI) to do so.

“The bill aims to solve a current problem, which is the fact that seized vehicles cannot be sold before their confiscation. And this is because, under the current legislation, they are attributed to assets whose value decreases by at least 10% within a year from their seizure. But in fact, vehicles tend to decrease in value by more than that, thus harming the state’s interest in efficiently recovering seized goods”, explained Minister of Justice Sergiu Litvinenco during the Government’s meeting on Wednesday.

The proposal is to include seized vehicles in the category of assets that may be capitalized beforehand as a matter of exception.

Another novelty is that the ARBI will be able to freeze criminal assets for a period of up to 30 workdays based on the written request of foreign competent authorities or delegations from the prosecution. The measure is meant to prevent a person from transferring or selling those assets before the seizure is applied.

“In the digital age, transferring, selling or liquidating something can be done very quickly, with a single click, while the seizure procedure lasts from 1 to 3 days. Freezing assets is needed so as to enable the law enforcement to counter attempts of concealing or alienating criminal assets. This mechanism is unanimously applied and recognized by the EU member states”, said Minister Litvinenco.

The bill also creates a framework of cooperation between the ARBI and the National Integrity Authority in detecting unjustified assets, especially those located abroad.