The Association of Multiple Banks of the Dominican Republic (ABA) considered that the inclusion in the Dominican legal framework of a Law of Domain Extinction for the Civil Forfeiture of Illicit Assets constitutes an important tool, so that the State can attack criminal economic structures beyond the criminal process, although they must be taken into account some observations, necessary for its efficient application.
In that sense, the guild highlighted the importance of guaranteeing legal certainty over the real, personal or any other right that, in good faith, a third party has registered over the asset subject to domain forfeiture.
He specified that such is the case of the rights of creditors with duly registered guarantees.
The ABA stressed that it is imperative to define the due diligence that the purchaser in good faith must exhaust because, as proposed in the bills, it is intended to require third parties that their good faith and diligence be deployed not only on the goods that they will acquire, but also regarding the history and conditions of the person from whom it is acquired.
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He warned that this obligation obstructs and makes it impossible to carry out operations, and also imposes irrational burdens on purchasers in good faith, going beyond the scope of their constitutional duties.
Also, the ABA recommended defining the criminal types that may serve as the basis for a domain forfeiture trial.
In that order, it considered that it should be stated that, for the exclusive purposes of the aforementioned law, that conduct typified as a crime or crime, according to the criminal legislation in force in the Dominican Republic at the time of its occurrence, is considered an illegal act, sanctioned with a penalty of seclusion.
The banking union sent its observations in a communication addressed to Senator Pedro Catrain, president of the Bicameral Commission that studies the three bills on the Forfeiture Trial Law for the Civil Forfeiture of Illicit Assets, introduced by Senators Antonio Taveras; Miltiades Marino Franjul Pimentel; as well as by Félix Bautista Félix, Aris Yván Lorenzo Suero and José Manuel Castillo Saviñón.
In the communication, the ABA was optimistic about the receptivity that legislators will have to accept the recommendations presented by the aforementioned commission.
