draining development.pdf - Khazar University

156 Draining Development?(15.3 percent) had been returned to their owners, who had obtainedfavorable court judgments. Only 7,734 (9.6 percent) had been forfeited,and the remaining 60,729 (75.1 percent) were still the subject of judicialprocesses. The forfeiture process is slow. Indeed, in early May 2008, DNEauctioned property seized from Pablo Escobar, who was killed onDecember 2, 1993. The fact that the share of the assets that has beenreturned to asset owners is larger than the share that has been forfeitedalso indicates the level of problems in the process. DNE officials suggestthat the data are misleading because the definition of asset that is useddoes not refer to an individual piece of property, but to all propertiesthat are seized during each seizure event and that they believe are in thepossession of one individual. They claim that some of the forfeited assetsinclude several properties. However, they do not have data to corroboratethis.Table 5.1 summarizes the results of AML efforts involving the seizedand forfeited assets of drug traffickers. The official data have been aggregatedand do not provide important details. For example, there are noestimates about the value of the assets seized and forfeited. Moreover, thedefinition of an asset is vague (see above). Despite the data deficiencies,the results are clearly not encouraging.Table 5.1. The Results of Anti–money Laundering Efforts: Number of Seizedand Forfeited AssetsnumberAsset typeReturned byjudicial decisionIn judicialprocess Forfeited TotalUrban real estate 2,571 11,790 2,965 17,326Rural real estate 1,282 3,659 695 5,636Businesses 62 2,541 287 2,890Cash 410 5,420 327 6,157Controlled substances 525 9,439 653 10,617Land vehicles 3,823 9,198 585 13,606Airplanes and helicopters 361 660 44 1,065Boats 179 571 99 849Other 3,184 17,451 2,079 22,714Total 12,397 60, 729 7,734 80,860Source: UIAF 2008.Note: The data apply to the period up to November 30, 2008.