Bizarrely, the US is demanding the charged parties to forfeit $6B USD. I'm sure they know that the $6B doesn't exist, but it seems that it should be illegal to demand that it be forfeited.
The $6B total appears to be each transaction added. If $100 got transfered within LD 10 times the government says there should be $1,000 (and is demanding it be given to the US gov't), but in reality only $100 ever existed and it's quite likely that after being transferred internally it had been transferred out of LD.
> Bizarrely, the US is demanding the charged parties to forfeit $6B USD.
It's not bizarre at all. This is regular practice. They name a ludicrous figure, freeze assets, and seize absolutely everything they can get their hands on.
1. Most prosecutor's offices in the US are funded by criminal asset seizures.
2. If you had your assets frozen, guess what? Can't hire an expensive defense attorney that can actually get your ass out of trouble and potentially keep all that $$$.
Whenever you see a press conference when a bunch of police agencies are crowing about a big bust, the brass are all there to accept credit, and their agencies portion of the take.
Reminds me of the original charges in the Madoff case: "you lied and told people they had $N made-up dollars in their funds, so now you owe them $N, even though $N never did exist."
Yes, the fact that they used his made up numbers to describe his fraud (and continue to do so!) is very annoying. I expect that out of the media, but in the actual legal charges it is nonsensical. He stole a lot of money, but he didn't steal what he had simply made up.
Well, that't the whole point - if $x of your daily transfers are money laundering, then you are liable for the full laundered amount, even if you don't have the money anymore and took only a couple percent fee. If the laundered money is 0.01% of your turnover, then you just pay the fee; if the laundered money is 10% of your turnover and more than your assets, then tough luck, you were legally required to prevent that in the first place, you didn't, and now owe everything you got.
If a civilian "easy work form home!!!" money mule forwards 100 payments of $1000 stolen money, then he's also liable for the full $100 000 even if he transferred away most of it and doesn't have so much money at all.
43.a ... The defendants, shall forfeit to the United States, pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Section 982(a)(1), all property, real and personal, involved in the offenses and all property traceable to such property, including but not limited to: a. A sum of money of at least $6 billion in United States currency;
The $6B total appears to be each transaction added. If $100 got transfered within LD 10 times the government says there should be $1,000 (and is demanding it be given to the US gov't), but in reality only $100 ever existed and it's quite likely that after being transferred internally it had been transferred out of LD.