Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. Speaker, H.R. 389, the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Act offered by Representatives Lynch and Budd, will help the United States Government identify and recover assets that corrupt foreign government officials have stolen from their countries. The act does this through a Treasury-based rewards program that incentivizes individuals to notify the U.S. Government of the location of stolen assets that are linked to foreign government corruption. These assets may be bank accounts as well as luxury items, such as mansions, jewelry, jet planes, and artwork.
Law enforcement already works hard to find these stolen assets. Since 2010, the United States has fought in courts to freeze, forfeit, and ultimately recover more than $3.2 billion in assets linked to foreign corruption to be returned to the victims of these financial crimes.
There are several recent examples of corrupt foreign funds making their way to the United States. The multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal involving Goldman Sachs defrauded the people of Malaysia. To date, the FBI has identified $1.7 billion of the proceeds of that crime, which went to purchase a yacht, museum-quality paintings, and real estate. In fact, the government returned $57 million of recovered stolen funds to Malaysia following a settlement over the rights to the 2013 film, ``The Wolf of Wall Street,'' which was financed using corrupt 1MDB funds.
Similarly, the United States helped to recover over $30 million from the sale of real estate, a Ferrari, and rare music memorabilia, which were purchased by Equatorial Guinea's President Obiang and his son with corrupt funds.
H.R. 389 would direct the Treasury to pay whistleblowers rewards from the recovered assets for helping to uncover assets like these. Encouraging and incentivizing whistlblowers would strip the bad actors of the ill-gotten gains and help victims and their countries recover from the devastating effects of corruption.
So, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Lynch and Mr. Budd for introducing this bill to help the U.S. punish kleptocrats. For these reasons, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 389.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that Mr. Lynch and Mr. Budd have presented this bipartisan bill to the House. We must not allow the United States financial system to be a haven for stolen assets that rightly belong to others.
By incentivizing individuals to come forward with information about where these stolen assets are hidden, we ensure the financial security of our system and can help send back recovered assets to where they belong.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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