Using Frozen Assets to Assist the Forcibly Displaced

General (or anyone with the Attorney General’s consent) to apply to the courts for a management order in respect of any “seized property.” However, the SPMA’s provisions make clear that the statute relates to property forfeited (seized, and not frozen) in the context of a prosecution in Canada where the owner was found to be engaged in criminal conduct. [...] Once the assets have been confiscated, Switzerland can seek to restore the assets to the The United States country of origin for the purpose of improving In the United States, the International Emergency “the living conditions of the inhabitants of and Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) authorizes the country of origin,” and strengthening “the the president to impose financial sanctions, rule of law in t [...] Although the with the country of origin, the Federal IEEPA does not change the ownership of the frozen assets, it gives the president the power to confiscate the property of any person, 5 Loi sur les valeurs patrimoniales d’origine illicit, Federal Act on the organization or country determined to be Freezing and the Restitution of Illicit Assets held by Foreign Politically Exposed Persons (Foreign [...] Using Frozen Assets to Assist the Forcibly Displaced 3 An illustration of the exercise of that authority was provided when President George W. Bush issued The Canadian Charter of an executive order under the IEEPA on March 20, 2003, confiscating certain Iraqi government Rights and Freedoms property for the purpose of using that property “to assist the Iraqi people and to assist in the Would a stat [...] She nonetheless frozen assets without the prior approval cited and followed Siemens, adding, in obiter of the superior court in the province dictum, that “generally, neither the right to hold in which the assets are located; employment nor the economic interests of the 23 → a procedure for summary application to the applicants are protected by the Charter.” court for its approval, providing that t