BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 160
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
160 (Dababneh)
As Amended May 5, 2015
2/3 vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+----------------------+---------------------|
|Public Safety |7-0 |Quirk, Melendez, | |
| | |Gonzalez, | |
| | |Jones-Sawyer, Lackey, | |
| | |Low, Santiago | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+----------------------+---------------------|
|Revenue & |9-0 |Ting, Brough, | |
|Taxation | |Dababneh, Gipson, | |
| | |Roger Hernández, | |
| | |Mullin, Patterson, | |
| | |Quirk, Wagner | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+----------------------+---------------------|
|Appropriations |15-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bloom, Bonta, | |
| | |Calderon, Chang, | |
| | |Eggman, Gallagher, | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Holden, Quirk, | |
| | |Rendon, Wagner, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
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AB 160
Page 2
SUMMARY: Expands the list of crimes that allow for forfeiture of
assets and prosecution of criminal profiteering and broadens the
definition of criminal profiteering by broadening the organized
crime element to include other specified offenses. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Expands the list of offenses which can serve as a basis for a
criminal profiteering action to include piracy and insurance
fraud.
2)Expands provisions from the "organized crime" element as it
pertains to criminal profiteering by the provisions that require
that the nature of the conspiratorial action be of an organized
nature to include such examples as:
a) Pimping and pandering;
b) Counterfeiting of any registered trademark;
c) Illegal piracy of recordings or audiovisual works;
d) Embezzlement;
e) Securities fraud;
f) State tax fraud;
g) Insurance fraud;
h) Grand theft;
i) Money laundering; and
AB 160
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j) Forgery.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Establishes the "California Control Profits of Organized Crime
Act."
2)Declares that the Legislature finds and declares that an
effective means of punishing and deterring criminal activities
of organized crime is through the forfeiture of profits acquired
and accumulated as a result of such criminal activities. It is
the intent of the Legislature that the "California Control of
Profits of Organized Crime Act" be used by prosecutors to punish
and deter only such activities.
3)Defines "criminal profiteering activity" as any act committed or
attempted or any threat made for financial gain or advantage,
which act or threat may be charged as a crime under any of the
following offenses: arson, bribery, child pornography or
exploitation, felonious assault, embezzlement, extortion,
forgery, gambling, kidnapping, mayhem, murder, pimping and
pandering, receiving stolen property, robbery, solicitation of
crimes, grand theft, trafficking in controlled substances,
violation of the laws governing corporate securities, specified
crimes involving obscenity, presentation of a false or
fraudulent claim, false or fraudulent activities, schemes, or
artifices, money laundering, offenses relating to the
counterfeit of a registered mark, offenses relating to the
unauthorized access to computers, computer systems, and computer
data, conspiracy to commit any of the crimes listed above,
offenses committed on behalf of a criminal street gang, offenses
related to fraud or theft against the state's beverage container
recycling program, human trafficking, any crime in which the
perpetrator induces, encourages, or persuades a person under 18
years of age to engage in a commercial sex act, any crime in
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which the perpetrator, through force, fear, coercion, deceit,
violence, duress, menace, or threat of unlawful injury to the
victim or to another person, causes a person under 18 years of
age to engage in a commercial sex act, theft of personal
identifying information, offenses involving the theft of a motor
vehicle, abduction or procurement by fraudulent inducement for
prostitution.
4)Defines "pattern of criminal profiteering activity" means
engaging in at least two incidents of criminal profiteering, as
defined by this chapter, that meet the following requirements:
a) Have the same or a similar purpose, result, principals,
victims, or methods of commission, or are otherwise
interrelated by distinguishing characteristics;
b) Are not isolated events; and/or
c) Were committed as a criminal activity of organized crime.
5)Defines "organized crime" as a crime that is of a conspiratorial
nature and that is either of an organized nature and seeks to
supply illegal goods and services such as narcotics,
prostitution, loan-sharking, gambling, and pornography, or that,
through planning and coordination of individual efforts, seeks
to conduct the illegal activities of arson for profit,
hijacking, insurance fraud, smuggling, operating vehicle theft
rings, fraud against the beverage container recycling program,
or systematically encumbering the assets of a business for the
purpose of defrauding creditors. "Organized crime" also means
crime committed by a criminal street gang, as defined.
"Organized crime" also means false or fraudulent activities,
schemes, or artifices, as defined, and the theft of personal
identifying information, as defined.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
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1)Minor and absorbable costs to state and local law enforcement;
minor and absorbable costs to the Board of Equalization (BOE) to
administer the tax.
2)Estimated General Fund revenue increase of approximately $1.1
million per year based on California's pro rata share of total
seizures of counterfeit label and illicit label goods in the
United States and the taxable value of those goods.
COMMENTS: According to the author, "Criminals should not profit
from their crimes. Unfortunately, California's asset forfeiture
laws for non-drug related crimes, like financial crimes and other
white collar offenses, are so poorly drafted that they are almost
unusable by District Attorneys and the Attorney General's office.
As a result, white collar victims who sometimes have lost
everything due to a defendant's fraud, often cannot collect
restitution to make them whole. Adding more examples of crimes to
the definition of "organized crime" will ensure that prosecutors
are able to seize unlawfully obtained assets.
"Equally problematic, underground economy crimes like tax evasion
that drain public resources from our schools, health services and
law enforcement, are not even included among the list of crimes in
which asset forfeiture is available. As found by the Little
Hoover Commission, after an investigation of over a year, in the
current climate, 'Crime Actually Does Pay - people participate in
the underground economy because the rewards outweigh the risk.'
(Little Hoover Commission Report # 226, p. 30.) This bill fixes
the internal inconsistencies in the language of the state's asset
forfeiture laws, and adds certain underground economy crimes to
the list of offenses that can trigger asset forfeiture of criminal
profits. This bill is to make it so that crime no longer pays in
California."
AB 160
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Analysis Prepared by:
Gabriel Caswell / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 FN:
0000475