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Q&A
Asset forfeiture funds and their impact on DOI's budget
1:13:53
ยท
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Council Member Brewer inquires about asset forfeiture funds and their impact on the Department of Investigation's budget. Commissioner Strauber provides information on current forfeiture balances and the potential impact of federal policy changes.
- DOI has about $5 million from state forfeiture built up over time
- There's approximately $1 million from a Treasury Department category
- The current forfeiture balance outside of the CityTime case is $100,000
- Commissioner Strauber doesn't anticipate clawbacks of previously received funds
Gale Brewer
1:13:53
Right.
1:13:54
I tried to say that when I was introducing the topic, so that's very helpful.
1:13:58
In terms of asset forfeiture, I was around during city time.
1:14:01
I have to give now attorney general, then council member with me credit.
1:14:05
She never stopped talking about it until the point wanted to shut her up, but she was right.
1:14:11
So, I understand that hopefully there will not be another city time or something of that ilk because it was, quite challenging.
1:14:20
So my question is, you heard earlier we heard earlier a couple of years in terms of the, length of that particular asset forfeiture.
1:14:30
So my question is, sort of, are you concerned about the Trump administration announcing freezes on, this is federal funding?
1:14:40
And if so, how would that impact?
1:14:42
I don't know that they will.
1:14:43
I don't even know if they know about it, but I was wondering if you could comment.
Jocelyn E. Strauber
1:14:47
Sure.
1:14:47
Well, it's it's funding that has now for quite some time been in the city's accounts.
1:14:51
It's it's in our accounts here, So it's not like a recent transfer of funds.
1:14:56
We don't have any reason to think from the conversations we've had that that funding from you know, that came in a couple years ago now or so is gonna be clawed back.
1:15:05
In terms of future federal forfeiture, you know, we certainly hope the program will continue.
1:15:09
But exactly how it'll be organized or the types of cases that might generate those sorts of returns, even if we don't get anywhere close to the CityTime case, it's hard to say.
Gale Brewer
1:15:19
Okay.
1:15:19
And how much I mean, is there any average without CityTime included that you move into your asset forfeiture budget?
1:15:26
Is there some, you know Well, we also I mean, it depends on the cases.
Jocelyn E. Strauber
1:15:30
I mean, we also have about 5,000,000, again, built up over time from state forfeiture.
1:15:35
And then there's another, you know, Treasury Department category that we have that I think is roughly Which is treasuries?
1:15:50
1,000,000.
1:15:51
The the treasury is is 1,000,000.
1:15:53
We have we have far smaller amounts than our current DOJ forfeiture that really comes from the Citi time case.
1:15:59
I would say, like, a few million a year would be, you know
Gale Brewer
1:16:04
Okay.
1:16:04
Would be average.
Jocelyn E. Strauber
1:16:10
Oh, okay.
1:16:11
Thank you.
1:16:11
Thank you.
1:16:12
So the current forfeiture balance outside of CityTime is a hundred thousand.
1:16:17
So you can see it's much it's much lower.
Gale Brewer
1:16:19
Absolutely.