Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 389) to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to pay rewards under an asset recovery rewards program to help identify and recover stolen assets linked to foreign government corruption and the proceeds of such corruption hidden behind complex financial structures in the United States and abroad, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material thereon.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

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.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch), the sponsor of this legislation and a member of the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

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.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on the committee and on this issue and for yielding me this time.

The opportunity that we have today here to present the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Act is a very important moment.

I also want to thank my colleagues, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Budd) and also the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen), who have also contributed hard work in developing and cosponsoring this legislation.

Foreign dictators who rob the treasuries of developing nations, where independent judiciaries are rare, and the rule of law is often weak, is not a new problem; but, unfortunately, it is a growing problem.

It is now estimated that more than $1 trillion is lost to bribes and official corruption around the world each year. A significant portion of those illicit proceeds are used to support organized crime and terrorist organizations, further destabilizing the social institutions where this corruption occurs, often in developing countries who can least afford it.

This undermines the local rule of law and contributes to the regional insecurity and instabilities in neighboring countries.

Governments that are weakened by corruption have fewer resources to provide basic services, to establish a stable business climate, and to create jobs. They also have fewer resources to devote to building strong law enforcement and judicial institutions to combat exploitation by terrorists and criminal organizations.

It is a sad fact that today much of this stolen money ends up here, in bank accounts right here in the United States.

H.R. 389 fights back against the spreading influence of this corruption. The Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Act establishes a rewards program to incentivize individuals to notify law enforcement and authorities of assets stolen from foreign treasuries and illegally transferred to the United States.

Now, I appreciate the gentleman's concerns about making sure that bad actors don't participate in this incentive program.

This program replicates the incentives that have been utilized by the United States Department of Justice and the FBI for decades to take down criminal drug cartels with the help of paid informants.

While the United States has many effective programs to reward individuals who provide valuable information toward curbing criminal behavior, none of our programs currently have been designed to take aim at recovering stolen assets linked to foreign government kleptocracy.

Kleptocracy by foreign leaders can drain the hope and faith of struggling peoples around the globe who strive for social justice and equal rights.

This bill recognizes that foreign corruption takes many forms and that individuals who come forward to expose corruption often do so at great personal peril to themselves and to their families.

So, as transnational criminal enterprises persist, and terrorists adapt to the different mechanisms that we use, we must provide law enforcement with fresh tools to address these emerging threats.

H.R. 389 does exactly that.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank, again, the chairwoman for her cooperation and leadership. I thank my colleagues on the other side, especially Mr. Budd, for his work on this bill as well. I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for working with me on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 389, the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Rewards Act, and I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) as well as the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Budd) for their hard work on this important piece of bipartisan legislation.

H.R. 389 would authorize the Treasury Department to offer rewards for information leading to the recovery of assets stolen through foreign government corruption.

Mr. Speaker, in the past, the United States has focused on fighting such corruption with traditional tools such as sanctions, technical assistance, and oversight of international financial institutions, but the bill gives Treasury an additional tool to expose corrupt foreign officials.

I, again, would like to thank my colleagues across the aisle, especially Chairwoman Waters, for her hard work on this bill and allowing us to work together in a bipartisan fashion to refine this legislation as it made its way to the floor.

One piece of the bill that has gotten better that I still think could use an additional tweak is the bill does not allow anyone to receive a payment if they are part of the corrupt activity, but it does not require Treasury to fully investigate every potential claimant to make sure that they are not. So while that has gotten better--there is better language in the bill now--I think that, hopefully, this can continue to be perfected as we move forward. I support the bill, but I do think that provision could get better.

The minority did make several proposals to strengthen the bill, which were accepted by the majority. I am grateful to the gentleman from Massachusetts for partnering with us, as well as the gentleman from North Carolina, and for their hard work on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I look forward to voting for H.R. 389. I urge my colleagues to support it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. Speaker, H.R. 389 will give the Treasury an additional tool to fight corrupt foreign governments. There has been a lot of work done on this bill. It is a good bill. I urge my colleagues to support it, and I yield back the balance of my time.