Actual Knowledge of Forfeitability

For purposes of these guidelines, actual knowledge refers not simply to knowledge that some of a client's assets are either subject to forfeiture or from criminal misconduct. Rather, an attorney must have actual knowledge that the particular asset he/she received was subject to forfeiture. The guidelines require that there be reasonable grounds to believe that actual knowledge exists.

Reasonable grounds exist for believing that an attorney has actual knowledge that an asset is subject to forfeiture when there is evidence that it was known to the attorney at the time of the transfer either: (a) that the government had asserted that the particular asset is subject to forfeiture or (b) that the particular asset in fact is from criminal misconduct.

[new May 2010]