About this episode

The episode discusses Spain's approach to asset recovery in crypto fraud cases, highlighting the active role of victims in the legal process compared to Germany.

Victims as Prosecutors – Spain's Blueprint for Recovering Crypto Fraud Assets According to the FBI, crypto fraud is now the largest category of fraud by dollar losses. The victims it leaves behind rarely only strive for a criminal conviction — they want their money back. That gives them a strong interest in actively taking part in the proceedings. Yet in many jurisdictions that interest goes unmet: countries like Germany grant victims certain rights but no active role in the investigation. Spain takes a markedly different approach. That's why Mirjam Steinfeld invited Héctor Sbert from ECIJA in Barcelona onto the Criminal Compliance Podcast — to unpack this and other differences between the Spanish and German legal systems. Starting with the basics of Spain's mixed inquisitorial-adversarial criminal procedure and the roles of the Ministerio Fiscal and the Juez de Instrucción, Héctor Sbert explains why victims acting as acusadores particulares can drive proceedings forward in a way that Germany's Nebenklage rarely achieves. The conversation also turns to ORGA, Spain's Asset Recovery and Management Office, to corporate criminal liability under Article 31 bis of the Código Penal, and…

People in this episode

Host: Mirjam Steinfeld

Guest: Héctor Sbert

Topics covered

• asset recovery
• criminal compliance
• crypto fraud
• legal systems
• victim rights
• Spain
• Germany

Keywords

• crypto fraud
• asset recovery
• victim rights
• criminal procedure
• Spain
• Germany
• ECIJA
• FBI
• Código Penal

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ECIJA, FBI, ORGA, Código Penal

Places: Spain, Germany

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