{"id":5118,"date":"2025-06-24T15:44:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T15:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pragal-prinzenberg.de\/blog\/einziehung-73-ff-stgb-verstaendigungsfeindlich\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T14:17:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T14:17:24","slug":"confiscation-421-stpo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pragal-rechtsanwaelte.de\/en\/blog\/confiscation-421-stpo\/","title":{"rendered":"Confiscation under Sections 73 et seq. of the German Criminal Code \u2013 incompatible with plea agreements, or is it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-base-background-color has-background\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In a decision under\u00a0<strong>Section 421(1) No. 3 of the German Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO)<\/strong>, the Mannheim Regional Court\u00a0<strong>waived asset forfeiture<\/strong>\u00a0because the proceedings \u2014 at least regarding the forfeiture \u2014 would have involved an\u00a0<strong>\u201cunreasonable effort.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0This was done in exchange for the company paying a\u00a0<strong>significantly lower monetary amount<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The ruling demonstrates that, contrary to widespread belief,&nbsp;<strong>forfeiture decisions are not necessarily rigid or unnegotiable<\/strong>. There is the possibility of&nbsp;<strong>resolving the case consensually<\/strong>, similar to a&nbsp;<strong>\u201cdeal.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pragal-rechtsanwaelte.de\/en\/the-law-firm\/\">Our firm<\/a> recently obtained a&nbsp;<strong>decision under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gesetze-im-internet.de\/stpo\/__421.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Section 421(1) No. 3 StPO<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;before a regional court, in which the court&nbsp;<strong>waived the intended forfeiture of \u20ac1.55 million<\/strong>&nbsp;from our client, a company, in exchange for a&nbsp;<strong>payment of \u20ac150,000 to the injured party<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is a&nbsp;<strong>highly practice-relevant ruling<\/strong>&nbsp;with significant&nbsp;<strong>signal value<\/strong>, particularly for the&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pragal-rechtsanwaelte.de\/en\/competencies\/criminal-defence\/corporate-defence\/\">defense of corporate clients<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-da0e0bbe gb-headline-text\">The Case<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The criminal proceedings concerned allegations that the&nbsp;<strong>executives of a corporate group<\/strong>&nbsp;had&nbsp;<strong>misused grant funds<\/strong>, which were intended for project partners, by redirecting them within an&nbsp;<strong>intra-group cash pooling mechanism<\/strong>&nbsp;to finance the corporate group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The party subject to potential forfeiture had allegedly&nbsp;<strong>received portions of the grant funds<\/strong>&nbsp;through this mechanism,&nbsp;<strong>without being personally involved in the misconduct<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-f88e5d26 gb-headline-text\">The Decision<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The court&nbsp;<strong>waived the forfeiture under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gesetze-im-internet.de\/stpo\/__421.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Section 421(1) No. 3 StPO<\/a><\/strong>, reasoning that, as far as the forfeiture was concerned, the proceedings would have required an&nbsp;<strong>\u201cunreasonable effort.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-0d2d9552 gb-headline-text\">The Key Aspect<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The court&nbsp;<strong>conditioned the fulfillment of these requirements on a voluntary partial repayment<\/strong>&nbsp;by the party subject to forfeiture to the EU. A settlement agreement, by contrast,&nbsp;<strong>was not required<\/strong>; arranging one would have been difficult due to the&nbsp;<strong>lack of direct legal relationships<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-629ec549 gb-headline-text\">Practical Relevance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following reforms to the law on&nbsp;<strong>asset recovery<\/strong>, there had been some&nbsp;<strong>misunderstandings<\/strong>&nbsp;suggesting that forfeiture is inherently&nbsp;<strong>\u201cunnegotiable.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In reality, this is&nbsp;<strong>not the case<\/strong>.&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gesetze-im-internet.de\/stpo\/__421.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Section 421 StPO<\/a><\/strong>&nbsp;allows not only for a complete waiver of forfeiture but also for a&nbsp;<strong>partial, monetary-based waiver<\/strong>. The&nbsp;<strong>German Federal Court of Justice (BGH)<\/strong>&nbsp;had already confirmed this in its decision of&nbsp;<strong>August 2, 2018 (Az.: <a href=\"https:\/\/juris.bundesgerichtshof.de\/cgi-bin\/rechtsprechung\/document.py?Gericht=bgh&amp;Art=en&amp;Datum=2018&amp;Sort=14&amp;Seite=97&amp;nr=87955&amp;anz=2994&amp;pos=2914\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1 StR 311\/18<\/a> \u2013 LG Mannheim, <a href=\"https:\/\/beck-online.beck.de\/Dokument?vpath=bibdata%2Fzeits%2Fnstz%2F2018%2Fcont%2Fnstz.2018.742.1.htm&amp;anchor=Y-300-Z-NSTZ-B-2018-S-742-N-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NStZ 2018, 742 ff.<\/a>, with noteworthy commentary by Schneider).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The present decision should provide&nbsp;<strong>practitioners with even greater incentive<\/strong>&nbsp;to take&nbsp;<strong>proactive measures in cases of threatened forfeiture<\/strong>, for example through&nbsp;<strong>actions or agreements with the injured party<\/strong>. Such measures often correspond to a&nbsp;<strong>\u201cvictim-offender mediation\u201d under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gesetze-im-internet.de\/stgb\/__46a.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Section 46a StGB<\/a><\/strong>. As this decision demonstrates, this approach is particularly relevant&nbsp;<strong>even in cases where the legal effect of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gesetze-im-internet.de\/stgb\/__73e.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Section 73e(1) StGB<\/a> cannot apply<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is&nbsp;<strong>persuasively argued<\/strong>&nbsp;that such a legal arrangement in favor of the (alleged) injured party is&nbsp;<strong>sufficient to justify an \u201cunreasonable effort\u201d<\/strong>&nbsp;for continuing the proceedings under&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gesetze-im-internet.de\/stpo\/__421.html\">Section 421(1) No. 3 StPO<\/a><\/strong>, since the&nbsp;<strong>interest in forfeiture is naturally reduced<\/strong>&nbsp;by voluntary compensation\u2014especially in the context of a settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Note:<\/strong>&nbsp;Out of respect for our client\u2019s requested confidentiality, we are&nbsp;<strong>unable to publish the full decision or case number<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways Our firm recently obtained a&nbsp;decision under Section 421(1) No. 3 StPO&nbsp;before a regional court, in which the court&nbsp;waived the intended forfeiture of \u20ac1.55 million&nbsp;from our client, a company, in exchange for a&nbsp;payment of \u20ac150,000 to the injured party. This is a&nbsp;highly practice-relevant ruling&nbsp;with significant&nbsp;signal value, particularly for the&nbsp;defense of corporate clients. The Case &#8230; <a title=\"Confiscation under Sections 73 et seq. of the German Criminal Code \u2013 incompatible with plea agreements, or is it?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pragal-rechtsanwaelte.de\/en\/blog\/confiscation-421-stpo\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Confiscation under Sections 73 et seq. of the German Criminal Code \u2013 incompatible with plea agreements, or is it?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-criminal-defence"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u00a7\u00a7 73 German Criminal Code incompatible with plea agreements?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Successful defence: Court refrains from confiscation pursuant to \u00a7 421 of the German Criminal Code. 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