A board is being set up to improve the tracing and management of assets ordered frozen by a Court.

The new bureau would also be able to trace the assets of someone accused of a crime who registered such property under someone else’s name.

The Asset Recovery Bureau would be set up in the coming days after Cabinet approved of a set of regulations under article 700 in the Criminal Code.

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici this morning said the board would be made up of people from existing entities such as the Police Force and the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit. The bureau would also recruit forensic auditing and forensic accounting experts.

It would be headed by the director of courts and directed by the registrar criminal courts.

Any profit from the assets recovered from people who committed serious crimes would be passed on to the government, so it was in the government’s interest that the value of such assets did not deteriorate, the minister added.

Dr Bonnici noted that the setting up of this bureau followed consultation with the Irish Asset Recovery and Management Bureau.