Freezing of assets as part ot the fight against economic crime, including financial crime

The concept of economic crime has been used in the legislation of many countries for over 90 years. In Poland, as a result of systemic changes at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, this type of crime evolved. Criminals from this period, taking advantage of such factors as the lack of appropriate legislation, services unprepared for a new type of threats, the possibility of free movement between former socialist countries, and countries in Western Europe, created many groups dealing with illegal activities aimed at the economic sphere, be it private or state entities. Taking into account the specificity of acts falling within the scope of economic crime as well as the scale of the damage caused, the prosecution of perpetrators is not as effective as in criminal offenses. One of the most effective tools used in the fight against “white-collar” criminals is freezing of assets. Such actions are very important, because only in 2020 in Poland, as a result of economic investigations by special services, losses of the State Treasury estimated at over PLN 20 billion were revealed.