The Concept of Illicit Enrichment: The Parallel Lines Between Criminalization and Prosecution End Without Meeting

Abstract

Corruption is developing rapidly and significantly in terms of its methods, tools, and strategies for committing corruption crimes, benefiting from the difficulties of proof and the complexity of prosecution procedures. On the contrary, combating corruption is still a traditional and slow process. However, illicit enrichment are the final container in which the proceeds of corruption accumulate in a way that creates extreme wealth that legitimate sources of income do not justify. On the other hand, corruption crime is often secretive in that evidence is difficult and -sometimes- untraceable, which facilitates evading corruptors from prosecution. Thus, the proceeds of corruption easily fly and dissolve in the safe havens and deprivation. Hence, the international community established and developed an unconventional prosecution technique for proving illicit enrichment based on transferring the burden of proof from the public prosecutor to the accused to prove the legitimacy of the increase in wealth. However, illicit enrichment has been criminalized in Jordan since 2006; prosecutions regarding it are almost very rare. According to this study, the reason is due to the misconception of illicit enrichment and its elements and methods of proof within the provisions of the Illicit Enrichment Law and its amendments No. (21) of 2014, where this study describes the parallel lines between criminalization and prosecution without meeting. To this end, the study concludes by presenting recommendations to ensure the proper application of prosecuting and proving illicit enrichment.