In most countries, the asset forfeiture laws are
written in generic terms. A typical statute will
authorize a court to order the forfeiture of "all
proceeds of any crime" (often including foreign
crimes) and any property "used to commit, or to
facilitate the commission" of any such crime. The
asset forfeiture laws in the United States, while
developed piecemeal over a long period of time,
were not written in generic terms. There is neither
a common law of forfeiture, nor a single provision
authorizing forfeiture in all cases. To the contrary,
Congress enacted different forfeiture provisions at
different times for different offenses. The result
of which is that what can be forfeited varies
greatly from one offense to another. Indeed, the
first task of a federal prosecutor is to check the
statute for the crime under investigation to see
what, if any, asset forfeiture options are available