What would motivate a stockbroker making more than $100,000 a year to defraud dozens of his clients? Why does a seemingly normal neighborhood teenager risk life and limb to distribute cocaine? The answer: GREED.

The old saying "money makes the world go round" applies to many types of criminal conduct. While murder, for example, is not one of the crimes typically committed for financial gain, embezzlement, bankruptcy fraud, and trading in counterfeit goods are all acts motivated, at least in part, by greed. Other such crimes, like gambling, extortion, and money laundering are some of the core "businesses" of major criminal organizations. These criminal enterprises, like their legitimate counterparts, exist because they are able to generate money for their members. Unlike legal businesses, however, the "profits" of criminal groups are generated through a variety of crimes.

Historically, law enforcement dealt with criminal groups by prosecuting individuals or groups of individuals within the organization. These prosecutions, however, did nothing to strip the guilty of their criminal proceeds. Furthermore, because these newly convicted associates could all too often be replaced, criminal enterprises continued to operate with little or no interruption.

Recognizing that criminal entities cannot survive without making money, in 1983 Congress enacted a series of forfeiture laws aimed at ensuring that no individual or organization could profit from the commission of certain crimes. These statutes have since been used effectively by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to dismantle hundreds of criminal enterprises. While a portion of these cases involved "traditional" organized crime groups like La Cosa Nostra, a much larger number of investigations involved very successful, but less well known, criminal associations.

The Norfolk FBI Field Office has a very strong forfeiture program which has successfully forfeited millions of dollars in criminal proceeds or properties used to facilitate crime. As a tool to deter criminal conduct and to aid victims, forfeiture has been and is being used in a wide array of "white collar" crime in particular, such as health care fraud, ponzi schemes and other types of fraud.

The possibility of imprisonment remains a significant crime deterrent. However, because some crimes are so "profitable," there will always be those willing to risk confinement based on the belief that their illegally obtained assets will be waiting for them after they've served their time. By utilizing the asset forfeiture statutes, the FBI will continue to ensure that there will always be a financial cost associated with doing criminal "business."