Asset Recovery For Victims of Investment Fraud in Money Laundering Offenses: A John Rawlsian Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38035/jlph.v6i4.3393Keywords:
Asset Recovery, Investment Fraud, Money Laundering, Justice as Fairness, John Rawls.Abstract
The growth of digital investment has contributed to a significant increase in investment fraud, resulting in substantial and collective financial losses for the public. In practice, proceeds of such crimes are frequently concealed through various money laundering schemes, thereby complicating the tracing and return of assets to victims. Although Law Number 8 of 2010 on the Prevention and Eradication of Money Laundering provides effective instruments for asset tracing, seizure, and forfeiture, its normative orientation and law enforcement practice remain predominantly focused on forfeiture for the benefit of the state. Consequently, asset recovery for victims does not operate as an automatic legal consequence of proving money laundering, but rather depends on other legal mechanisms that are fragmented and often ineffective. This study aims to critically examine asset recovery for victims of investment fraud in money laundering cases in Indonesia by applying John Rawls’ theory of justice as fairness. Employing a normative juridical approach with prescriptive and evaluative analysis of legislation and judicial practice, the study finds a structural imbalance in asset recovery mechanisms that remains state-centered and has not yet reflected substantive justice for victims as the most disadvantaged group. Therefore, the study underscores the need for normative reconstruction and policy reorientation toward a victim-oriented asset recovery mechanism to ensure that victims’ economic rights are restored in a fair, proportionate, and meaningful manner.
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