In December 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Honeycutt v. United States to address whether convicted co-conspirators must be held jointly and severally liable for any criminal forfeiture judgment ordered in the case. Federal courts in the past have generally required joint and several liability for all proceeds that were at least “reasonably foreseeable.”
An influential appellate court recently held, however, that a co-conspirator’s forfeiture liability instead should be limited to the amount that he personally obtained from the criminal conduct, setting up the circuit split to be resolved by the high court. The court’s decision in Honeycutt will clarify the parameters of the government’s power to seize and forfeit co-conspirator property in a wide array of federal criminal cases.
