Finding Ways not to Pay

The U.S. Rewards for Justice Program is fond of finding ways not to pay. It claims to have paid out $9.5 million to 23 tipsters in the last decade, but do the math. That comes to about two people per year who were paid. And most of the time some of the money is withheld, Geis [criminology professor at the University of California-Irvine] says, because the value of a tip leading to arrest and conviction is regarded as discretionary. "Rarely do you see that one lump-sum payment," he adds.

Basic Law of Rewards

The basic law on rewards is clear – they're contracts. You might not be familiar with this kind of contract, but it's not new. There are two kinds of contracts: bilateral (in which a promise is exchanged for a promise) and unilateral (in which a promise is exchanged for an act). A famous U.K. case involving a unilateral contract is Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. (1893). In that case the defendant offered a £100 reward to anyone who purchased and used its special "carbolic smoke ball" as directed and still got the flu. The plaintiff used the ball and got the flu. When she claimed the money, the defendant tried to back out of the deal. The court found the advertisement was a valid offer to enter into a unilateral contract, and that the plaintiff had accepted it by performing the acts requested.

Rewards

What is Operation Game Thief?Operation Game Thief is a private, non-profit organization that works in cooperation with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Warden Service which pays rewards, if requested, to citizens who turn in poachers or to individuals unlawfully introducing non-native fish species to lakes, ponds and streams of Maine. To report acts of poaching, you can call toll-free within Maine at 1-800-253-7887 ( 1-800-ALERT-US ). Out-of-state callers can call 1-207-287-6057 . It is important to note that callers do not have to reveal their names or testify in court. Reward amounts vary based on the severity of the case but normally range from $100.00 to $1,000 for the most flagrant poaching cases. Rewards of up to $2,000 are paid for information that leads to the arrest or summons being issued to individuals unlawfully introducing non-native fish species into Maine’s waters. All of the monies that support this program come from donations from concerned sportsmen, sportswomen and citizens.

Reward 1 Million Euros

Belgrade, 10/13 - Serbia has offered a reward of 1m euros (£700,000; $1.4m) for information that leads to the arrest of either Ratko Mladic or Radovan Karadzic. The former Bosnian Serb leaders have been indicted for genocide by the UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague for their roles during the Bosnian war.

Nazi War Criminal Rewards

A notice posted on the Justice Ministry's Web site this week features photos and descriptions of Brunner and Heim and offers rewards for information leading to their capture. Brunner, the most-wanted Nazi war criminal, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is described as having mutilated hands and only one eye, after reportedly being disfigured by mail bombs.
Justice Minister Maria Berger, in an interview Friday with Austrian radio, said she hoped the rewards would be more than a "symbolic act," and stressed Austria would do everything possible to find the fugitives.

Government of India grants handsome rewards to informers who provide specific information leading to seizure of goods, currency, bullion or leads to detection of duty evasion including wrong declaration of quantity, description, value etc. The maximum amount of reward to the informers can be as high as 20% of the value of confiscated goods and penalty realised. The maximum reward in respect of gold is Rs.50,000/- per Kg., for silver it is Rs. 1,000/- per Kg., for Opium it is Rs. 220/- per Kg., for Heroin it is Rs. 20,000/- per Kg., for Cocaine it is Rs. 40,000/- per Kg. and for Hashish it is Rs. 400/- per Kg. If the information leads to detection of duty evasion, maximum reward of 20% of the duty evaded plus 20% of the fine/penalty realised can be given as reward to the informers.

customs officers used paid informants to target individuals in the Pakistani community. Defence lawyers believe up to 100 individuals may have been trapped by informants and that many of them are innocent, like Mr Choudhery and Mr Ashraf. Initially the pair pleaded guilty because lawyers warned they could face even longer sentences if they didn't. But once in jail they protested their innocence saying they had been set-up by paid informers. In years of legal wrangling the full dangers of the Customs' method of tackling the multi-million drugs trade was revealed. It involved Custom officers going to Pakistan and recruiting paid informers who then acquired hard drugs. They were allowed to bring these into the UK under the protection of Customs officers. The informers were then let lose to select their own targets in the Pakistani community. They set up drugs deals while Customs officers waited to pounce.

Huseyin Baybasin, head of a Kurdish gang accused of heroin smuggling.Supported by witnesses, Baybasin claims he and his family moved from Turkey in the 1990s with the help of the British government after he agreed to provide information about the complicity of the Turkish government in smuggling. Baybasin, whose gang was said at one time to control 90% of the heroin trafficked into Britain, is serving life in a Dutch jail after being convicted of conspiracy to murder, drug trafficking and kidnap. He has always denied any involvement in the narcotics trade.

JACK STRAW, the former foreign secretary, instructed diplomats to lobby for the release of a convicted criminal described by police and customs intelligence reports as a leading smuggler of heroin into Britain.Foreign Office telegrams ordered efforts to secure “the immediate release” from a German jail in 2001 of Andreas Antoniades who worked for years as a paid informer for Customs. At the time, he was wanted in Greece on drugs smuggling charges.Although police or customs informers routinely receive rewards in cash, or reduced sentences if they are prosecuted, Straw’s attempt to help Antoniades avoid trial appears at odds with Customs’ code of practice, which states: “Informants have no licence to commit crime.”Antoniades, who has never been convicted of a drug offence, was released shortly after the Straw telegrams and has since moved to Dubai.According to former police officials and intelligence reports, Antoniades, 75, was one of three leading agents for Customs inside the gangs who have flooded Britain with billions of pounds of heroin since the early 1990s. One senior former drugs intelligence officer described the three as being, at one time, among the top five suspected heroin importers into Britain.Former customs officials say leading drug smugglers often work as moles, motivated by the prospect of destroying rivals or hoping for an “insurance policy” to reduce their sentence if they are convicted. Intelligence from such sources has led to the seizure of huge hauls of drugs. But some question if they also win too much protection.Antoniades, who confirmed to a Sunday Times reporter two years ago that he had made about £300,000 as a registered informant for Customs, is a Greek Cypriot who was first recruited in the 1950s by Britain to inform on Eoka, a guerrilla group fighting British control of Cyprus.In 1959, Antoniades was resettled in Britain and turned to crime. He was jailed for four years for “wounding with intent” in a gun attack in west London. Over the following decades, however, Antoniades continued as an informer and became what one Customs official said was “one of the best we ever had”.In the 1990s, suspicions grew, whether well-founded or not, that he was working with Turkish and Kurdish gangsters. One Customs officer reported that he was “suspected of being involved in organising large shipments of heroin being imported to the UK by various methods”.But when arrested in Germany in 2001, according to an investigation by BBC Radio 4’s File on 4, to be broadcast on Tuesday, British officials tried to help him avoid trial. One telegram from Straw to the British embassy in Berlin on July 31, 2001, asked officials to “press the case for Mr Antoniades’ release immediately” with state and federal justice ministers. Officials were told to point out that “a public trial in Greece would reveal Mr Antoniades’ long career as an informant for Customs and Excise (1987 to date) and put his life at risk from criminal elements”.But Straw’s instructions angered staff at the National Criminal Intelligence Service. One former senior officer at the agency, which has since been abolished, said: “At this very time we were preparing to target Antoniades for significant intelligence-led operations. How would the Germans and Greeks have reacted if we subsequently arrested him?”

The Government of India has been implementing a highly attractive Reward Scheme. In brief, this Reward Scheme provides for handsome rewards to informers who provide specific information leading to seizure of goods, currency, bullion or leads to detection of duty evasion including wrong declaration of quantity, description, value etc. There is also a provision of sanction of advance reward in suitable cases.

Informer

Each reward payment made by HMRC is calculated on the circumstances relevant to that case.
It would not be in the public interest to divulge the exact factors taken into account when calculating such payments, however all Law Enforcement agencies, in accordance with the relevant ACPO guidelines, apply similar considerations when determining levels of rewards payments

The last reward paid by HMRC for the recovery of cash was in March 2007.

Informers

The Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis informs me that the total amount paid to informers for the financial year 2000–01 was £661,927. A total of 249 informers received payments during the course of that year. As some will have received multiple payments it is not possible to provide a representative average payment.

Since 2001, a total of approximately £570,000 of suspected terrorist funds have been frozen in the UK including funds belonging to six designated organisations. All assets frozen remain the property of the designated individuals or organisations and are not disposed of by the Treasury. The Treasury reports to Parliament quarterly on the operation of its asset-freezing regime, including detail on the total amount of funds frozen. The latest such report was laid before Parliament on 12 July 2007.

Rewards have been paid to informers by the two former departments, HM Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue, as follows:
£
1997-98
1,670,812
1998-99
1,052,033
1999-2000
1,083,895
2000-01
1,603,301
2001-02
1,464,400
2002-03
984,422
2003-04
946,399

The Government today announced that it will not be tightening the charging regime for Freedom of Information requests or access to coroners' courts as

The Government today announced that it will not be tightening the charging regime for Freedom of Information requests or access to coroners' courts as it had previously

Developing contacts and pulling in off-diary stories for crime reporters is probably tougher than ever for today’s journalists.

Developing contacts and pulling in off-diary stories for crime reporters is probably tougher than ever for today’s journalists.
Police press officers are increasingly seeking to control the flow of information by monopolising content with journalists, particularly the Metropolitan Police.