Joint and several liability for criminal confiscation of illicit gains

The Federal Court of Justice (6th Criminal Senate) dismissed the criminal appeals of the defendants as unfounded, thereby upholding the conviction and sentencing from the Hanover Regional Court; however, the court modified the confiscation order, specifically establishing that one defendant and another coddefendant are jointly and severally liable for a sum of €98,711.27, while each appellant bears the costs of their own legal remedy. The case involved a review of a lower-court judgment, focusing on the procedural propriety of the appeal and the substantive validity of the civil law consequences arising from the criminal offense, particularly the allocation of joint liability for the confiscation of illicit gains or equivalent value. The decisive legal basis involved the standards for criminal appellate review under the Code of Criminal Procedure and the principles of joint and several liability in the context of criminal confiscation (Einziehung), applying the Generalbundesanwalt's arguments to correct the distribution of financial responsibility between the liable parties.