Permissibility of independent confiscation of time-barred proceeds in security proceedings without a conviction.

The 5th Criminal Senate of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) resolved a reference question by abandoning its own prior jurisprudence that contradicted the 3rd Criminal Senate’s view, explicitly aligning with the referring Senate's position to uphold the legal interpretation proposed. The dispute concerned whether the value of proceeds from a time-barred criminal offense could be subject to confiscation (*Einziehung*) in a subjective procedure where no conviction of the offender was present. The court determined that such independent confiscation in security proceedings is permissible, drawing a decisive legal parallel to the revised § 413 StPO, which allows for self-standing confiscation in security proceedings if the underlying offense is the subject of proceedings at the time of judgment, thereby affirming the applicability of this doctrine to cases involving expired statutes of limitation for the substantive offense.