§ 140B.151.Initial Distribution

The distribution priority, and it puts victims ahead of every government share.

The court entering a judgment of forfeiture retains jurisdiction to direct the distribution of any cash or cash proceeds, and shall direct it in the following order of priority.

First, statutory fees to which the clerk of the court may be entitled. A small administrative charge, taken first as such charges usually are.

Second, claims by persons previously judicially determined to be innocent persons whose interests were preserved from forfeiture by the court and not otherwise satisfied.

Each qualifier narrows that class. The determination must already have been made, by a court, and the claim must not have been satisfied some other way. A person who believes they have an interest cannot appear at distribution and assert it for the first time.

Subsection (b) extends the second category to a receiver appointed by the court pending litigation, whose fees would otherwise have no place in the order.

Third, claims for restitution by victims of the racketeering activity.

That victims rank above every agency share is the section’s substantive choice. The 25/25/50 split in the next section operates only on what remains after these three categories are paid.

Subsection (c) routes restitution by reference to who sued. Where the attorney general brought the forfeiture action, restitution is distributed through the compensation to victims of crime fund. Where they did not, it is distributed by the clerk of the court.

The split is administrative rather than substantive. The attorney general already administers the statewide fund; a county case is handled by the county’s clerk.