Illicit Enrichment

A significant increase in a public official's assets that the official cannot reasonably explain in relation to their lawful income, treated in a number of countries as itself a criminal offense that shifts the burden onto the official to account for the unexplained wealth. It is recognized as an offense states may choose to establish under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, adopted because unexplained wealth is often far easier for prosecutors to prove than the underlying bribery or embezzlement that produced it, though some legal systems, including the United States, have declined to adopt it as a standalone crime out of concern that it reverses the ordinary burden of proof in a criminal case.