Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered v. United States

491 U.S. 617, 109 S. Ct. 2646, 105 L. Ed. 2d 528, 1989 U.S. LEXIS 3124, 57 U.S.L.W. 4836

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: June 22, 1989
• Docket: 87-1729
• Status: Published

Opinions

Justice White

delivered the opinion of the Court.

We are called on to determine whether the federal drug forfeiture statute includes an exemption for assets that a defendant wishes to use to pay an attorney who conducted his defense in the criminal case where forfeiture was sought. Because we determine that no such exemption exists, we must decide whether that statute, so interpreted, is consistent with the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. We hold that it is.

I

In January 1985, Christopher Reckmeyer was charged in a multicount indictment with running a massive drug importation and distribution scheme. The scheme was alleged to be a continuing criminal enterprise (CCE), in violation of 84 Stat. 1265, as amended, 21 U. S. C. §848 (1982 ed., Supp. V). Relying on a portion of the CCE statute that authorizes forfeiture to the Government of “property constituting, or derived from . . . proceeds . . . obtained” from drug-law violations, § 853(a),¹ the indictment sought forfeiture of specified assets in Reckmeyer’s possession. App. 33-40. At this time, the District Court, acting pursuant to § 853(e)(1) (A),² entered a restraining order forbidding Reckmeyer to transfer any of the listed assets that were potentially forfeitable.

Sometime earlier, Reckmeyer had retained petitioner, a law firm, to represent him in the ongoing grand jury investigation which resulted in the January 1985 indictments. Notwithstanding the restraining order, Reckmeyer paid the firm $25,000 for preindictment legal services a few days after the indictment was handed down; this sum was placed by petitioner in an escrow account. Petitioner continued to represent Reckmeyer following the indictment.

On March 7, 1985, Reckmeyer moved to modify the District Court’s earlier restraining order to permit him to use some of the restrained assets to pay petitioner’s fees; Reckmeyer also sought to exempt from any postconviction forfeiture order the assets that he intended to use to pay petitioner. However, one week later, before the District Court could conduct a hearing on this motion, Reckmeyer entered a plea agreement with the Government. Under the agreement, Reckmeyer pleaded guilty to the drug-related CCE charge, and agreed to forfeit all of the specified assets listed in the indictment. The day after the Reckmeyer’s plea was entered, the District Court denied his earlier motion to modify the restraining order, concluding that the plea and forfeiture agreement rendered irrelevant any further consideration of the propriety of the court’s pretrial restraints. App. 54-55. Subsequently, an order forfeiting virtually all of the assets in Reckmeyer’s possession was entered by the District Court in conjunction with his sentencing. Id., at 57-65.

After this order was entered, petitioner filed a petition under § 853(n), which permits third parties with an interest in forfeited property to ask the sentencing court for an adjudication of their rights to that property; specifically, §853(n) (6)(B) gives a third party who entered into a bona fide transaction with a defendant a right to make claims against forfeited property, if that third party was “at the time of [the transaction] reasonably without cause to believe that the [defendant’s assets were] subject to forfeiture.” See also §853 (c). Petitioner claimed an interest in $170,000 of Reckme-yer’s assets, for services it had provided Reckmeyer in conducting his defense; petitioner also sought the $25,000 being held in the escrow account, as payment for preindictment legal services. Petitioner argued alternatively that assets used to pay an attorney were exempt from forfeiture under § 853, and if not, the failure of the statute to provide such an exemption rendered it unconstitutional. The District Court granted petitioner’s claim for a share of the forfeited assets.

A panel of the Fourth Circuit affirmed, finding that—while §853 contained no statutory provision authorizing the payment of attorney’s fees out of forfeited assets—the statute’s failure to do so impermissibly infringed a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to the counsel of his choice. United States v. Harvey, 814 F. 2d 905 (1987). The Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case en banc and reversed. Sub nom. In re Forfeiture Hearing as to Caplin & Drysdale, Chartered, 837 F. 2d 637 (1988). All the judges of the Fourth Circuit agreed that the language of the CCE statute acknowledged no exception to its forfeiture requirement that would recognize petitioner’s claim to the forfeited assets. A majority found this statutory scheme constitutional, id., at 642-648; four dissenting judges, however, agreed with the panel’s view that the statute so construed violated the Sixth Amendment, id., at 651-653 (Phillips, J., dissenting).

Petitioner sought review of the statutory and constitutional issues raised by the Court of Appeals’ holding. We granted certiorari, 488 U. S. 940 (1988), and now affirm.

II

Petitioner’s first submission is that the statutory provision that authorizes pretrial restraining orders on potentially for-feitable assets in a defendant’s possession, 21 U. S. C. § 853 (e) (1982 ed., Supp. V), grants district courts equitable discretion to determine when such orders should be imposed. This discretion should be exercised under “traditional equitable standards,” petitioner urges, including a “weighting] of the equities and competing hardships on the parties”; under this approach, a court “must invariably strike the balance so as to allow a defendant [to pay] ... for bona fide attorneys fees,” petitioner argues. Brief for Petitioner 8. Petitioner further submits that once a district court so exercises its discretion, and fails to freeze assets that a defendant then uses to pay an attorney, the statute’s provision for recapture of forfeitable assets transferred to third parties, § 853(c), may not operate on such sums.

Petitioner’s argument, as it acknowledges, is based on the view of the statute expounded by Judge Winter of the Second Circuit in his concurring opinion in that Court of Appeals’ en banc decision, United States v. Monsanto, 852 F. 2d 1400, 1405-1411 (1988). We reject this interpretation of the statute today in our decision in United States v. Monsanto, ante, p. 600, which reverses the Second Circuit’s holding in that case. As we explain in our Monsanto decision, ante, at 611-614, whatever discretion § 853(e) provides district court judges to refuse to enter pretrial restraining orders, it does not extend as far as petitioner urges — nor does the exercise of that discretion “immunize” nonrestrained assets from subsequent forfeiture under § 853(c), if they are transferred to an attorney to pay legal fees. Thus, for the reasons provided in our opinion in Monsanto, we reject petitioner’s statutory claim.

Ill

We therefore address petitioner’s constitutional challenges to the forfeiture law.³ Petitioner contends that the statute infringes on criminal defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to counsel of choice, and upsets the “balance of power” between the Government and the accused in a manner contrary to the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. We consider these contentions in turn.

A

Petitioner’s first claim is that the forfeiture law makes impossible, or at least impermissibly burdens, a defendant’s right “to select and be represented by one’s preferred attorney.” Wheat v. United States, 486 U. S. 153, 159 (1988). Petitioner does not, nor could it defensibly do so, assert that impecunious defendants have a Sixth Amendment right to choose their counsel. The Amendment guarantees defendants in criminal cases the right to adequate representation, but those who do not have the means to hire their own lawyers have no cognizable complaint so .long as they are adequately represented by attorneys appointed by the courts. “[A] defendant may not insist on representation by an attorney he cannot afford.” Wheat, supra, at 159. Petitioner does not dispute these propositions. Nor does the Government deny that the Sixth Amendment guarantees a defendant the right to be represented by an otherwise qualified attorney whom that defendant can afford to hire, or who is willing to represent the defendant even though he is without funds. Applying these principles to the statute in question here, we observe that nothing in § 853 prevents a defendant from hiring the attorney of his choice, or disqualifies any attorney from serving as a defendant’s counsel. Thus, unlike Wheat, this case does not involve a situation where the Government has asked a court to prevent a defendant’s chosen counsel from representing the accused. Instead, petitioner urges that a violation of the Sixth Amendment arises here because of the forfeiture, at the instance of the Government, of assets that defendants intend to use to pay their attorneys.

Even in this sense, of course, the burden the forfeiture law imposes on a criminal defendant is limited. The forfeiture statute does not prevent a defendant who has nonforfeitable assets from retaining any attorney of his choosing. Nor is it necessarily the case that a defendant who possesses nothing but assets the Government seeks to have forfeited will be prevented from retaining counsel of choice. Defendants like Reckmeyer may be able to find lawyers willing to represent them, hoping that their fees will be paid in the event of acquittal, or via some other means that a defendant might come by in the future. The burden placed on defendants by the forfeiture law is therefore a limited one.

Nonetheless, there will be cases where a defendant will be unable to retain the attorney of his choice, when that defendant would have been able to hire that lawyer if he had access to forfeitable assets, and if there was no risk that fees paid by the defendant to his counsel would later be recouped under § 853(c).⁴ It is in these cases, petitioner argues, that the Sixth Amendment puts limits on the forfeiture statute.

This submission is untenable. Whatever the full extent of the Sixth Amendment’s protection of one’s right to retain counsel of his choosing, that protection does not go beyond “the individual’s right to spend his own money to obtain the advice and assistance of . . . counsel.” Walters v. National Assn. of Radiation Survivors, 473 U. S. 305, 370 (1985) (Stevens, J., dissenting). A defendant has no Sixth Amendment right to spend another person’s money for services rendered by an attorney, even if those funds are the only way that that defendant will be able to retain the attorney of his choice. A robbery suspect, for example, has no Sixth Amendment right to use funds he has stolen from a bank to retain an attorney to defend him if he is apprehended. The money, though in his possession, is not rightfully his; the Government does not violate the Sixth Amendment if it seizes the robbery proceeds and refuses to permit the defendant to use them to pay for his defense. “[N]o lawyer, in any case, . . . has the right to . . . accept stolen property, or. . . ransom money, in payment of a fee.. . . The privilege to practice law is not a license to steal.” Laska v. United States, 82 F. 2d 672, 677 (CA10 1936). Petitioner appears to concede as much, see Brief for Petitioner 40, n. 25, as respondent in Monsanto clearly does, see Brief for Respondent in No. 88-454, pp. 36-37.

Petitioner seeks to distinguish such cases for Sixth Amendment purposes by arguing that the bank’s claim to robbery proceeds rests on “pre-existing property rights,” while the Government’s claim to forfeitable assets rests on a “penal statute” which embodies the “Active property-law concept of . . . relation-back” and is merely “a mechanism for preventing fraudulent conveyances of the defendant’s assets, not. . . a device for determining true title to property.” Brief for Petitioner 40-41. In light of this, petitioner contends, the burden placed on defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights by the forfeiture statute outweighs the Government’s interest in forfeiture. Ibid.

The premises of petitioner’s constitutional analysis are unsound in several respects. First, the property rights given the Government by virtue of the forfeiture statute are more substantial than petitioner acknowledges. In § 853(c), the so-called “relation-back” provision, Congress dictated that “[a]ll right, title and interest in property” obtained by criminals via the illicit means described in the statute “vests in the United States upon the commission of the act giving rise to forfeiture.” 21 U. S. C. § 853(c) (1982 ed., Supp. V). As Congress observed when the provision was adopted, this approach, known as the “taint theory,” is one that “has long been recognized in forfeiture cases,” including the decision in United States v. Stowell, 133 U. S. 1 (1890). See S. Rep. No. 98-225, p. 200, and n. 27 (1983). In Stowell, the Court explained the operation of a similar forfeiture provision (for violations of the Internal Revenue Code) as follows:

“As soon as [the possessor of the forfeitable asset committed the violation] of the internal revenue laws, the forfeiture under those laws took effect, and (though needing judicial condemnation to perfect it) operated from that time as a statutory conveyance to the United States of all the right, title and interest then remaining in the [possessor]; and was as valid and effectual, against all the world, as a recorded deed. The right so vested in the United States could not be defeated or impaired by any subsequent dealings of the . . . [possessor].” Stowell, supra, at 19.

In sum, § 853(c) reflects the application of the long-recognized and lawful practice of vesting title to any forfeitable assets, in the United States, at the time of the criminal act giving rise to forfeiture. Concluding that Reckmeyer cannot give good title to such property to petitioner because he did not hold good title is neither extraordinary or novel. Nor does petitioner claim, as a general proposition that the relation-back provision is unconstitutional, or that Congress cannot, as a general matter, vest title to assets derived from the crime in the Government, as of the date of the criminal act in question. Petitioner’s claim is that whatever part of the assets that is necessary to pay attorney’s fees cannot be subjected to forfeiture. But given the Government’s title to Reckme-yer’s assets upon conviction, to hold that the Sixth Amendment creates some right in Reckmeyer to alienate such assets, or creates a right on petitioner’s part to receive these assets, would be peculiar.

There is no constitutional principle that gives one person the right to give another’s property to a third party, even where the person seeking to complete the exchange wishes to do so in order to exercise a constitutionally protected right. While petitioner and its supporting amici attempt to distinguish between the expenditure of forfeitable assets to exercise one’s Sixth Amendment rights, and expenditures in the pursuit of other constitutionally protected freedoms, see, e. g., Brief for American Bar Association as Amicus Curiae 6, there is no such distinction between, or hierarchy among, constitutional rights. If defendants have a right to spend forfeitable assets on attorney’s fees, why not on exercises of the right to speak, practice one’s religion, or travel? The full exercise of these rights, too, depends in part on one’s financial wherewithal; and forfeiture, or even the threat of forfeiture, may similarly prevent a defendant from enjoying these rights as fully as he might otherwise. Nonetheless, we are not about to recognize an antiforfeiture exception for the exercise of each such right; nor does one exist for the exercise of Sixth Amendment rights.⁵

Petitioner's “balancing analysis” to the contrary rests substantially on the view that the Government has only a modest interest in forfeitable assets that may be used to retain an attorney. Petitioner takes the position that, in large part, once assets have been paid over from client to attorney, the principal ends of forfeiture have been achieved: dispossessing a drug dealer or racketeer of the proceeds of his wrongdoing. See Brief for Petitioner 39; see also 814 F. 2d, at 924-925. We think that this view misses the mark for three reasons.

First, the Government has a pecuniary interest in forfeiture that goes beyond merely separating a criminal from his ill-gotten gains; that legitimate interest extends to recovering all forfeitable assets, for such assets are deposited in a Fund that supports law-enforcement efforts in a variety of important and useful ways. See 28 U. S. C. § 524(c), which establishes the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund. The sums of money that can be raised for law-enforcement activities this way are substantial,⁶ and the Government’s interest in using the profits of crime to fund these activities should not be discounted.

Second, the statute permits “rightful owners” of forfeited assets to make claims for forfeited assets before they are retained by the Government. See 21 U. S. C. § 853(n)(6)(A). The Government’s interest in winning undiminished forfeiture thus includes the objective of returning property, in full, to those wrongfully deprived or defrauded of it. Where the Government pursues this restitutionary end, the Government’s interest in forfeiture is virtually indistinguishable from its interest in returning to a bank the proceeds of a bank robbery; and a forfeiture-defendant’s claim of right to use such assets to hire an attorney, instead of having them returned to their rightful owners, is no more persuasive than a bank robber’s similar claim.

Finally, as we have recognized previously, a major purpose motivating congressional adoption and continued refinement of the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO) and CCE forfeiture provisions has been the desire to lessen the economic power of organized crime and drug enterprises. See Russello v. United States, 464 U. S. 16, 27-28 (1983). This includes the use of such economic power to retain private counsel. As the Court of Appeals put it: “Congress has already underscored the compelling public interest in stripping criminals such as Reckmeyer of their undeserved economic power, and part of that undeserved power may be the ability to command high-priced legal talent.” 837 F. 2d, at 649. The notion that the Government has a legitimate interest in depriving criminals of economic power, even insofar as that power is used to retain counsel of choice, may be somewhat unsettling. See, e. g., Tr. of Oral Arg. 50-52. But when a defendant claims that he has suffered some substantial impairment of his Sixth Amendment rights by virtue of the seizure or forfeiture of assets in his possession, such a complaint is no more than the reflection of “the harsh reality that the quality of a criminal defendant’s representation frequently may turn on his ability to retain the best counsel money can buy.” Morris v. Slappy, 461 U. S. 1, 23 (1983) (Brennan, J., concurring in result). Again, the Court of Appeals put it aptly: “The modern day Jean Valjean must be satisfied with appointed counsel. Yet the drug merchant claims that his possession of huge sums of money . . . entitles him to something more. We reject this contention, and any notion of a constitutional right to use the proceeds of crime to finance an expensive defense.” 837 F. 2d, at 649.⁷

It is our view that there is a strong governmental interest in obtaining full recovery of all forfeitable assets, an interest that overrides any Sixth Amendment interest in permitting criminals to use assets adjudged forfeitable to pay for their defense. Otherwise, there would be an interference with a defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights whenever the Government freezes or takes some property in a defendant’s possession before, during, or after a criminal trial. So-called “jeopardy assessments” — Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seizures of assets to secure potential tax liabilities, see 26 U. S. C. § 6861 — may impair a defendant’s ability to retain counsel in a way similar to that complained of here. Yet these assessments have been upheld against constitutional attack,⁸ and we note that the respondent in Monsanto concedes their constitutionality, see Brief for Respondent in No. 88-454, p. 37, n. 20. Moreover, petitioner’s claim to a share of the forfeited assets postconviction would suggest that the Government could never impose a burden on assets within a defendant’s control that could be used to pay a lawyer.⁹ Criminal defendants, however, are not exempted from federal, state, and local taxation simply because these financial levies may deprive them of resources that could be used to hire an attorney.

We therefore reject petitioner’s claim of a Sixth Amendment right of criminal defendants to use assets that are the Government’s — assets adjudged forfeitable, as Reckmeyer’s were — to pay attorney’s fees, merely because those assets are in their possession.¹⁰ See also Monsanto, ante, at 613, which rejects a similar claim with respect to pretrial orders and assets not yet judged forfeitable.

B

Petitioner’s second constitutional claim is that the forfeiture statute is invalid under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment because it permits the Government to upset the “balance of forces between the accused and his accuser.” Wardius v. Oregon, 412 U. S. 470, 474 (1973). We are not sure that this contention adds anything to petitioner’s Sixth Amendment claim, because, while “[t]he Constitution guarantees a fair trial through the Due Process Clauses . . . it defines the basic elements of a fair trial largely through the several provisions of the Sixth Amendment,” Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668, 684-685 (1984). We have concluded above that the Sixth Amendment is not offended by the forfeiture provisions at issue here. Even if, however, the Fifth Amendment provides some added protection not encompassed in the Sixth Amendment’s more specific provisions, we find petitioner’s claim based on the Fifth Amendment unavailing.

Forfeiture provisions are powerful weapons in the war on crime; like any such weapons, their impact can be devastating when used unjustly. But due process claims alleging such abuses are cognizable only in specific cases of prosecuto-rial misconduct (and petitioner has made no such allegation here) or when directed to a rule that is inherently unconstitutional. “The fact that the . . . Act might operate unconstitutionally under some conceivable set of circumstances is insufficient to render it. . . invalid,” United States v. Salerno, 481 U. S. 739, 745 (1987). Petitioner’s claim — that the power available to prosecutors under the statute could be abused— proves too much, for many tools available to prosecutors can be misused in a way that violates the rights of innocent persons. As the Court of Appeals put it, in rejecting this claim when advanced below: “Every criminal law carries with it the potential for abuse, but a potential for abuse does not require a finding of facial invalidity.” 837 F. 2d, at 648.

We rejected a claim similar to petitioner’s last Term, in Wheat v. United States, 486 U. S. 153 (1988). In Wheat, the petitioner argued that permitting a court to disqualify a defendant’s chosen counsel because of conflicts of interest — over that defendant’s objection to the disqualification — would encourage the Government to “manufacture” such conflicts to deprive a defendant of his chosen attorney. Id., at 163. While acknowledging that this was possible, we declined to fashion the per se constitutional rule petitioner sought in Wheat, instead observing that “trial courts are undoubtedly aware of [the] possibility” of abuse, and would have to “take it into consideration,” when dealing with disqualification motions.

A similar approach should be taken here. The Constitution does not forbid the imposition of an otherwise permissible criminal sanction, such as forfeiture, merely because in some cases prosecutors may abuse the processes available to them, e. g., by attempting to impose them on persons who should not be subjected to that punishment. Cf. Brady v. United States, 397 U. S. 742, 751, and n. 8 (1970). Cases involving particular abuses can be dealt with individually by the lower courts, when (and if) any such cases arise.

<1

For the reasons given above, we find that petitioner’s statutory and constitutional challenges to the forfeiture imposed here are without merit. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is therefore

Affirmed.

1 The forfeiture statute provides, in relevant part, that any person convicted of a particular class of criminal offenses

“shall forfeit to the United States, irrespective of any provision of State law—

“(1) any property constituting, or derived from, any proceeds the person obtained, directly or indirectly, as the result of such violation;

“The court, in imposing sentence on such person, shall order, in addition to any other sentence imposed . . . , that the person forfeit to the United States all property described in this subsection.” 21 U. S. C. § 853(a) (1982 ed., Supp. V).

There is no question here that the offenses Reckmeyer was accused of in the indictment fell within the class of crimes triggering this forfeiture provision.

- The pretrial restraining order provision states that

“[u]pon application of the United States, the court may enter a restraining order or injunction ... or take any other action to preserve the availability of property described in subsection (a) of [§ 853] for forfeiture under this section—

“(A) upon the filing of an indictment or information charging a violation ... for which criminal forfeiture may be ordered under [§ 853] and alleging that the property with respect to which the order is sought would, in the event of conviction, be subject to forfeiture under this section.” § 853(e)(1).

3 The United States argues that petitioner lacks jus tertii standing to advance Reckmeyer’s Sixth Amendment rights. See Brief for United States 35, and n. 17. Though the argument is not without force, we conclude that petitioner has the requisite standing.

When a person or entity seeks standing to advance the constitutional rights of others, we ask two questions: first, has the litigant suffered some injury-in-fact, adequate to satisfy Article Ill’s case-or-controversy requirement; and second, do prudential considerations which we have identified in our prior cases point to permitting the litigant to advance the claim? See Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U. S. 106, 112 (1976). As to the first inquiry, there can be little doubt that petitioner’s stake in $170,000 of the forfeited assets — which it would almost certainly receive if the Sixth Amendment claim it advances here were vindicated — is adequate injury-in-fact to meet the constitutional minimum of Article III standing.

The second inquiry — the prudential one — is more difficult. To answer this question, our cases have looked at three factors: the relationship of the litigant to the person whose rights are being asserted; the ability of the person to advance his own rights; and the impact of the litigation on third-party interests. See, e. g., Craig v. Boren, 429 U. S. 190, 196 (1976); Singleton v. Wulff, supra, at 113-118; Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U. S. 438, 443-446 (1972). The second of these three factors counsels against review here: as Monsanto, ante, p. 600, illustrates, a criminal defendant suffers none of the obstacles discussed in Wulff, supra, at 116-117, to advancing his own constitutional claim. We think that the-first and third factors, however, clearly weigh in petitioner’s favor. The attorney-client relationship between petitioner and Reckmeyer, like the doctor-patient relationship in Baird, is one of special consequence; and like Baird, it is credibly alleged that the statute at issue here may “materially impair the ability of” third persons in Reckmeyer’s position to exercise their constitutional rights. See Baird, supra, at 445. Petitioner therefore satisfies our requirements for jus tertii standing.

4 That section of the statute, which includes the so-called “relation back” provision, states:

“All right, title, and interest in property described in [§ 853] vests in the United States upon the commission of .the act giving rise to forfeiture under this section. Any such property that is subsequently transferred to a person other than the defendant may be the subject of a special verdict of forfeiture and thereafter shall be forfeited to the United States, unless the transferee establishes” his entitlement to such property pursuant to § 853(n), discussed supra. 21 U. S. C. § 853(c) (1982 ed., Supp. V).

5 It would be particularly odd to recognize the Sixth Amendment as a defense to forfeiture, because forfeiture is a substantive charge in the indictment against a defendant. Thus, petitioner asks us to take the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of counsel “for his defense” and make that guarantee petitioner’s defense to the indictment. We doubt that the Amendment’s guarantees, which are procedural in nature, cf. Faretta v. California, 422 U. S. 806, 818 (1975), provide such a substantive defense to charges against an accused.

6 For example, just one of the assets which Reckmeyer agreed to forfeit, a parcel of land known as “Shelburne Glebe,” see App. 57 (forfeiture order), was recently sold by federal authorities for $5.3 million. Washington Post, May 10, 1989, p. Dl, cols. 1-4. The proceeds of the sale will fund federal, state, and local law-enforcement activities. Ibid.

7 We also reject the contention, advanced by amici, see, e. g., Brief for American Bar Association as Amicus Curiae 20-22, and accepted by some courts considering claims like petitioner’s, see, e. g., United States v. Rogers, 602 F. Supp. 1332, 1349-1350 (Colo. 1985), that a type of “per se” ineffective assistance of counsel results — due to the particular complexity of RICO or drug-enterprise cases — when a defendant is not permitted to use assets in his possession to retain counsel of choice, and instead must rely on appointed counsel. If such an argument were accepted, it would bar the trial of indigents charged with such offenses, because those persons would have to rely on appointed counsel — which this view considers per se ineffective.

If appointed counsel is ineffective in a particular case, a defendant has resort to the remedies discussed in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (1984). But we cannot say that the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of effective assistance of counsel is a guarantee of a privately retained counsel in every complex case, irrespective of a defendant’s ability to pay.

8 See, e. g., Avco Delta Corporation Canada Ltd. v. United States, 484 F. 2d 692 (CA7 1973); Summers v. United States, 250 F. 2d 132, 133-135 (CA9 1957); United States v. Brodson, 241 F. 2d 107, 109-111 (CA7 1957) (en bane).

9 A myriad of other law-enforcement mechanisms operate in a manner similar to IRS jeopardy assessments, and might also be subjected to Sixth Amendment invalidation if petitioner’s claim were accepted. See Briekey, Attorneys’ Fee Forfeitures, 36 Emory L. J. 761, 770-772 (1987).

10 Petitioner advances three additional reasons for invalidating the forfeiture statute, all of which concern possible ethical conflicts created for lawyers defending persons facing forfeiture of assets in their possession. See Brief for Petitioner 35-37; see also Brief for American Bar Association as Amicus Curiae 17-22.

Petitioner first notes the statute’s exemption from forfeiture of property transferred to a bona fide purchaser who was “reasonably without cause to believe that the property was subject to forfeiture.” 21 U. S. C. § 853(n)(6)(B). This provision, it is said, might give an attorney an incentive not to investigate a defendant’s case as fully as possible, so that the lawyer can invoke it to protect from forfeiture any fees he has received. Yet given the requirement that any assets which the Government wishes to have forfeited must be specified in the indictment, see Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 7(c)(2), the only way a lawyer could be a beneficiary of § 853(n)(6)(B) would be to fail to read the indictment of his client. In this light, the prospect that a lawyer might find himself in conflict with his client, by seeking to take advantage of § 853(n)(6)(B), amounts to very little. Petitioner itself concedes that such a conflict will, as a practical matter, never arise: a defendant’s “lawyer . . . could not demonstrate that he was ‘reasonably without cause to believe that the property was subject to forfeiture,’ ” petitioner concludes at one point. Brief for Petitioner 31.

The second possible conflict arises in plea bargaining: petitioner posits that a lawyer may advise a client to accept an agreement entailing a more harsh prison sentence but no forfeiture — even where contrary to the client’s interests — in an effort to preserve the lawyer’s fee. Following such a strategy, however, would surely constitute ineffective assistance of counsel. We see no reason why our cases such as Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668 (1984), are inadequate to deal with any such ineffectiveness where it arises. In any event, there is no claim that such conduct occurred here, nor could there be, as Reckmeyer’s plea agreement included forfeiture of virtually every asset in his possession. Moreover, we rejected a claim similar to this one in Evans v. Jeff D., 475 U. S. 717, 727-728 (1986).

Finally, petitioner argues that the forfeiture statute, in operation, will create a system akin to “contingency fees” for defense lawyers: only a defense lawyer who wins acquittal for his client will be able to collect his fees, and contingent fees in criminal cases are generally considered unethical. See ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5(d)(2) (1983); ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility DR 2-106(0 (1979). But there is no indication here that petitioner, or any other firm, has actually sought to charge a defendant on a contingency basis; rather the claim is that a law firm’s prospect of collecting its fee may turn on the outcome at trial. This, however, may often be the case in criminal defense work. Nor is it clear why permitting contingent fees in criminal cases —if that is what the forfeiture statute does — violates a criminal defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights. The fact that a federal statutory scheme authorizing contingency fees — again, if that is what Congress has created in §853 (a premise we doubt) — is at odds with model disciplinary rules or state disciplinary codes hardly renders the federal statute invalid.

2 Indeed, the strongest statement on the question is the comment in the House Report: “Nothing in this section is intended to interfere with a person’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel.” H. R. Rep. No. 98-845, pt. 1, p. 19, n. 1 (1984). Even if the majority were correct that this statement is “nothing more than an exhortation for the courts to tread carefully in this delicate area,” United States v. Monsanto, ante, at 609, n. 8, the majority does not explain why it proceeds to ignore Congress’ exhortation to construe the statute to avoid implicating Sixth Amendment concerns.