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Opinion of the Court
11(f) inquiry will protect against Government overreaching. And lastly, Libretti insists that a factual basis inquiry is necessary to ensure that the rights of third-party claimants are fully protected. We consider these contentions in turn.
We are unpersuaded that the Rule 11(f) inquiry is necessary to guarantee that a forfeiture agreement is knowing and voluntary. Whether a stipulated asset forfeiture is "factually based" is a distinct inquiry from the question whether the defendant entered an agreement to forfeit assets knowingly and voluntarily. Libretti correctly points out that Rule 11(f) is intended to ensure that a defendant's "plea of guilty" is knowing and voluntary. McCarthy, 394 U. S., at 472 (the Rule 11 inquiry is "designed to facilitate a more accurate determination of the voluntariness of [a] plea"); Advisory Committee's Notes on Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 11, 18 U. S. C. App., p. 730 (Rule 11(f) protects defendants who do not "realiz[e] that [their] conduct does not actually fall within the charge"). But a "plea of guilty" and a forfeiture provision contained in a plea agreement are different matters altogether. Forfeiture, as we have said, is a part of the sentence. If the voluntariness of a defendant's concession to imposition of a particular sentence is questionable, the relevant inquiry is whether the sentencing stipulation was informed and uncoerced on the part of the defendant, not whether it is factually sound.
Libretti's second argument—that a Rule 11(f) factual basis inquiry is necessary to prevent prosecutorial overreaching— proves equally unavailing. As Libretti properly observes, § 853 limits forfeiture by establishing a factual nexus requirement: Only drug-tainted assets may be forfeited. Libretti suggests that failure to ensure, by means of a Rule 11(f) inquiry, that this factual nexus exists will open the door to voluntary forfeiture agreements that exceed the forfeiture authorized by statute, particularly in light of the Government's direct financial interest in forfeiture as a source of revenue and the disparity in bargaining power between the
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