Cite as: 516 U. S. 29 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
Government and a defendant. We recognized in Caplin & Drysdale that the broad forfeiture provisions carry the potential for Government abuse and "can be devastating when used unjustly." 491 U. S., at 634. Nonetheless, we concluded that "[c]ases involving particular abuses can be dealt with individually by the lower courts, when (and if) any such cases arise." Id., at 635. However valid Libretti's concern about prosecutorial overreaching may be, Rule 11(f) simply does not, on its face, address it.
We do not mean to suggest that a district court must simply accept a defendant's agreement to forfeit property, particularly when that agreement is not accompanied by a stipulation of facts supporting forfeiture, or when the trial judge for other reasons finds the agreement problematic. In this regard, we note that the Department of Justice recently issued a Revised Policy Regarding Forfeiture by Settlement and Plea Bargaining in Civil and Criminal Actions, Directive 94-7 (Nov. 1994), to instruct that, among the procedures necessary to ensure a valid forfeiture agreement, "[t]he settlement to forfeit property must be in writing and the defendant must concede facts supporting the forfeiture." Id., at 13. In this case, however, we need not determine the precise scope of a district court's independent obligation, if any, to inquire into the propriety of a stipulated asset forfeiture embodied in a plea agreement. We note that the Sentencing Guidelines direct only that a district court "may" accept an agreement reached by the parties as to a specific, appropriate sentence, as long as the sentence is within the applicable guideline range or departs from that range "for justifiable reasons." United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual § 6B1.2(c)(2) (Nov. 1993). Libretti's plea agreement correctly recognized that the District Court was not bound by the parties' agreement as to the appropriate sentence: "[T]he sentencing judge is neither a party to nor bound by this plea agreement and is free to impose whatever sentence he feels is justified." App. 81, ¶ 11.
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