The point of punishing the rafinery is for them to figure out next time how could they know if this powder was stolen or not.
The role of companies is to undertake risks in exchange for profit. They have all the incentives and tools to lower the risk they took wherever possible. If company can't be punished for buying stolen goods then there's no risk and society has to take the risk and the costs. Which makes no sense because whole purpose of private companies is offloading risk from the hands of people that don't want it into the hands of people that do.
You cannot accidentally commit a felony - there has to be intent. What you are suggesting would substantially impede legitimate commerce (which by the way makes up the supermajority of all commerce) and would just result in actual fences coming up with fake documentation. As it stands now companies are basically expected to avoid deals where they see red flags around the provenance of the items. In neither indictment is the refinery mentioned as knowingly receiving the stolen metal powder. DG auto is basically the perfect target because they are a high level facilitator of stolen catalytic converters, they have connections to refineries, and unlike street level guys are probably hard to replace in the stolen catalytic converter supply chain. They even had a pricing app (https://dgauto.app) so prospective thieves would know which cars to target.
You cannot but laws around forfeiture are weird. If what you own was involved in a crime it can be forfeitured even though you yourself are not charged with anything. And yes, that includes money too. It's from drug laws but I'd say it would better applied here.
> What you are suggesting would substantially impede legitimate commerce
Maybe it should be a bit impeded if unimpeded led to national crime wave.
The government is ultimately the 'buyer' of the stolen goods. They are the ones that demand the catalytic convert be installed. Government created the risk for theft when they created this black market incentive. They have all the incentives and tools to lower the risk they took wherever possible.
The role of companies is to undertake risks in exchange for profit. They have all the incentives and tools to lower the risk they took wherever possible. If company can't be punished for buying stolen goods then there's no risk and society has to take the risk and the costs. Which makes no sense because whole purpose of private companies is offloading risk from the hands of people that don't want it into the hands of people that do.