Chris Sutton

Senior Investigations and Asset Recovery Specialist
chris.sutton@baselgovernance.org

Chris joined the Basel Institute on Governance as a Senior Investigations and Asset Recovery Specialist in April 2020. Working within the International Centre for Asset Recovery, he will be based in Tanzania supporting the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau and the wider anti-corruption chain. 

Chris is a former senior UK law enforcement officer and detective with 30 years' experience, the vast majority of which has been focused on combating transnational organised crime. His final policing role was as Deputy Head of Tasking for the UK National Crime Agency, where he was the Senior Manager responsible for tasking all investigations, operations and intelligence collection activities conducted globally. Extensive international experience has included establishing and mentoring an anti-corruption unit in Afghanistan and being deployed to the USA as a liaison officer embedded within the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service, investigating transnational organised crime with a maritime nexus. Chris was then deployed to the Middle East, where he was the UK lead responsible for establishing an international and inter-agency intelligence fusion centre investigating the most significant criminal and terrorist groups operating in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Immediately prior to joining the International Centre for Asset Recovery, Chris was again based in Afghanistan as a senior anti-corruption consultant with the United Nations Development Programme, where he supported the development of the Anti-Corruption Justice Centre. 

Chris holds an MSc (with distinction) in Financial Investigation from the University of Central Lancashire, UK, a BA (Hons) in Applied Investigation from the University of Sunderland, UK, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Transnational Organised Crime from the University of Staffordshire, UK. He has lectured in countering transnational organised crime at Liverpool John Moores University, UK, and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Germany.