Maria Eugenia Batista Cordeiro joined the Basel Institute on Governance in September 2025 as a Senior Specialist in Asset Recovery with our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR). Based in Bogotá, she supports Latin American authorities in strengthening financial investigations and asset recovery efforts through mentoring, training and case-based assistance.

Before joining the Basel Institute, Maria Eugenia worked for over a decade at the Rio Grande do Norte State Prosecution’s Office in Brazil, where she managed the Anti-Money Laundering Laboratory and supported prosecutors in complex financial crime cases. She has also served as a consultant to Transparency International on financial intelligence analysis.

She holds a Master’s degree in Law and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations, researching the political use of organised crime to evade economic sanctions. Maria Eugenia is an alumna of the George C. Marshall Center and the William J. Perry Center, and an expert member of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

She is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English.