Leading voices in the field of countering economic crime came together at the 2024 Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime to discuss this year’s theme: “suspect assets”.

The very first session of the Symposium sought to answer a key question from the outset: Why attack assets in the first place?

Among the presenters was the Basel Institute’s Andrew Dornbierer, Senior Specialist in Asset Recovery. He spoke in place of the Institute’s late Managing Director Gretta Fenner, who had been slated to deliver a speech before her untimely passing in April.

The following is based on Andrew’s presentation, which focused on the importance of targeting assets in corruption cases.

1. A matter of justice

There are three basic reasons why attacking assets should be a priority for policy makers and law enforcement agencies in the context of corruption.

The first, obvious and overarching reason is: because it’s just. It’s just to deprive corrupt actors of all the benefits of their corruption.

We live in societies that are based on the fair application of laws to all. Under no circumstances should anyone be permitted to benefit in any way from any illicit activity, especially corruption.

Allowing criminals to retain these proceeds – even in cases where they are caught and jailed – means that they are still benefiting from acting outside of the law. This is not just and it undermines the rule of law. Achieving asset recovery makes sure that this does not happen.

2. Preventing and deterring future corruption

The second reason is that if we attack and recover the benefits of corruption, it will prevent and deter future corruption.

If you enforce a strong policy of asset recovery and manage to consistently strip criminals of the benefits of their crimes, then you will enhance the risk – or at least the perception of risk – that a future criminal will not be able to financially benefit from their potential future crime. In the corruption context in particular, this will remove the key motivation for committing offences in the first place: personal gain.

By making it clear to potential corrupt actors that if they are caught, they won’t just go to jail, but will also lose all the proceeds of their crime, then this will logically force many potential criminals to think twice about engaging in this type of activity. 

3. Repurposing recovered assets for the common good

A third key reason for attacking assets is that, if we are successful, the recovered money can be put to good use.

Outside the context of corruption, Scotland provides a good example for this: Criminal assets recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act are repurposed under the Scottish Government programme CashBack for Communities. This programme devotes the money to community initiatives to improve the quality of life of young people, including those at risk of turning to crime as a way of life. Around GBP 130 million in recovered funds have been committed to these causes since 2008.

Moving back into the context of corruption, the Basel Institute was involved in a case where corrupt funds worth USD 3.7 million originally from Kenya were successfully recovered and repatriated from Jersey. This money was specifically put towards purchasing essential medical equipment for Kenyans and funding Kenya’s Covid-19 response – a much better destination for these funds than a corrupt individual’s bank account.

Generally speaking, the proceeds of corruption offences are assets that belong to the public. Consequently, asset recovery allows these assets to be returned to the public and to be used for the public interest.

Asset recovery in corruption cases

The three arguments for targeting assets outlined above could of course be applied to most categories of financial crimes. We could argue though that it is more important to achieve asset recovery in the context of corruption.

The reason for this is that corruption generally causes a wider level of harm to society compared to other crimes – regardless of whether it is petty corruption, where a police officer asks for a 10-dollar bribe to rip up a speeding ticket, or grand corruption, where a Minister misappropriates millions of dollars.

All corruption harms our entire society in some way. It erodes trust in public institutions, it hinders development and it degrades public services. And that is why it is absolutely vital to attack and recover assets in all corruption cases.

Learn more

Through our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR), we help partner countries to build long-term capability to investigate corruption and recover illicit funds. Working with government partner across four continents, ICAR experts provide specialised training, hands-on mentoring on live cases, and guidance on strengthening anti-corruption and asset recovery laws, policies and institutions.

We use ICAR’s hands-on experience and geographic reach to advocate for technical improvements to global asset recovery systems, including through important fora like the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime.

ICAR benefits from core funding from the governments of Jersey, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the UK.