The Basel Institute on Governance is further strengthening its global reputation for independent and practice-oriented expertise in asset recovery. On March 29, Gretta Fenner, Managing Director the Basel Institute, signed an agreement of cooperation with Ecuador’s Attorney General. The objective of the collaboration is to assist and support the Attorney General’s Office in identifying, locating, seizing and repatriating illicit assets arising from acts of corruption or the laundering of assets to the detriment of the Ecuadorian State.

Gretta Fenner was accompanied by Oscar Solórzano, the Basel Institute’s Country Manager in Peru, where the Basel Institute operates a country office that, among other, supports asset recovery efforts in Peru and the wider Latin American region.

The Attorney General of Ecuador, Dr. Carlos Baca Mancheno, underscored that the Basel Institute’s experience in asset recovery represents a very important complement to the activities and the work of his office in this area. He pointed out that Ecuador was inspired to seek support from the Basel Institute from the Institute’s work in other countries in the region. Gretta Fenner stressed that “corruption, in essence, is a human rights violation and the cause of many if not all hurdles to economic and social development. As such combating corruption should be the foremost concern for any government. It is encouraging to see Ecuador taking this matter seriously. We must understand however that asset recovery is a slow and complicated process; we cannot expect results tomorrow.”

The eruption of several large-scale corruption and money laundering cases in Latin America and other parts of the globe shows that we are far from rooting out corruption. The signing of the agreement takes place against the background of rising demand for hands-on technical assistance in the investigation and prosecution of concrete corruption and money laundering cases, and for the facilitation of international cooperation in legal and judicial matters.