19. December 2018

Expired ownership in asset recovery: hands-on training for prosecutors in Peru

Workshop

Peruvian prosecutors in the city of Trujillo have received innovative hands-on training in Asset Recovery via the Mechanism of Expired Ownership ("extinción de dominio" in Spanish). The training was aimed at prosecutors specialised in cases of corruption and money laundering. It was carried out with the support of the Swiss SECO-funded Subnational PFM programme implemented by the Basel Institute’s office in Lima and the Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) training division.

This is one of several training programmes that the Subnational PFM Programme has carried out in Peru this year, with the aim of strengthening the capacities of members of the judiciary in subnational governments to apply the legal mechanism of expired ownership in asset recovery proceedings. Expired ownership is a legal mechanism that aims to deprive criminals of the ownership of property or assets acquired as a result of illicit activities. States can make use of it to recover the proceeds of crime stashed in other jurisdictions. 

The training course took place on 10 and 11 December 2018 at the offices of the Public Prosecutor's Office in Trujillo. It was led by Dr. Oscar Solórzano, Senior Asset Recovery Specialist at the Basel Institute and country manager of the Subnational PFM Programme. He was joined for this workshop by Dr. Hamilton Castro Trigoso, Special Prosecutor for Crimes of Corruption of Public Officials, who was in charge of a special unit within the Public Prosecutor's Office focused on the Odebrecht case. He is currently involved in high-profile cases of asset recovery via the mechanism of expired ownership.

This training programme is one of several activities carried out by the SECO-funded Subnational Public Finance Management programme with the purpose of contributing to strengthening the judicial system in Peru and successfully addressing major cases of national and transnational corruption.