Switzerland and Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) and National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) have signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding on the occasion of the visit of the Swiss President to Kyiv.

Formally signed on 21 July, the MoU is the basis for the continued engagement of our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) with these two Ukrainian institutions in the fight against corruption.

Our recently released 9th Basel AML Index reveals – disappointingly – that global money laundering risks remain high. The average risk score across all 141 countries in the Public Edition this year is 5.22, compared to 5.39 in 2019.

Few countries are making dramatic progress in addressing these risks. In fact, only six countries improved their risk scores by more than one point. 35 countries went backwards. 

Basel AML Index 2020: Weak oversight and dormant systems leave countries’ doors wide open to money laundering

Released today, the 9th Basel AML Index will disappoint anyone wishing for tangible progress in combating money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) around the world. 

The average ML/TF risk score across all 141 countries in the 2020 Public Edition of the Basel AML Index remains unacceptably high at 5.22 out of 10, where 10 equals maximum risk. In fact, only six countries improved their scores by more than one point. 35 countries went backwards.

Our current struggles have highlighted in drastic fashion that unilateral solutions are no longer sufficient to challenges that are increasingly global and multi-disciplinary.

As part of a week-long virtual conference by the Grupo de Estudios del Sistema Penal, Head of Latin America and Senior Asset Recovery Specialist Oscar Solorzano presented in Spanish on the contested topic of non-conviction-based forfeiture of assets.

I recently spoke about Collective Action as part of a virtual panel discussion along with Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Minister of Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service, on the topic of New Russian Antimonopoly Regulations. The webinar was organised by the Russian Business Ethics Network and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research, and is available on YouTube here.

The International Centre for Asset Recovery has been helping Uganda’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) expand understanding of the work of its Asset Recovery Division across its regional offices.

Among other goals, this may lead to more and more wide-ranging referrals of cases to the Asset Recovery Division. Currently, case referrals are limited to corruption-related crimes, yet there are various other categories of crime that generate illicit proceeds. These also have the potential to be recovered by the State and reinvested.  

Stefan Mbiyavanga, Legal Specialist for Latin America, recently gave an in-depth presentation on challenges and best practices for recovering assets hiding in international financial centres as part of an online conference by the Grupo de Estudios del Sistema Penal.

The week-long conference, in Spanish, sought to disseminate perspectives on asset recovery, non-conviction-based confiscation and mutual legal assistance (MLA) to practitioners and law students in Latin America.

Congratulations to our Vice-President Anne Peters, who has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Lausanne – Faculty of Law, Criminal Justice and Public Administration.

At a virtual meeting attended by around 900 Indonesian anti-corruption professionals on 8 July, Senior Asset Recovery Specialist Jonathan Spicer gave practical advice on how to succeed in obtaining mutual legal assistance (MLA) in corruption and money laundering cases.