[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":355},["ShallowReactive",2],{"news-the-quispe-callo-case-perus-provincial-prosecutors-recover-corrupt-assets-through-non-conviction-based-confiscation-2590":3,"news-the-quispe-callo-case-perus-provincial-prosecutors-recover-corrupt-assets-through-non-conviction-based-confiscation-2590-similar":82,"i-heroicons:arrow-left-20-solid":350},[4],{"id":5,"status":6,"date_created":7,"date_updated":8,"title":9,"type":10,"body":11,"date":12,"topic":13,"slug":16,"activity":17,"nid":19,"topics":20,"activities":22,"programme":23,"area":23,"websites":24,"language":23,"image":26,"translation_of":23,"countries":37,"tags":61,"authors":78,"images":79,"translations":80,"content":81},10424,"published","2024-02-28T11:01:30.000Z","2026-05-29T22:22:28.000Z","The Quispe Callo case: Peru’s provincial prosecutors recover corrupt assets through non-conviction based confiscation","News","Authorities in Cusco in southeast Peru have succeeded in recovering a house and land linked to acts of corruption by the former mayor of the province of Canchis, using a recently introduced non-conviction based forfeiture law.\n\nSpecialised Prosecutors working with asset recovery specialists of the [Programa GFP Subnacional](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gfpsubnacional.pe\u002F) were able to prove that land was purchased, and the house built, with proceeds of corruption. The assets were confiscated under Peru’s law of _Extinción de Dominio_, a form of non-conviction based confiscation law targeting illicit assets separately from criminal proceedings.\n\nThe judgment under the Extinción de Dominio law is the first obtained by Peruvian authorities at the subnational level with the support of the Programa GFP or [Subnational Public Finance Management Programme](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fpublic-finance-peru) of the [Swiss SECO Cooperation in Peru](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.cooperacionsuiza.pe\u002Fseco\u002F), implemented by the Basel Institute on Governance.\n\n### Corruption doesn’t pay\n\nThe successful recovery of the assets demonstrates – to corrupt officials as well as to citizens – that corruption does not pay.\n\nIt also indicates the value of having a robust non-conviction based confiscation law and system at the subnational level. While criminal proceedings against the mayor are ongoing, they typically take much longer to complete than non-conviction based proceedings, which use a lower (civil) standard of proof.\n\nIn the meantime, valuable assets such as the corruptly obtained land and house cannot be recovered, and even have to be managed and maintained to avoid a depreciation in value.\n\nThe Basel Institute supported the Peruvian authorities in the drafting and enactment of the law in 2018, as well its implementation since then via a national “subsystem” of specialised courts, tribunals and prosecutors’ offices. As well as targeted capacity building and case-based mentoring, our team has organised peer learning events such as major two-day [convention of judges](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fnews\u002Fjudges-convention-shows-why-peru-leader-recovering-proceeds-corruption-through-non-conviction) specialised in the use of this law.\n\n### In the prosecutor’s words\n\nDr. Sergio Jiménez, who leads the team responsible for asset recovery assistance at the subnational level under the long-running programme, spoke to Dr. Yolanda Inquiltupa Calvo about the significance of the \"Quispe Callo\", named after the former mayor Jorge Quispe Callo. Dr. Inquiltupa Calvo is Provincial Prosecutor for Extinción de Dominio in Cusco.\n\n[Read](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gfpsubnacional.pe\u002F2024\u002F02\u002F16\u002Fjusticia-peruana-extingue-bien-de-ex-alcaldede-la-region-cusco-se-logra-sentencia-emblematica-de-aplicacion-de-la-ley-de-decomiso-sin-condena-en-cusco\u002F) or [watch](https:\u002F\u002Fyoutu.be\u002FEkCDp5QzvL8) the original interview in Spanish.\n\nDr. Inquiltupa, the Extinción de Dominio law came into force five years ago. How important is this tool for Peru in general and for Cusco in particular?\n\nVery important. Reality has taught us that criminals are not deterred by the prospect of a conviction. It is not a problem for them to go to prison if they can get out and still enjoy the assets they have acquired illicitly.\n\nThis is where non-conviction based confiscation comes into play. Through a judicial process that takes place in court, we are able to confiscate assets that have been acquired with proceeds of crime. We can also confiscate assets that were used to facilitate the commission of crimes. The assets are being returned to the public treasury for the benefit of citizens.\n\nWhy is the decision in the Quispe Callo case important and what message do you think it sends out?\n\nThis ruling is very special. We launched the Extinción de Dominio case after learning of a police investigation into the former mayor Quispe Callo together with other public officials. We were then able to identify assets that he had acquired, both himself and also jointly with his partner.\n\nIn the ruling, it was established that not only had the land been acquired with funds arising from public-sector corruption, but also the construction of the house itself. The total value was approximately PEN 350,000 (just under USD 100,000).\n\nCan you tell us about your collaboration with the Basel Institute’s asset recovery specialists in this case?\n\nFor us, as an asset recovery office, the support provided by the Basel Institute on Governance through the Programa GFP Subnacional is very important. First, for the technical assistance related to specific cases. Second, for the more general assistance in improving our effectiveness and productivity.\n\nIn this case, the team supported us in the analysis of the case, in the review of the evidence and in the coordination required to gather more information. As a result, we were able to jointly draw up a very well prepared action plan that allowed us to identify the illicit assets and launch proceedings to confiscate them.\n\nIn your opinion, what can we look forward to in terms of asset recovery through Extinción de Dominio and what does it mean for the targeting of criminal behaviour?\n\nI foresee a very promising outlook for Peru in terms of asset recovery. This is not only because of the progress we have made at the provincial level here in Cusco. At the national level, where the law is being used by different entities of the Peruvian system, asset recovery is advancing by leaps and bounds.\n\nI understand that we have more than 600 judgments at the national level, and we have already recovered assets in excess of USD 60 million through this law alone. Where nothing was happening before, now we are finally seeing progress.\n\nWhat we are trying to achieve with this is to bring about a change in thinking – a change in the perceptions of citizens around crime and corruption. The general perception is that crime is lucrative. We want to reverse that, so that citizens know that crime does _not_ pay.\n\n### Learn more\n\n*   Learn more about the Programa GFP Subnacional in [Spanish](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gfpsubnacional.pe\u002F) or [English](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fpublic-finance-peru).\n*   Learn more about the work of our [International Centre for Asset Recovery](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fasset-recovery)","2024-02-28",[14,15],"Asset Recovery","Public Finance Management","the-quispe-callo-case-perus-provincial-prosecutors-recover-corrupt-assets-through-non-conviction-based-confiscation-2590",[18],"",2590,[21,15],"Asset Recovery and Enforcement",[],null,[25],"Main page",{"id":27,"storage":28,"filename_disk":29,"filename_download":30,"title":9,"type":31,"created_on":32,"modified_on":32,"charset":23,"filesize":33,"width":34,"height":35,"duration":23,"embed":23,"description":23,"location":23,"tags":23,"metadata":36,"focal_point_x":23,"focal_point_y":23,"tus_id":23,"tus_data":23,"uploaded_on":32},"229c7075-9380-4700-b2d7-95b1a4a510eb","local","229c7075-9380-4700-b2d7-95b1a4a510eb.webp","tmp.webp","image\u002Fwebp","2025-05-12T21:11:03.000Z",64160,1400,933,{},[38],{"id":39,"news_id":40,"countries_id":55},7131,{"id":5,"status":6,"user_created":41,"date_created":7,"user_updated":42,"date_updated":8,"title":9,"type":10,"body":11,"image":27,"date":12,"topic":43,"slug":16,"activity":44,"nid":19,"topics":45,"activities":46,"programme":23,"area":23,"websites":47,"translation_of":23,"language":23,"countries":48,"tags":49,"authors":51,"images":52,"translations":53,"content":54},"03bebfd8-0b40-4a2a-820d-b9d9c13b9de6","3d9ff205-1640-4f34-b5b6-86977f51bbd6",[14,15],[18],[21,15],[],[25],[39],[50],5698,[],[],[],[],{"id":56,"name":57,"code":58,"latitude":59,"longitude":60},171,"Peru","PE",-9.18997,-75.01515,[62],{"id":50,"news_id":63,"tags_id":75},{"id":5,"status":6,"user_created":41,"date_created":7,"user_updated":42,"date_updated":8,"title":9,"type":10,"body":11,"image":27,"date":12,"topic":64,"slug":16,"activity":65,"nid":19,"topics":66,"activities":67,"programme":23,"area":23,"websites":68,"translation_of":23,"language":23,"countries":69,"tags":70,"authors":71,"images":72,"translations":73,"content":74},[14,15],[18],[21,15],[],[25],[39],[50],[],[],[],[],{"id":76,"name":77},1379,"Non-conviction based forfeiture",[],[],[],[],[83,107,132,161,183,223,255,284,306,329],{"id":84,"body":85,"status":6,"type":10,"date":86,"slug":87,"title":88,"image":89,"countries":90,"topic":92,"activity":93,"tags":95,"nid":96,"topics":97,"activities":98,"authors":99,"images":100,"websites":23,"area":23,"programme":23,"language":101,"translations":102,"translation_of":23,"user_created":41,"date_created":103,"user_updated":42,"date_updated":104,"content":105,"link":106},10605,"> These administrative steps are where asset recovery really happens… when dirty assets are transformed into resources that support law enforcement and serve the public good.\n\nWith these words, [Oscar Solórzano](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fabout\u002Fpeople\u002Foscar-solorzano), Head of Latin America at the Basel Institute on Governance, captured the often unseen but transformative impact of asset recovery. \n\nHis remark follows a high-level meeting in Peru marking the final phase of a pioneering international agreement.\n\nOn 26 March 2026, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Peru hosted the Meeting of the States Parties to the [Tripartite Agreement between Peru, Switzerland and Luxembourg](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fnews\u002Fit-takes-three-tango-switzerland-luxembourg-and-peru-sign-agreement-return-usd-26-million) on the transfer of confiscated assets. \n\nOpened by Minister Luis Enrique Jiménez Borra, the meeting brought together key Peruvian institutions alongside representatives of the Swiss authorities to review progress, assess institutional impact and discuss the next steps towards closure.\n\n### From frozen assets to public benefit\n\nThrough this cooperation, assets derived from corruption cases and previously frozen abroad have been returned to Peru and reinvested in strengthening the justice system. \n\nProjects funded under the agreement have enhanced the capacity to investigate and prosecute corruption and organised crime, improved coordination between institutions and strengthened mechanisms for asset recovery and asset management.\n\nThe National Program for Seized Assets ([PRONABI](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gob.pe\u002Fpronabi)) has overseen the transparent and accountable administration of these funds, ensuring they directly support institutions at the forefront of combating corruption.\n\nHighlighting the broader significance of the initiative, Minister Jiménez Borra stated:\n\n> International cooperation can turn assets derived from corruption into concrete tools for strengthening justice and public integrity. The Tripartite Agreement shows how recovered assets can be reinvested to benefit citizens and strengthen the rule of law.\n\n### Strong international partnership and Swiss engagement\n\nPeru’s tripartite collaboration with Switzerland and Luxembourg has provided a strong framework for cooperation. It demonstrates how countries can work together to return illicit assets in a transparent and impactful way. \n\nThe Basel Institute on Governance, through its [International Centre for Asset Recovery](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fasset-recovery) (ICAR), has played a central role in supporting implementation by providing technical advice and accompanying institutions throughout the process. \n\nPaul Garnier, Ambassador of Switzerland to Peru, noted: \n\n> This meeting provides an important opportunity to review the current status of the project and the progress achieved so far. Switzerland also values the continued technical support provided by the Basel Institute on Governance throughout the implementation of this initiative. \n\nDuring the technical session, Oscar Solórzano and [Límberg Chero](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fabout\u002Fpeople\u002Flimberg-chero), a senior member of the Basel Institute’s [Public Finance Management programme in Peru](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fpublic-finance-peru), shared reflections on the implementation, impact and sustainability of the projects.\n\nCelso Alfredo Saavedra Sobrados, Executive Coordinator of PRONABI, emphasise that:\n\n> PRONABI has worked to ensure that the restituted funds are administered with transparency, efficiency and accountability, so that they directly contribute to strengthening the institutions responsible for combating corruption.\n\nHe also highlighted the close and timely technical support provided by the Basel Institute on Governance during the implementation of the project.\n\n### Setting a regional example for asset recovery\n\nThe experience demonstrates how sustained international cooperation, combined with targeted technical support, can ensure that recovered assets deliver tangible benefits for citizens and reinforce the rule of law.\n\nIt also offers a compelling example for other jurisdictions, showing that asset return can be both practical and impactful when underpinned by trust, transparency and shared objectives. \n\nThe hope is that this model will inspire further mutually beneficial efforts to return stolen assets and put them to work for the public good.","2026-04-02","where-asset-recovery-really-happens-peru-advances-landmark-restitution-initiative-2949","Where asset recovery really happens: Peru advances landmark restitution initiative","https:\u002F\u002Fjam.baselgovernance.org\u002Fapi\u002Fassets\u002Facf1f9c4-3c0f-46da-a4c6-cb846ceacb26?width=1000&height=650&format=webp&quality=80",[91],7806,[14],[94],"International cooperation",[],2949,[21],[94],[],[],"English",[],"2026-04-15T22:45:17.000Z","2026-05-29T22:22:39.000Z",[],"\u002Fresources\u002Fnews\u002Fwhere-asset-recovery-really-happens-peru-advances-landmark-restitution-initiative-2949",{"id":108,"body":109,"status":6,"type":110,"date":111,"slug":112,"title":113,"image":114,"countries":115,"topic":116,"activity":118,"tags":120,"nid":121,"topics":122,"activities":123,"authors":124,"images":126,"websites":23,"area":23,"programme":23,"language":101,"translations":127,"translation_of":23,"user_created":41,"date_created":128,"user_updated":42,"date_updated":129,"content":130,"link":131},10608,"_Criminal assets can cross borders in hours, while international asset recovery often struggles to keep pace. The INTERPOL Silver Notice is designed to close this gap by enabling earlier identification and tracing of criminal assets across jurisdictions. Can this new instrument fundamentally change how law enforcement responds to the rapid flight of illicit wealth?_\n\nCriminal funds can be moved across jurisdictions, layered through shell companies or converted into digital assets in a matter of hours. By contrast, international legal cooperation frequently moves at a far slower pace. The mismatch between the speed of asset flight and the pace of enforcement is one of the central reasons why several international bodies estimate that a very high proportion of [criminal assets](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.interpol.int\u002Fen\u002FNews-and-Events\u002FNews\u002F2025\u002FINTERPOL-publishes-first-Silver-Notice-targeting-criminal-assets#:~:text=Valdecy%20Urquiza%2C%20INTERPOL%20Secretary%20General,of%20criminal%20assets%20remain%20unrecovered.) ultimately remain unrecovered.\n\nINTERPOL’s Silver Notices seek to narrow this gap. They provide law enforcement with an early, structured mechanism to identify and trace assets across borders, strengthening one of the weakest stages of asset recovery: the initial [identification of criminal assets](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fblog\u002Finterpols-silver-notice-paving-way-improved-asset-recovery). For practitioners dealing with fraud, corruption, money laundering and organised crime, Silver Notices reflect a shift toward treating asset recovery as an enforcement priority rather than merely a consequence of criminal conviction.\n\n### The state of play\n\nINTERPOL launched the Silver Notice as a pilot initiative in January 2025, involving 52 jurisdictions across all regions. [As of November 2025, 133 Silver Notices and 35 Diffusions had been published](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.interpol.int\u002FNews-and-Events\u002FNews\u002F2025\u002FTogether-Against-Crime-INTERPOL-General-Assembly-approves-blueprint-for-future) at the request of 39 countries, linked to suspected financial harm exceeding EUR 30 billion, according to INTERPOL.\n\nSwitzerland does not currently participate in the pilot and therefore does not issue Silver Notices. However, Swiss authorities may still receive Silver Notices and share information through existing police cooperation channels.\n\nIn November 2025, during the 93rd INTERPOL General Assembly in Marrakech, delegates approved the extension of the Silver Notice pilot, allowing additional jurisdictions to participate. For practitioners, this expansion matters: broader participation directly increases the likelihood that assets can be identified and preserved before they are moved beyond the reach of enforcement authorities.\n\n### What is the Silver Notice?\n\nINTERPOL Notices enable countries to share critical criminal intelligence and request operational assistance across borders. A Silver Notice is a non-coercive intelligence tool designed to support the identification and tracing of assets linked to serious criminal offences. It does not, by itself, authorise the freezing, seizure or confiscation of assets. Any such measures must be taken in accordance with national law and applicable judicial procedures.\n\nIn practice, Silver Notices may be used to:\n\n*   flag bank accounts, real estate, corporate holdings and digital assets;\n*   identify beneficial owners or persons exercising control over assets;\n*   enable secure and structured intelligence sharing between participating jurisdictions.\n\n### From identification to legal action\n\nOne of the most persistent challenges in cross-border asset recovery lies in the slow and often complex operation of Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) mechanisms used to gather evidence or freeze assets. Evidentiary thresholds and procedural requirements vary widely across jurisdictions, and delays in cooperation can allow assets to be dissipated.\n\nWhen a Silver Notice leads to the identification of assets, the jurisdiction in which they are located informs the requesting country and INTERPOL, outlines domestic legal options, and acts within its legal framework. Early bilateral engagement allows investigators and prosecutors to align MLA requests with domestic standards, shortening the transition from intelligence to evidence and from tracing to freezing, helping preserve asset value and improving the prospects of confiscation and victim restitution or compensation.\n\n### Safeguards and limits\n\nBefore any Notice is circulated, it must pass a strict legal compliance review to ensure that it complies with INTERPOL’s Constitution, including the prohibition on matters of a political, military, racial or religious character. These safeguards are essential to maintaining trust between member countries and protecting the system from misuse, particularly in sensitive or high-profile cases.\n\nThe Silver Notice is also deliberately designed to avoid coercive overreach. Key safeguards include:\n\n*   restriction to serious criminal offences;\n*   a requirement for a clear factual link between the assets and suspected criminal conduct;\n*   use within the framework of national legal systems, including judicial or prosecutorial oversight where required.\n\nAt the same time, Silver Notices are not without limitations. For example, in politically sensitive cases, careful scrutiny is required to ensure that asset-tracing requests are not used to advance improper objectives. This makes the robustness and independence of INTERPOL’s compliance review mechanisms particularly important.\n\nUltimately, Silver Notices are not a solution to all asset recovery challenges. Their effectiveness depends on domestic legal framework and the willingness and ability of authorities to act on shared intelligence. They enhance international cooperation, but they do not replace the need for strong national asset recovery regimes or effective MLA processes.\n\n### Closing the enforcement gap\n\nThe speed at which criminal assets move across borders continues to outpace traditional enforcement tools. Silver Notices respond to this challenge by enabling earlier asset tracing and more timely operational engagement between jurisdictions.\n\nMore broadly, Silver Notices reflect an evolving approach to financial crime enforcement that prioritises proactive, intelligence-led intervention over reactive asset recovery at the end of lengthy criminal proceedings. Silver Notices are an enabler, not a shortcut. Used effectively and responsibly, they can strengthen the strategic focus on asset recovery and materially improve the prospects of asset confiscation and victim restitution.\n\n_This blog is also published on the [Hochschule Luzern Economic Crime Blog here](https:\u002F\u002Fhub.hslu.ch\u002Feconomiccrime\u002F?p=6536)._","Blog","2026-03-16","interpol-silver-notices-speeding-up-the-tracing-of-criminal-assets-2944","INTERPOL Silver Notices: Speeding up the tracing of criminal assets","https:\u002F\u002Fjam.baselgovernance.org\u002Fapi\u002Fassets\u002Fdaf2f81c-8270-46aa-93a2-3a8a469a7420?width=1000&height=650&format=webp&quality=80",[],[117,14],"Anti-Money Laundering",[119],"Insights",[],2944,[117,21],[119],[125],1371,[],[],"2026-04-15T22:45:19.000Z","2026-05-29T22:22:40.000Z",[],"\u002Fresources\u002Fnews\u002Finterpol-silver-notices-speeding-up-the-tracing-of-criminal-assets-2944",{"id":133,"body":134,"status":6,"type":110,"date":135,"slug":136,"title":137,"image":138,"countries":139,"topic":140,"activity":141,"tags":143,"nid":152,"topics":153,"activities":154,"authors":155,"images":156,"websites":23,"area":23,"programme":23,"language":101,"translations":157,"translation_of":23,"user_created":41,"date_created":158,"user_updated":42,"date_updated":104,"content":159,"link":160},10602,"_By J. Edward (Ned) Conway, Executive Secretary, The Wolfsberg Group_\n\nAs virtual assets move into the mainstream of traditional finance, tricky questions arise. What does a reasonable, risk-based control framework look like for banks that provide services to virtual asset service providers (VASPs)? And how can compliance teams strengthen private-to-private information sharing to better detect suspicious activity?\n\nThese were some of the questions tackled by the [Wolfsberg Group](https:\u002F\u002Fwolfsberg-group.org\u002F) at the 9th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets, organised by the Basel Institute on Governance, Europol and UNODC and held in Vienna on 28–29 October 2025.\n\nThe Wolfsberg Group is an association of 12 global banks that develops frameworks and guidance for the management of financial crime risks. Housed at the Basel Institute on Governance, this long-standing initiative brings together senior financial crime compliance leaders through various working groups, including one dedicated to virtual assets.\n\nThis flagship event provided a valuable platform for the Group to explain its [Stablecoin Guidance](https:\u002F\u002Fwolfsberg-group.org\u002Fresources\u002F204\u002F), gauge interest in a specific Due Diligence Questionnaire focused on VASPs, and further advance efforts to break down silos in private-to-private information sharing.\n\nThis blog summarises some of the key discussions – dialogues that are continuing in dedicated meetings and consultations of the Wolfsberg Group with members, regulators and institutional partners.\n\n### Regulatory clarity as a catalyst for TradFi–VASP relationships?\n\nDay 1 of the conference saw Ned Conway, Executive Secretary of the Wolfsberg Group, moderate a high-level panel discussion featuring representatives from Circle, Bullish and Société Générale on the theme _“Bridging the TradFi–DeFi Gap.”_\n\nThe panel discussed the barriers to relationship building between traditional finance (TradFi) institutions such as banks and VASPs such as cryptocurrency exchanges and stablecoin issuers. The speakers noted that a lack of trust and understanding persists, particularly around risks specific to virtual assets.\n\nThat is one reason that TradFi is slow to onboard VASPs as clients and provide them with the banking services they need in order to operate. However, stablecoins are helping bridge this gap by bringing parts of the crypto universe under regulatory frameworks.\n\nTradFi institutions underlined that they would benefit from clearer scenarios from regulators on where collaboration and information sharing would be permissible between regulated entities and VASPs. Recent [guidance issued by regulators on stablecoins and virtual assets in Asia](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.hkma.gov.hk\u002Fmedia\u002Feng\u002Fdoc\u002Fkey-functions\u002Fifc\u002Fstablecoin-issuers\u002FGuideline_on_supervision_of_licensed_stablecoin_issuers_eng.pdf), in particular, could help improve confidence both ways in the TradFi-VASP relationship.\n\n### Aligning risk appetite, due diligence and monitoring for suspicious activity\n\nOn Day 2, a dedicated Wolfsberg side event brought together VASPs, FinTech firms and traditional banks for in-depth discussions. Representatives from several Wolfsberg member banks – Deutsche Bank, Citi, UBS, Société Générale, and Bank of America – joined the sessions.\n\nThe agenda focused on frameworks for information sharing, but the discussions touched upon a range of hot topics including:\n\n*   risk appetite and the risk-based approach;\n*   payment transparency (i.e. the [travel rule](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.eba.europa.eu\u002Fpublications-and-media\u002Fpress-releases\u002Feba-issues-travel-rule-guidance-tackle-money-laundering-and-terrorist-financing-transfers-funds-and)); and\n*   approaches to monitoring for suspicious activity.\n\nDuring the discussions, participants highlighted that one of the main barriers to effective collaboration between traditional financial institutions and VASPs is a lack of mutual trust. Both sectors face difficulties in interacting with each other.\n\nThe [Wolfsberg Correspondent Banking Due Diligence Questionnaire](https:\u002F\u002Fwolfsberg-group.org\u002Fresources?type=cbddq-fccq&category=questionnaires) (CBDDQ) is useful for setting standards, but onboarding challenges could be overcome by framing risk in common language. Many viewed the current onboarding approaches as fragmented, and expressed strong support for the Wolfsberg Group to develop standardised guidance and a due diligence questionnaire for VASPs.\n\nQuestions remain about what is “reasonable” and “risk-based” for VASPs, especially for smaller institutions, and whether banks should monitor blockchain transactions themselves. VASPs need to be able to articulate their risk appetite, and how this changes as they continue to develop innovative products and services.\n\nVASP participants viewed the Wolfsberg Group’s [Stablecoin Guidance](https:\u002F\u002Fwolfsberg-group.org\u002Fresources\u002F204\u002F) as applicable beyond stablecoin issuers to the wider VASP ecosystem. This is particularly true for the tailored questions on the underlying control environment, and the linking of risk appetite directly to monitoring approaches.\n\n### Improving private-private information sharing on suspicious activity\n\nDiscussion on information sharing between TradFi and VASPs highlighted that this can rely heavily on personal relationships across entities, limiting scalability.\n\nVASPs showed concern around sharing wallet addresses under private-to-private information sharing frameworks, given geopolitical trends and concerns around the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, consensus emerged that better data sharing both increases the quality of suspicious activity reports (SARs) and reduces SAR volumes.\n\nParticularly on this latter point, activities often thought to be suspicious in a silo are better understood when viewed from multiple perspectives, confirming the importance of information exchange.\n\n### Continuing to build bridges as the financial system evolves\n\nBridging the gap between TradFi and DeFi remains a central theme in the Wolfsberg Group’s strategy. The Vienna events offered a unique opportunity to engage key stakeholders across the sector and advance this important dialogue.\n\nThe side event was opened by Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director of the Basel Institute on Governance. The Wolfsberg Group extends its sincere thanks to the Basel Institute for the opportunity to co-host this side event and to participate in the 9th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets.\n\n### Learn more\n\n*   Learn more about the [Wolfsberg Group](https:\u002F\u002Fwolfsberg-group.org\u002F) and explores its guidance and [resources](https:\u002F\u002Fwolfsberg-group.org\u002Fresources) on managing financial crime risk, including its [Stablecoin Guidance](https:\u002F\u002Fwolfsberg-group.org\u002Fresources\u002F204\u002F).\n*   Learn more about the [9th Global Conference](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fnews\u002Fglobal-experts-advance-joint-fight-against-crypto-enabled-crime) and see selected recordings.\n*   Find out about the [10th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002F10crc) on 15–16 September 2026 in Luxembourg.","2026-02-11","advancing-trust-and-standards-between-banks-and-virtual-asset-service-providers-lessons-from-wolfsberg-group-events-at-the-9th-global-conference-2929","Advancing trust and standards between banks and virtual asset service providers – lessons from Wolfsberg Group events at the 9th Global Conference","https:\u002F\u002Fjam.baselgovernance.org\u002Fapi\u002Fassets\u002Fc0f797c0-3af2-47b9-92aa-20efc3f95cce?width=1000&height=650&format=webp&quality=80",[],[117,14],[142],"Events",[144,148],{"tags_id":145},{"id":146,"name":147},854,"Virtual assets",{"tags_id":149},{"id":150,"name":151},818,"Anti-money laundering",2929,[117,21],[142],[],[],[],"2026-02-27T15:07:18.000Z",[],"\u002Fresources\u002Fnews\u002Fadvancing-trust-and-standards-between-banks-and-virtual-asset-service-providers-lessons-from-wolfsberg-group-events-at-the-9th-global-conference-2929",{"id":162,"body":163,"status":6,"type":10,"date":164,"slug":165,"title":166,"image":167,"countries":168,"topic":170,"activity":171,"tags":173,"nid":174,"topics":175,"activities":176,"authors":177,"images":178,"websites":23,"area":23,"programme":23,"language":101,"translations":179,"translation_of":23,"user_created":41,"date_created":180,"user_updated":42,"date_updated":104,"content":181,"link":182},10603,"The fight against criminal misuse of cryptoassets enters its next chapter.\n\nJoin us on 15–16 September 2026 for the 10th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets – held this year in Luxembourg at the European Convention Centre and online.\n\nThis landmark edition will be hosted by Luxembourg’s [Bureau de gestion des avoirs](https:\u002F\u002Fbga.gouvernement.lu\u002Ffr.html) (BGA), alongside the Basel Institute on Governance, Europol and UNODC as co-organisers.\n\nRenowned as a leading global forum, the conference brings together practitioners from across sectors and regions to tackle the evolving threats posed by criminal exploitation of cryptoassets and related services.\n\nExpect cutting-edge insights, candid exchanges and practical solutions aimed at safeguarding individuals, businesses and the integrity of financial systems worldwide.\n\n*   Day 1 – 15 September: Open to experts from all sectors, with a strong focus on public–private collaboration, emerging risks and real-world practice.\n*   Day 2 – 16 September: Reserved for public authorities, including law enforcement, prosecutors, financial intelligence units, asset management offices and regulators, with in-depth case studies and operational insights.\n\n### Learn more\n\n*   See more information on the official [10th Global Conference event page](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002F10crc).\n*   Sign up to the [conference mailing list](http:\u002F\u002Feepurl.com\u002FiCwSMo) to be notified when registration opens.\n*   If you would like to submit a proposal to present, moderate a panel discussion or lead a breakout session, [please use this form](https:\u002F\u002Fforms.gle\u002FvXZjotdYgxbk1oRT6).","2026-02-10","save-the-date-10th-global-conference-on-criminal-finances-and-cryptoassets-2932","Save the date: 10th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets","https:\u002F\u002Fjam.baselgovernance.org\u002Fapi\u002Fassets\u002F7048f59e-5619-4a67-a552-67d57cbf2cb5?width=1000&height=650&format=webp&quality=80",[169],7805,[117,14],[142,172],"Partnerships",[],2932,[117,21],[142,172],[],[],[],"2026-02-27T15:07:20.000Z",[],"\u002Fresources\u002Fnews\u002Fsave-the-date-10th-global-conference-on-criminal-finances-and-cryptoassets-2932",{"id":184,"body":185,"status":6,"type":110,"date":186,"slug":187,"title":188,"image":189,"countries":190,"topic":192,"activity":193,"tags":196,"nid":212,"topics":213,"activities":214,"authors":215,"images":217,"websites":23,"area":23,"programme":23,"language":101,"translations":218,"translation_of":23,"user_created":41,"date_created":219,"user_updated":41,"date_updated":220,"content":221,"link":222},10596,"_Our colleague Límberg Chero has played an important role in establishing the Basel Institute’s strong presence in Peru. From the early years – even before a formal office existed in Lima – to his current work with the [Subnational Public Finance Management Programme](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fpublic-finance-peru) ([Programa GFP Subnacional](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gfpsubnacional.pe\u002F)), his journey reflects a great passion for fighting corruption. It began far from the capital, in an ancient town in northern Peru, and was strengthened through rigorous academic training and years of public service._\n\n_This article is part of a series on careers in fighting financial crime and opportunities to learn and study with the Basel Institute._\n\n### The take-off in Peru\n\nMy journey at the Basel Institute on Governance began even before the Lima office existed.\n\nIn 2014, together with colleagues from the Basel Institute – including our dearly missed Managing Director of two decades, Gretta Fenner, and my colleague Óscar Solórzano – we launched a public finance management project funded by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Switzerland (SECO).\n\nAlthough centred on macroeconomics and fiscal policy, its essential goal was to make the public budget tangible and meaningful for citizens.\n\nTo do this, we moved beyond traditional approaches and integrated innovative tools, like the use of behavioural science to prevent corruption and foster integrity in the management of public finances. This comprehensive perspective – a novelty in Peru at the time – was key to the project proposal’s success.\n\nSince then, the Subnational Public Finance Management Programme for regional and municipal governments in Peru has retained SECO’s trust for more than 10 years.\n\nThe secret behind this success lies not only in improved processes and fiscal discipline, but in the continuous work with people committed to change. Internally, the Basel Institute’s team is multidisciplinary, open to change and committed to bridging practice and academic insight.\n\n### Bridging differences for sustainability\n\nWorking at the Basel Institute on Governance is truly a privilege. Our Lima office has gained remarkable regional recognition thanks to a distinctive approach: practical, rigorous and focused on building strong relationships with key actors in the fight against corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing.\n\nI currently lead the Subnational PFM Programme’s Interinstitutional Coordination, ensuring the programme’s effectiveness and, above all, the sustainability of reforms at subnational levels, in alignment with national efforts.\n\nThis work requires the continuous reconciliation of the different “languages”, worldviews and objectives of people across Peru’s diverse regions.\n\nOur aim is to craft strategies and messages that resonate equally to ministries, regional governments and municipalities – aligning technical agendas with political ones, and engaging civil society and academia along the way.\n\nThis challenge becomes more manageable because of my background: I come from an ancient town in northern Peru, Monsefú. Being perceived as someone close yet trained in competitive academic and professional environments fosters trust and legitimacy.\n\n### From economics to a global mission\n\nAs a child, leaving my town felt impossible. Universities were located in other regions and the educational options available largely led to local career paths tied to a modest economy with little real opportunities. At that time, the country had not yet experienced the trade openness or business development it has today.\n\nThrough hard work and the trust of people who believed in me, however, I earned scholarships that allowed me to study in highly competitive environments in Peru’s capital, Lima, more than 1,000 kilometres away from my hometown.\n\nMy foundations were solid: I completed my undergraduate studies in economics and later specialised through the Central Bank’s Economics Programme, which admits only 30 candidates out of thousands of applicants, as well as through an internship at the World Bank in Korea.\n\nI worked as an economist at institutions such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Central Reserve Bank of Peru, the Andean Community (CAN) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).\n\nAt that time, my professional life felt complete: it combined specialised technical work with teaching and active participation in international networks. These included the Andrés Bello Agreement Network, which brought together university researchers from multiple countries to reflect on and advance regional integration in Ibero-America, as well as the Puentes Network, which focused on promoting transparency in investment by Latin American companies.\n\nBut everything changed when I fully grasped the scope of the challenges posed by global corruption. I never imagined my economics degree would only be the starting point of a much bigger journey. From that moment on, my purpose became clear: to dedicate all my experience to strengthening this fight against forces that hinder global prosperity.\n\n### Innovating with little budget\n\nIn Latin America, the Basel Institute is known for results-oriented innovation. I have witnessed firsthand how every new skill quickly finds a practical application and how we can make significant contributions without the need for additional funding.\n\nFor example, I could draw on my Master’s degrees in Process Innovation and Government Control, and in Public Management and Education (Andragogy) to enrich various initiatives we pursued, such as:\n\n*   supporting regional governments in implementing structural reforms in significantly shorter timeframes;\n*   strengthening Peru’s [Public Finance Management Experts Network](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fnews\u002Fswiss-support-public-finance-management-experts-network-peru), which was recognised during [Peru’s National Innovation Week](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fnews\u002Fperus-innovation-week-showcases-training-concept-our-public-finance-management-team);\n*   and reducing dropout rates and increasing course completion in our Internal Control and Integrity courses through, among other things, the introduction of “virtual coffee breaks”.\n\nDuring the pandemic, we leveraged my background in education to [enhance our online learning and training approach and results](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-design-virtual-training-course-works-your-context-experiences-peru). For example, we started to deliver courses and training across the country via Facebook, a platform that at the time did not charge for mobile data usage and allowed public officials to participate even using low-end mobile phones. These courses have since been integrated into [Basel LEARN](https:\u002F\u002Flearn.baselgovernance.org\u002F) – the Basel Institute’s online training and learning hub.\n\nTogether, these efforts enabled us to develop courses that reached more than 6,000 participants in five years – all without additional funding.\n\n### It’s all about people\n\nMy work has focused on ensuring the sustainability of tangible improvements to public finance management that the PFM Programme’s experts helped implement in areas as varied as:\n\n*   distribution of vaccines and educational materials for children;\n*   property tax collection in major cities;\n*   restitution of confiscated funds;\n*   and the fight against “green corruption”.\n\nIn this context, the most valuable asset is our network. I have more than 20,000 contacts on my business phone – all professionals who directly or indirectly contribute to the Programme’s goals, and above all, friends committed to building a better Peru.\n\nThis network generates mutual benefits: it enables the rapid dissemination of good practices, drastically reduces event preparation costs (we secure many venues at zero cost) and ensures massive impact.\n\nColleagues across the Basel Institute are a vital part of this network. Our close collaboration has led me to take part in a wide range of diverse and fascinating projects – from serving as a director and writer for several programme-produced videos, to moderating international events on asset recovery, and exchanging methodologies used in public finance management that can be applied to asset recovery and repatriation.\n\n### The foundation that inspires and sustains hope\n\nThe Peruvian context presents unique challenges. There is high political volatility, evidenced by the fact that there have been eight presidents in the past 10 years despite only two presidential elections in that period. This means that “VUCA” (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) and the notion of “chaos” are part of daily life.\n\nYet, beneath this instability lies a “subsoil” of ethically committed public officials and technical professionals who allow progress to continue. They are my daily source of inspiration.\n\nAs I often say: There are more good people than bad – they just make less noise. This reflects a reality: the visible efforts of honest Peruvians provide a stronger foundation than the corruption cases that shake us, even if public perception sometimes suggests otherwise.\n\nIn sum, I am deeply grateful for the privilege of engaging with my country and its challenges through work that strengthens public integrity and the fight against corruption. Thank you, Basel Institute – and its magnificent team around the globe – for allowing me to continue serving the world, and especially my country.\n\n### Inspired?\n\nTake a look at the learning opportunities we offer at the Basel Institute for individuals who are equally passionate about fighting corruption and financial crime:\n\n*   [Basel LEARN](https:\u002F\u002Flearn.baselgovernance.org\u002F) – our online training and learning hub with free eLearning courses and lots more\n*   [Basel STUDY](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fstudy) – our postgraduate programmes on anti-corruption and asset recovery with the University of Basel","2026-01-12","a-career-with-purpose-in-public-finance-management-limberg-chero-2905","A career with purpose in public finance management: Límberg Chero","https:\u002F\u002Fjam.baselgovernance.org\u002Fapi\u002Fassets\u002F0c87b8d7-c3ce-4c9f-912f-8bde8973453d?width=1000&height=650&format=webp&quality=80",[191],7801,[15],[194,195,119],"Training","eLearning",[197,201,205,209],{"tags_id":198},{"id":199,"name":200},982,"Anti-corruption",{"tags_id":202},{"id":203,"name":204},867,"Financial crime",{"tags_id":206},{"id":207,"name":208},1300,"Education",{"tags_id":210},{"id":211,"name":194},1372,2905,[15],[194,195,119],[216],1366,[],[],"2026-01-12T11:01:44.000Z","2026-01-12T11:01:45.000Z",[],"\u002Fresources\u002Fnews\u002Fa-career-with-purpose-in-public-finance-management-limberg-chero-2905",{"id":224,"body":225,"status":6,"type":110,"date":186,"slug":226,"title":227,"image":228,"countries":229,"topic":231,"activity":232,"tags":233,"nid":242,"topics":243,"activities":244,"authors":245,"images":247,"websites":23,"area":23,"programme":23,"language":248,"translations":249,"translation_of":23,"user_created":41,"date_created":250,"user_updated":251,"date_updated":252,"content":253,"link":254},10597,"_Nuestro colega Límberg Chero ha desempeñado un rol importante en la consolidación de la presencia del Basel Institute en Perú. Desde los años previos a la apertura de la oficina en Lima hasta su trabajo actual en el [Programa GFP Subnacional](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.gfpsubnacional.pe\u002F), su trayectoria refleja un profundo compromiso con la integridad pública y la lucha contra la corrupción. Su camino comenzó lejos de la capital, en un pueblo milenario del norte del país, y se fue forjando a través de una rigurosa formación académica y años de servicio público._\n\n_Este artículo forma parte de una serie sobre carreras vinculadas al crimen financiero y sobre las oportunidades de aprendizaje y formación que ofrece el Basel Institute._\n\n### El despegue en Perú\n\nMi camino en el Basel Institute on Governance comenzó antes de que la sede de Lima existiera.\n\nEn el año 2014, junto a varios colegas del Basel Institute, incluyendo a nuestra recordada Directora General durante 20 años, Gretta Fenner, y mi colega Óscar Solórzano, iniciamos la puesta en marcha de un proyecto de finanzas públicas financiado por la Secretaría de Estado para Asuntos Económicos de la Confederación Suiza (SECO).\n\nAunque el núcleo del proyecto era la macroeconomía y la política fiscal, el objetivo esencial era asegurar que el presupuesto público fuera tangible y significativo para la ciudadanía.\n\nEsto nos obligó a trascender los enfoques tradicionales e integrar herramientas innovadoras, tales como las ciencias del comportamiento, para fomentar la integridad y prevenir la corrupción en la gestión de finanzas públicas. Esta visión integral, una novedad en el país en aquella época, fue vital para el éxito de la propuesta.\n\nDesde entonces, el Programa de fortalecimiento de la Gestión Financiera Pública de gobiernos regionales y locales del Perú ha mantenido la confianza de SECO por más de diez años, una longevidad prácticamente inigualable.\n\nEl secreto de este éxito no radica solo en la mejora de procesos o la disciplina fiscal, sino en el trabajo permanente con las personas que impulsan el cambio. Para ello, el Basel Institute cuenta con un equipo multidisciplinario, abierto al cambio y comprometido con crear puentes entre la práctica y la academia.\n\n### Uniendo lenguajes para la sostenibilidad\n\nTrabajar en el Basel Institute on Governance es un verdadero privilegio. Nuestra oficina en Lima ha logrado una notable aceptación regional gracias a un enfoque de trabajo único: práctico, profundo y enfocado en construir relaciones sólidas con actores clave en la lucha contra la corrupción, el lavado de activos y el financiamiento del terrorismo.\n\nActualmente, lidero la Coordinación Interinstitucional del Programa GFP Subnacional. Mi rol busca asegurar la buena marcha y, sobre todo, la sostenibilidad de reformas en los niveles subnacionales, en coordinación con el nivel nacional.\n\nEsto implica un esfuerzo constante por conjugar los lenguajes, cosmovisiones y objetivos completamente diferentes de personas de las distintas regiones del país.\n\nNuestra meta es crear estrategias y mensajes que sean relevantes tanto para un ministerio, un gobierno regional o una municipalidad por igual, para así alinear las agendas técnicas con las políticas, incluyendo tanto a la sociedad civil como a la academia.\n\nEste desafío se facilita gracias a mi origen: provengo de un pueblo milenario del norte del Perú, Monsefú. El ser percibido como alguien cercano, pero que se pudo formar en ambientes académicos y profesionales competitivos, facilita la confianza y legitimidad.\n\n### De la economía a una misión global\n\nDurante mi niñez, salir de mi pueblo parecía imposible. Las universidades estaban en otra ciudad y solo brindaban la oportunidad de seguir alguna carrera local, enfocada en actividades de una economía poco desarrollada y con escasas oportunidades reales. Por ese entonces, el país no tenía la apertura comercial ni el desarrollo empresarial que tiene hoy.\n\nGracias a mucho esfuerzo y la fe de personas anónimas, pude acceder a becas para formarme en ambientes altamente competitivos en Lima, la capital de Perú, a 1.000 kilómetros de mi ciudad natal.\n\nMi base fue sólida: estudié economía como carrera de pregrado y luego me especialicé con el curso de Economía del Banco Central (donde solo entran 30 de entre miles de postulantes) y haciendo una pasantía en el Banco Mundial en Corea.\n\nLuego trabajé con temas de macroeconomía en instituciones como el Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas, el Banco Central de Reserva del Perú, la Comunidad Andina (CAN) y el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID).\n\nPor ese entonces, mi vida profesional parecía completa: no solo incluía mis actividades profesionales especializadas, sino que también la docencia y la participación en redes internacionales. Por ejemplo, participaba en el Convenio Andrés Bello, que unía a investigadores de universidades de varios países para reflexionar y actuar en temas de integración en Iberoamérica, y en la Red Puentes, que unía esfuerzos en torno a la transparencia de las inversiones de las empresas translatinas.\n\nPero el giro llegó al entender a fondo los megadesafíos globales de la corrupción. Nunca imaginé que mis estudios en economía serían tan solo el punto de partida de una ruta mucho más importante. Desde entonces, mi propósito ha sido volcar toda mi experiencia para fortalecer la lucha contra los flagelos que impiden la prosperidad global.\n\n### Innovando con presupuesto cero\n\nEl Basel Institute en Latinoamérica se caracteriza por su innovación orientada a resultados. Yo mismo soy testigo de cómo cada nueva habilidad encuentra un espacio de aplicación y permite realizar importantes aportes sin requerir de presupuesto adicional.\n\nPor ejemplo, mis maestrías en Innovación de Procesos y Control Gubernamental y en Gerencia Pública y Educación (Andragogía) han sido canalizadas para enriquecer diversas iniciativas:\n\n*   ayudando a gobiernos regionales a realizar cambios estructurales en plazos mucho menores al promedio;\n*   enriqueciendo la [Red de Expertos GFP](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fnews\u002Fswiss-support-public-finance-management-experts-network-peru) del país (iniciativa reconocida en la [Semana Nacional de Innovación de Perú](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fnews\u002Fperus-innovation-week-showcases-training-concept-our-public-finance-management-team)),\n*   reduciendo la deserción a la vez que aumentando el número de aprobados en nuestros cursos de Control Interno e Integridad, gracias a la implementación de \"coffee breaks virtuales\".\n\nDurante la pandemia, aprovechamos mi formación en educación para [potenciar una iniciativa de educación y entrenamiento](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-design-virtual-training-course-works-your-context-experiences-peru) que permitía llevar cursos y capacitaciones a todo el Perú a través de Facebook. En ese entonces, la red social no cobraba por el uso de datos móviles y permitía el acceso a todos los funcionarios públicos, incluso si solo tenían celulares de gama baja. Ahora, esos cursos se han integrado a [Basel LEARN](https:\u002F\u002Flearn.baselgovernance.org\u002F), la plataforma educativa del Basel Institute.\n\nEn conjunto, logramos implementar cursos que contaron con más de 6.000 alumnos durante cinco años, todo sin usar presupuesto adicional.\n\n### La importancia de las redes de contacto\n\nMi labor ha estado enfocada en asegurar la sostenibilidad de mejoras tangibles desarrolladas por los expertos del Programa GFP en temas tan variados como:\n\n*   la distribución de vacunas y materiales educativos a niños,\n*   la recaudación predial en ciudades principales,\n*   la restitución de fondos decomisados\n*   y la lucha contra la \"corrupción verde\".\n\nEn este contexto, lo más valioso es la red de trabajo. Actualmente, tengo más de 20 mil contactos en mi teléfono, todos profesionales relevantes directa o indirectamente en la actividad del Programa GFP, pero principalmente amigos comprometidos con el ideal de un Perú mejor.\n\nEsta gran red genera beneficios mutuos, ya que permite la difusión de buenas prácticas, reduce drásticamente los costos de preparación de eventos (tenemos muchos locales a costo cero) y asegura un impacto masivo.\n\nLos colegas dentro del mismo Basel Institute son también parte importante de esta red. Nuestra estrecha colaboración me ha llevado a participar en proyectos tan diferentes e interesantes como director y guionista en varios videos producidos por el programa, moderar eventos internacionales de recuperación de activos e intercambiar metodologías usadas en finanzas públicas para la recuperación y repatriación de activos.\n\n### La base que inspira y sostiene la esperanza\n\nEl contexto peruano presenta retos únicos. Hay una alta volatilidad política, evidenciada por el hecho de haber tenido ocho Presidentes en los últimos diez años, cuando en teoría elegimos uno cada cinco años. Esto hace que los entornos “VUCA” (volátiles, inciertos, complejos y ambiguos) y conceptos como “caos” cobren un sentido literal en nuestro día a día.\n\nNo obstante, existe un \"subsuelo\" de funcionarios y técnicos éticamente responsables que permite que el trabajo avance y que me inspira día a día.\n\nComo suelo decir en mis charlas: \"Los buenos somos más, pero hacemos menos bulla.\" Esta frase refleja la realidad: el esfuerzo visible de los peruanos honestos es una buena base que supera en valía a los casos de corrupción que nos golpean, aunque muchas veces la percepción nos diga lo contrario.\n\nEn suma, el privilegio de aproximarme al país y a sus desafíos, implementando temas que sé que aportan al fortalecimiento de la integridad pública y la lucha contra la corrupción, hace que agradezca la oportunidad:\n\nGracias, Basel Institute, gracias a su grandioso equipo en todo el mundo, por la oportunidad de seguir sirviendo al mundo y, especialmente, a mi país.\n\n### ¿Te gustó esta historia?\n\nSi también te interesa o apasiona dedicarte a la lucha contra la corrupción y el crimen financiero, te invitamos a revisar la oferta educativa del Basel Institute:\n\n*   [Basel LEARN](https:\u002F\u002Flearn.baselgovernance.org\u002F): nuestra plataforma de aprendizaje en línea, con cursos virtuales gratuitos y otros recursos\n*   [Basel STUDY](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fstudy): nuestros programas de postgrado en anti-corrupción y recuperación de activos, dictados en conjunto con la Universidad de Basilea","una-carrera-con-proposito-en-gestion-de-finanzas-publicas-limberg-chero-2904","Una carrera con propósito en gestión de finanzas públicas: Límberg Chero","https:\u002F\u002Fjam.baselgovernance.org\u002Fapi\u002Fassets\u002Fa52c7090-9a50-4ebc-88ce-177c6e84f215?width=1000&height=650&format=webp&quality=80",[230],7802,[15],[194,195,119],[234,236,238,240],{"tags_id":235},{"id":199,"name":200},{"tags_id":237},{"id":203,"name":204},{"tags_id":239},{"id":207,"name":208},{"tags_id":241},{"id":211,"name":194},2904,[15],[194,195,119],[246],1367,[],"Espanol",[],"2026-01-12T11:01:46.000Z","115250da-6c1d-42e7-888a-fbbe909fc524","2026-06-05T15:48:47.000Z",[],"\u002Fresources\u002Fnews\u002Funa-carrera-con-proposito-en-gestion-de-finanzas-publicas-limberg-chero-2904",{"id":256,"body":257,"status":6,"type":110,"date":258,"slug":259,"title":260,"image":261,"countries":262,"topic":23,"activity":23,"tags":263,"nid":23,"topics":264,"activities":267,"authors":270,"images":272,"websites":273,"area":274,"programme":277,"language":101,"translations":279,"translation_of":23,"user_created":280,"date_created":281,"user_updated":42,"date_updated":104,"content":282,"link":283},10590,"This feature appears in the 2025 Basel AML Index Public Edition report. \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Findex.baselgovernance.org\u002Fdownloads\">Download the full report and related resources\u003C\u002Fa>.\n\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Ch3>Key takeaways\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Understanding national risks linked to virtual assets is now essential\u003C\u002Fstrong>, as their use has moved from niche to mainstream and is increasingly exploited for financial crime. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Risk assessments are inherently challenging \u003C\u002Fstrong>as (a) virtual assets are borderless by design, (b) large parts of the ecosystem fall outside regulation and (c) reliable national-level data remains limited. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Illicit activity involving virtual assets does not take place in isolation\u003C\u002Fstrong>: offenders exploit the same weaknesses – corruption, fraud, weak supervision and poor enforcement – that already undermine the wider financial system. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>The Basel AML Index provides valuable indicators to assess both a jurisdiction’s structural vulnerabilities and its capacity to counter threats \u003C\u002Fstrong>related to financial crimes in general, including those related to virtual assets, even though it does not include a dedicated virtual assets risk indicator. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\n\u003Cem>Note: in this article we use the term virtual assets in line with the FATF’s \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fatf-gafi.org\u002Fen\u002Ftopics\u002Fvirtual-assets.html\">definition\u003C\u002Fa> of “any digital representation of value that can be digitally traded, transferred or used for payment”. The terms crypto, cryptoassets, digital assets, digital currencies, etc. form part of this loose family, though they are often defined differently in different contexts – a factor that also complicates risk assessments and data analysis.\u003C\u002Fem>\n\n\u003Ch3>\u003Cstrong>Why assessing risks related to virtual assets matters \u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\nGovernments and private firms alike are under growing pressure to understand the risks associated with virtual assets. What was once a niche is becoming a mainstream part of financial markets and a common feature in all forms of financial crime.\n\nAs the virtual assets industry continues to mature, national authorities that lack a clear understanding of the risks find themselves on the back foot when drafting legislation, supervising market participants or countering financial crime.\n\nFor financial institutions, a clear picture of jurisdiction-level risk is essential for customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, calibrating controls and taking strategic decisions about where or where not to operate. Financial institutions that misjudge these risks leave themselves exposed to illicit finance, reputational harm and potential regulatory action.\n\n\u003Ch3>Why jurisdiction-level risk assessments are difficult\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Ch4>1. A borderless system by design\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\nUnlike bank accounts or trust funds, virtual asset wallets or addresses do not have a meaningful jurisdictional location. There is no crypto equivalent of “a bank account in Switzerland”. A wallet can be accessed anywhere and may be controlled by a person or entity whose location is unknown or easily obscured. Large parts of the virtual asset ecosystem also fall outside the boundaries of traditional financial regulation. Self-hosted wallets, peer-to-peer transfers, decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols and informal over-the-counter (OTC) brokers create pockets of activity that are largely invisible. Any jurisdiction-level assessment will inevitably be incomplete.\n\nThe activities of virtual asset service providers (VASPs) further complicate matters. A VASP may be established in one jurisdiction while primarily serving customers in another. In the absence of harmonised legislation or cooperation among supervisors, many operate across numerous markets with minimal physical presence or regulatory engagement.\n\n\u003Ch4>2. Data is limited, patchy and uncertain\u003C\u002Fh4>\n\nReliable quantitative data on financial crime risks related to virtual assets at the national level is scarce. In addition to the issue of contrasting definitions and the technology’s borderless nature, several factors contribute to this lack.\n\nFirst, commercial blockchain analytics providers publish broad indicators of virtual asset adoption and estimates of illicit usage. These can be helpful for spotting trends but require careful interpretation. They rely on estimates and proxies, including web traffic to exchanges or intermediaries, and do not provide precise amounts or reliably distinguish licit from illicit activity.\n\nSecond, it is reasonable to assume that where adoption rises, illicit activity will also increase, simply because criminals use the same infrastructure as legitimate users. However, such relationships cannot be measured with confidence.\n\nThird, at the government level, many jurisdictions still lack a coordinated approach across authorities to collect, share and analyse statistics on money laundering and related financial crimes. In many jurisdictions, data on virtual assets is either not gathered consistently or not collected at all.\n\nWithout reliable data on virtual assets usage and risks, national risk assessments may become detached from real-world threats. The result: regulation and supervision that is either insufficient or unnecessarily burdensome.\n\n### How the Basel AML Index can be used\n\nFor the above reasons, the Basel AML Index does not offer a dedicated indicator for virtual assets. Nevertheless, the Index data is still useful because illicit activity involving virtual assets typically exploits the same underlying weaknesses that enable money laundering, corruption, fraud and other financial crimes in the traditional financial system. Where protections against fraud are weak, for example, where supervision is lacking or where enforcement of regulations is inconsistent or politically compromised, opportunities to misuse virtual assets for illegal purposes tend to expand.\n\n\u003Cblockquote>\n\u003Cstrong>Two components of risk \u003C\u002Fstrong>\n\nIn line with the holistic methodology of the Basel AML Index and most AML\u002FCFT risk assessment frameworks, evaluating jurisdiction-level risk related to virtual assets centres on two elements:\n\n\u003Cp>a) \u003Cem>vulnerability \u003C\u002Fem>to the illicit use of virtual assets; and b) \u003Cem>capacity to mitigate \u003C\u002Fem>and respond to these threats. \u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003C\u002Fblockquote>\n\n### Relevant indicators\n\nThe following graphic highlights indicators of the Basel AML Index that are relevant for assessing either \u003Cem>structural vulnerabilities \u003C\u002Fem>that illicit actors may exploit, or a jurisdiction’s \u003Cem>capacity to counter \u003C\u002Fem>threats. These can be viewed individually in the Expert Edition.\n\n![](https:\u002F\u002Fjam.baselgovernance.org\u002Fapi\u002Fassets\u002F7f446525-136f-4018-a322-8a4e8872f23b) *Indicators visible in the Basel AML Index Edition that are particularly relevant to assessing national risks relating to virtual assets.*\n\n\n#### FATF data\n\nUsing the Expert Edition Plus subscription and its quantitative analysis of the latest FATF mutual evaluation and follow-up reports, Basel AML Index users can gain rapid insights into whether a jurisdiction’s AML\u002FCFT framework provides it with the capacity to \u003Cem>counter threats \u003C\u002Fem>related to financial crimes generally, including those involving virtual assets. FATF Recommendations that may be highly relevant for this include:\n\n- R.15 (new technologies)\n- R.16 (payment transparency)\n- R.26 & 27 (regulation and supervision)\n- R.29–31 (law enforcement)\n- R.36–40 (international cooperation)\n\nAn additional useful source of information for jurisdiction-level risk assessments is the FATF’s \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fatf-gafi.org\u002Fen\u002Fpublications\u002FFatfrecommendations\u002Ftargeted-update-virtual-assets-vasps-2025.html\">\u003Cem>2025 Targeted Update on Implementation of the FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers\u003C\u002Fem>\u003C\u002Fa>. This report summarises progress in implementing FATF Recommendation 15 by FATF members and additional jurisdictions with materially important global virtual asset activity. “Materially important” refers to the presence of large VASPs (accounting for more than 0.25 percent of global trading) and\u002For a large virtual asset user base.\n\n### Where to start\n\nFor jurisdictions at an early stage of assessing national risks related to virtual assets, the World Bank’s \u003Cem>\u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fopenknowledge.worldbank.org\u002Fentities\u002Fpublication\u002Fbb5a7475-ac52-4697-afdc-5f618a550623\">AML\u002FCFT National Risk Assessment on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers: Guidance Manual\u003C\u002Fa> \u003C\u002Fem>(published in October 2025) is a strong starting point. It covers both threats and vulnerabilities, as well as the effectiveness of mitigation measures.\n\nAdditional useful resources include:\n- \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002F9crc-crypto-regulation\">\u003Cstrong>Practical recommendations from regulators and supervisors\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fa>, developed at the 9th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets, on understanding financial crime risks linked to virtual assets and designing effective regulatory and supervisory frameworks.\n- \u003Cstrong>Structured public–private partnerships\u003C\u002Fstrong>, such as the \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fefippp.eu\u002F\">Europol Financial Intelligence Sharing Public Private Partnership\u003C\u002Fa>, which offer opportunities to learn from peers and obtain early insights into emerging threats and financial crime typologies involving virtual assets.\n","2025-12-08","assessing-national-risks-related-to-virtual-assets","Assessing national risks related to virtual assets","https:\u002F\u002Fjam.baselgovernance.org\u002Fapi\u002Fassets\u002F78f8a1ec-bf8d-469a-ab92-228e79ddd8f2?width=1000&height=650&format=webp&quality=80",[],[],[117,21,265,266],"Business Integrity Ethics and Compliance","Corruption Prevention and Public Governance",[268,269],"Basel AML Index","Research",[271],1365,[],[268],[275,276],"Asset Recovery & Enforcement","Business Integrity & Governance",[278],"International Centre for Asset Recovery",[],"545a204d-e41b-4882-afda-481ecf3fd971","2025-12-05T11:43:36.000Z",[],"\u002Fresources\u002Fnews\u002Fassessing-national-risks-related-to-virtual-assets",{"id":285,"body":286,"status":6,"type":10,"date":258,"slug":287,"title":288,"image":289,"countries":290,"topic":23,"activity":23,"tags":291,"nid":292,"topics":293,"activities":294,"authors":296,"images":297,"websites":298,"area":299,"programme":300,"language":101,"translations":301,"translation_of":23,"user_created":302,"date_created":303,"user_updated":42,"date_updated":104,"content":304,"link":305},10591,"**The 14th Public Edition of the [Basel AML Index](https:\u002F\u002Findex.baselgovernance.org) shows a world where money laundering risks are levelling out, with improvements in some high-risk countries balanced by declines in traditionally low-risk ones.**\n\nDeveloped and maintained by the Basel Institute on Governance since 2012, the Basel AML Index is an independent, data-based ranking and risk assessment tool for money laundering and related financial crime risks around the world.\n\nAt the heart of the Basel AML Index is a ranking of countries and jurisdictions according to their vulnerability to money laundering and related financial crimes and their capacity to counter these threats. This year, 177 countries are included in the Public Edition. Myanmar, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo receive the highest risk scores, while Finland, Iceland and San Marino have the lowest.\n\n## Key trends\nThis year’s Basel AML Index report highlights current trends and debates around the fight against financial crime, including:\n\n- **The global average Basel AML Index risk score nudged down slightly from 5.30 to 5.28.** The shift is statistically insignificant. However, it gives hope that efforts to curb money laundering are not yet being fully overtaken by emerging threats, such as the use of virtual assets and artificial intelligence for crime.\n- **More than half of jurisdictions improved their scores while 43 percent worsened.** The pattern points to a drift towards the middle, as progress in several higher-risk jurisdictions is offset by slippage among long-standing strong performers.\n- **Results across risk domains are mixed:** modest improvements in the quality of anti-money laundering frameworks and small reductions in corruption overall, but weaker financial transparency, rising concerns over public accountability and wide regional variation in political and legal risks.\n- **Regional trends diverge too.** North America, the EU and Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa all saw higher average risks. Other regions saw slight improvements, most notably Sub-Saharan Africa, with six African countries leaving the Financial Action Task Force grey list and seven among the top ten global improvers.\n\n## Emerging challenges\nThis year’s report includes two deep-dive features examining specific challenges facing anti-financial crime practitioners in both the public and private sectors:\n\n### *Identifying lower-risk jurisdictions*\n\nThough global standards increasingly call for more proportionate use of the risk-based approach to reduce compliance burdens and avoid unintended consequences for financial inclusion, many financial institutions still struggle to assess what constitutes a lower-risk jurisdiction.\n\nThe report explains why this remains difficult and how the Expert Edition of the Basel AML Index now applies a more balanced three-part risk categorisation to help users consider their own risk categories and risk appetite.\n\n### *Assessing risks related to virtual assets*\n\nAs crypto or virtual assets move from niche to mainstream, understanding their risks has become essential. Yet assessment remains difficult because the ecosystem is largely borderless, only partly regulated and supported by limited data.\n\nThe report emphasises that illicit activity involving virtual assets typically exploits the same weaknesses – such as corruption, fraud, weak supervision and poor enforcement – that already undermine the wider financial system. It outlines how users can assess structural vulnerabilities and a jurisdiction’s overall capacity to counter financial crime threats relevant to virtual assets, even without a dedicated virtual assets indicator.\n\n## Shining a light\nElizabeth Andersen, Executive Director of the Basel Institute on Governance, comments:\n\n> Tackling money laundering and related financial crimes – crimes like corruption, fraud, environmental crime and drug trafficking that have drastic impacts on people's lives – begins with understanding the risks. That is what the Basel AML Index is for. More than a simple score, it is a tool to explore the factors that underlie a jurisdiction’s risk profile. We hope it continues to guide policymakers and practitioners as they concentrate attention and resources where they can have the most impact.\n\n## About the Basel AML Index\nThe Basel AML Index is an independent, data-based ranking and risk assessment tool for money laundering and related financial crime risks around the world. It provides risk scores based on data from 17 publicly accessible sources. The risk scores cover five domains relevant to assessing risks of money laundering at the country or jurisdiction level:\n\n - Quality of AML\u002FCFT\u002FCPF framework\n- Corruption and fraud\n- Financial transparency and standards\n- Public transparency and accountability\n- Legal and political risks\n\nThe Basel AML Index is developed and maintained by the Basel Institute on Governance through its International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR). ICAR benefits from core funding from the Governments of Jersey, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the UK.\n\n\u003Ch3>Learn more\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\n\u003Cul>\n\t\u003Cli>Visit the \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Findex.baselgovernance.org\u002F\">Basel AML Index website\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\n\t\u003Cli>View the \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=qUv7DEBYEO0\">launch event on YouTube\u003C\u002Fa> and \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fsites\u002Fdefault\u002Ffiles\u002F2025-12\u002FTranscript%20of%20Basel%20AML%20Index%20launch%202025.pdf\">download the transcript\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n","basel-aml-index-2025-reveals-uneven-progress-global-fight-against-financial-crime","Basel AML Index 2025 reveals uneven progress in the global fight against financial crime","https:\u002F\u002Fjam.baselgovernance.org\u002Fapi\u002Fassets\u002F675491bf-33d4-4a28-adef-70539426660b?width=1000&height=650&format=webp&quality=80",[],[],2892,[117,21],[268,269,295,119],"Reports",[],[],[268,25],[275],[278],[],"b0662e2a-864d-4888-a1b7-4342b7570b30","2025-12-08T08:35:06.000Z",[],"\u002Fresources\u002Fnews\u002Fbasel-aml-index-2025-reveals-uneven-progress-global-fight-against-financial-crime",{"id":307,"body":308,"status":6,"type":110,"date":309,"slug":310,"title":311,"image":312,"countries":313,"topic":314,"activity":315,"tags":316,"nid":317,"topics":318,"activities":319,"authors":320,"images":323,"websites":23,"area":23,"programme":23,"language":101,"translations":324,"translation_of":23,"user_created":41,"date_created":325,"user_updated":42,"date_updated":326,"content":327,"link":328},10584,"As cryptoassets and other blockchain-based tokens enter the mainstream, alarm bells are ringing about the risks of their misuse. The technology is neutral in itself, but like any mechanism to transfer value, it can and does facilitate a wide range of crimes.\n\nAnd it’s not just scams, hacks and ransomware attacks. Cryptoassets are now seen in practically all crime types, from drug trafficking and terrorist financing to sanctions evasion, and increasingly as a tool for laundering the proceeds of those crimes.\n\nWhen it comes to the links between crypto and _corruption_, research and closed case examples are still scant. But since both are important enablers of crime, it’s vital to better understand how they intersect.\n\nThis blog outlines some basic areas of concern. Despite the gaps in data and analysis, one thing is clear. While the technologies are fairly new, the corrupt practices are not: they are simply manifesting in different ways.\n\n> _Crypto and corruption: what we mean_\n> \n> _In this blog we take a broad view of both crypto and corruption. By “crypto”, we mean cryptoassets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) as well as stablecoins tied to fiat currencies such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC); plus other digital tokens that run on public, decentralised blockchains. The scope also includes the companies, industries and services built around crypto, as well as the systems for their regulation and supervision and for law enforcement. “Corruption” refers not just to bribery, but to any abuse of entrusted power for undue benefit – whether financial or political, whether personal or for a collective entity._\n\n### 1 Crypto for bribery\n\nIs crypto a brilliant way to pay bribes and kickbacks? Transfers are pseudonymous after all – linked to long wallet addresses like _1Lbcfr2sAHTG9CgdQo3HTMTkV7LK4ZnX75_ rather than names. Transfers can be made directly between individuals, through decentralised platforms or peer-to-peer transactions, which avoids awkward questions about who is who and where the money comes from.\n\nCrypto holdings are easier to keep private, so might not be included in the asset declarations of politically exposed persons keen not to reveal all of their hidden wealth. And it’s fast and easy: you can transfer crypto to any person, anywhere in the world at the touch of a button. That makes it superficially more attractive than an international bank transfer, and less hassle and personal risk than travelling to another continent carrying suitcases stuffed with cash.\n\nSome clearly think crypto is great for bribes:\n\n*   In 2024, a Ukrainian Member of Parliament was [sentenced to eight years in prison](https:\u002F\u002Fhacc-decided.ti-ukraine.org\u002Fen\u002Fnews\u002Fnardepa-odarcenka-zasudili-do-8-rokiv-vyaznici) for offering a bribe of EUR 46,000 in bitcoin to secure funding for reconstruction projects.\n*   Crypto payments were allegedly made to a former senior official at the China Securities Regulatory Commission in return for [abuses of power](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ccn.com\u002Fnews\u002Fcrypto\u002Fyao-qian-china-cbdc-crypto-corruption\u002F) in making appointments and securing loans – alongside expensive liquor and invitations to banquets.\n*   In June 2025, two employees of the state-owned China Construction Bank were charged in Hong Kong with bribery and other offences: they allegedly accepted around USD 470,000 in crypto in exchange for [authenticating false documents](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.artemis.bm\u002Fnews\u002Fchina-construction-bank-manager-accused-of-accepting-bribes-from-vesttoo-employee\u002F) for the now-bankrupt Israeli firm Vesttoo.\n\nYet the use of crypto for bribery has a unique vulnerability: transactions on public blockchains are permanent and publicly visible. If investigators can verifiably link an address to a suspect, the evidence of the bribery remains accessible forever.\n\nSadly, it’s pretty hard to identify bribes or kickbacks being paid unless you already know there’s a bribery scheme or you know the addresses of suspected accomplices. That might explain why major crypto bribery cases haven’t surfaced (yet!).\n\n### 2 Laundering proceeds of corruption using crypto\n\nWhat about laundering the proceeds of corruption? For those with a lot of dirty money to launder, crypto adds a new dimension to the playbook.\n\nSure, keep the shell companies and offshore bank accounts, the trusts and real estate and gambling schemes, the hawala networks. Now you can add to the mix by converting corrupt proceeds into crypto, converting these to other coins, hopping across blockchains and using privacy-enhancing technologies to throw investigators off track.\n\nAs adoption of tokenised assets grows – digital representations of financial or real-world assets – we can expect corrupt actors to buy not only villas in Tuscany and ski apartments in Switzerland, but tokens representing these. And while you can’t ski on a digital token, it is likely attractive to money launderers to be able to trade in a broad range of investments while keeping the beneficial owner hidden.\n\nAre corrupt actors using crypto to launder their funds? There’s little direct evidence, but it does seem likely. Corrupt individuals have long relied on professional money laundering services, often provided by lawyers and accountants. [Europol](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.europol.europa.eu\u002Fpublications-events\u002Fmain-reports\u002Fsocta-report) warns that these professionals,\n\n> “increasingly with specialised knowledge in digital asset trading, have developed parallel, underground financial systems that operate outside the regulatory frameworks governing legal financial institutions”.\n\nAnd we do see that law enforcement is starting to take down organised groups that specialise in laundering illicit funds, including through crypto.\n\nAn [Australian takedown](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.ato.gov.au\u002Fmedia-centre\u002Falleged-qld-money-laundering-organisation-dismantled) of an organised money laundering operation in June 2025, for example points to millions of tainted Australian dollars laundered through crypto exchanges as well as bank accounts, couriers, a car dealership and a sales company. Some outfits specialise in a specific clientele: in the Europol-coordinated [Operation Karasu](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.europol.europa.eu\u002Fmedia-press\u002Fnewsroom\u002Fnews\u002F17-providers-of-criminal-banking-services-arrested) in 2025, authorities arrested 17 suspects alleged to be providing money laundering services to Chinese- and Arabic-speaking clients using hawala banking, cash transactions and crypto.\n\nThe largest blockbuster takedown to date is the [October 2025 indictment of the Chairman of Prince Group](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.justice.gov\u002Fopa\u002Fpr\u002Fchairman-prince-group-indicted-operating-cambodian-forced-labor-scam-compounds-engaged), a Cambodia-based multinational business enterprise, and the filing of a forfeiture action for more than 127,000 bitcoin – approximately USD 15 billion at the time of seizure. The press release described the use of professional money laundering operations and pointed to highly sophisticated techniques, such as “spraying” stolen cryptoassets across multiple addresses to obscure the trail of the funds.\n\nCommenting on the indictment, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration highlighted the role of corruption in such schemes. He explained how: \n\n> complex criminal schemes \\[such as this\\] exploit global financial systems and emerging technologies to conceal illicit proceeds. These networks operate at the intersection of drug trafficking, corruption, and financial crime, threatening the stability of institutions and communities, alike.\n\n### 3 Corrupt law enforcement in crypto cases\n\nSay you’re a law enforcement officer – a public servant. You’re one of the few in your agency with the technical skills to trace and seize cryptoassets suspected of being involved in crime.\n\nYou see an opportunity to supplement your salary by stealing crypto during an investigation or taking payments from criminals to leave their holdings in peace. Nobody will know – surely?\n\n*   That’s what two US agents from the [Drug Enforcement Administration](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.justice.gov\u002Farchives\u002Fopa\u002Fpr\u002Fformer-dea-agent-sentenced-extortion-money-laundering-and-obstruction-related-silk-road) and [Secret Service](http:\u002F\u002Fwww.justice.gov\u002Farchives\u002Fopa\u002Fpr\u002Fformer-secret-service-agent-sentenced-scheme-related-silk-road-investigation) thought, when they abused their power as law enforcement officers and their access to government-controlled wallets to steal tens of millions of USD in bitcoin linked to the takedown of the illicit Silk Road online marketplace.\n*   In Russia, a former investigator was found guilty in 2023 of [accepting bitcoin bribes](https:\u002F\u002Fcointelegraph.com\u002Fnews\u002Frussia-seizes-10-million-bitcoin-from-official-biggest-bribery) equivalent to tens of millions of US dollars from an organised crime group in order not to confiscate their bitcoin holdings – estimated at USD 138 million at the time.\n*   In Iran, senior intelligence officers of the Revolutionary Guard are alleged to have gained around USD 21 million during the takedown of the Cryptoland exchange: following the CEO’s arrest, they [stole and sold his tokens](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.iranintl.com\u002Fen\u002F202503309549) before the arrest was made public and the tokens’ value collapsed. \n\nIt’s not uncommon for law enforcement officers to go rogue, or for bribes to be paid to influence law enforcement actions or judicial proceedings. So authorities don’t just need to build capacity to go after crypto-related crime. They also need to look out for crypto-related corruption risks among their own ranks, including entities such as asset management offices that have custody over seized and confiscated cryptoassets.\n\n### 4 When the crypto industry meets politics\n\nCrypto is a fast-evolving industry that demonstrates genuinely exciting financial and technological innovation. It’s no wonder that politicians all over the world are getting interested.\n\nCorrupt behaviour by politicians involving the crypto industry is still a realm of speculation, as data on real-world cases is sparse. But red flags for corruption are a common feature of all fast-growing, profitable industries with highly technical aspects, like mining and defence. So, it is sensible to look out for common risks, which span from licencing schemes to the shaping of cryptoasset regulations or the resources put into enforcement.\n\nWhen it comes to public trust in government, even suspicions of crypto-related wrongdoing matter. Examples range from a [political financing scandal in Colombia](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.theblock.co\u002Fpost\u002F293857\u002Fcolombian-president-crypto-donation-campaign-2022-daily-cop) to [graft accusations in Venezuela](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.barrons.com\u002Fnews\u002Fvenezuela-kills-off-petro-cryptocurrency-1e2b0317) and to allegations of [crypto-related irregularity affecting the US President](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.economist.com\u002Fleaders\u002F2025\u002F05\u002F15\u002Fcrypto-has-become-the-ultimate-swamp-asset) and his family.\n\nAnd in the Czech Republic, when the Justice Ministry [accepted a bitcoin donation](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.occrp.org\u002Fen\u002Fnews\u002Fbitcoin-scandal-triggers-czech-government-crisis) worth around USD 46 million from a convicted criminal, the ensuing scandal triggered a public investigation and the resignation of the Justice Minister; some feared it might even topple the government.\n\n### 5 Corruption fuelling organised crime and state capture\n\nThe link between crypto and corruption with possibly the most damaging social impact is its role in enabling criminal gangs to carry out cybercrime and launder money with impunity.\n\nAs detailed in a 2025 UNODC report on [corruption and cybercrime](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.unodc.org\u002Froseap\u002Fuploads\u002Fdocuments\u002FPublications\u002F2025\u002F2025.10.21_The_Nexus_Between_Cybercrime_and_Corruption.pdf), corruption both creates the “permissive environment” that allow cybercrime operations to flourish and “enables many daily operations of cybercriminal networks.”\n\nIn [Southeast Asia](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.unodc.org\u002Froseap\u002Fen\u002F2025\u002F04\u002Fcyberfraud-inflection-point-mekong\u002Fstory.html), for example, a separate UNODC report depicts how industrial-scale scam centres run by organised crime groups generate huge amounts of illegal revenue – mostly in crypto. Despite often being plainly identified in public reports, they remain operational and engage in human trafficking to obtain unwilling workers. The report emphasises “high rates of corruption which criminal actors can leverage” to continue their scam operations unmolested.\n\nUNODC warns that the revenue generated by scam centres, coupled with the ability to easily launder the stolen crypto, is increasing the power and influence of organised crime groups as well as their financial liquidity. And that gives them even more ability to corrupt and capture politicians and states.\n\nThat may already be happening, according to a November 2025 _Economist_ report on [allegations of political collusion](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.economist.com\u002Fasia\u002F2025\u002F11\u002F20\u002Fthe-politicians-protecting-huge-criminal-networks) in scam operations in Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand. These have led to the resignation of a deputy finance minister, the jailing of a mayor and a warning from Thailand's deputy leader of the opposition that without action against politicians colluding in scam operations,\n\n> “we’ll wake up to find the country run by crooks in suits\".\n\n### What to do?\n\nCrypto represents an exciting transformation in financial systems. The industry and its underlying technology could improve privacy, efficiency and access to financial markets. This may benefit many people poorly served by today’s centralised systems.\n\nBut without a clear understanding of crypto-related risks and proper safeguards, the industry could create more opportunities for corruption and related financial crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions evasion. Crypto-fuelled corruption could weaken trust in governments and be leveraged to undermine the stability and security of nation states.\n\nAt the Basel Institute, we’re keen to explore better how the worlds of crypto and corruption intersect and how best to mitigate both systemic and day-to-day risks. We’re also committed to building the capacity of anti-corruption and asset recovery practitioners to “follow the money” across blockchains and to connect these to wider financial and criminal investigations.\n\nBeyond training for [individuals](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002Fcrypto-aml-training) and [public agencies](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002FICAR-training), we also bring together people from across sectors and geographies at our annual [Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002F9crc) together with Europol and UNODC. Look out for more on this topic in the coming months!","2025-11-27","crypto-the-ultimate-enabler-of-corruption-2882","Crypto: the ultimate enabler of corruption?","https:\u002F\u002Fjam.baselgovernance.org\u002Fapi\u002Fassets\u002Fd41fd31d-6c56-48e0-96cc-2be74f18b731?width=1000&height=650&format=webp&quality=80",[],[14],[119],[],2882,[21],[119],[321,322],1360,1361,[],[],"2025-11-27T17:01:44.000Z","2026-05-29T22:22:38.000Z",[],"\u002Fresources\u002Fnews\u002Fcrypto-the-ultimate-enabler-of-corruption-2882",{"id":330,"body":331,"status":6,"type":110,"date":332,"slug":333,"title":334,"image":335,"countries":336,"topic":337,"activity":338,"tags":339,"nid":340,"topics":341,"activities":342,"authors":343,"images":344,"websites":345,"area":23,"programme":23,"language":101,"translations":346,"translation_of":23,"user_created":41,"date_created":347,"user_updated":42,"date_updated":104,"content":348,"link":349},10586,"A breakout session at the [9th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets](https:\u002F\u002Fbaselgovernance.org\u002F9crc) gathered regulators, supervisors and experts from more than 20 jurisdictions to discuss practical approaches to regulating and supervising cryptoassets. The central aim was to provide hands-on guidance and tips for jurisdictions at early stages of regulating and supervising cryptoassets.\n\nStructured around three key themes – building blocks for regulation, managing cross-border risks, and sustainable cooperation and peer support – the session captured actionable recommendations and insights from global best practices. A follow-up online meeting served to validate and enhance the draft practical recommendations below.\n\n### 1 Base regulatory frameworks on a clear, in-depth understanding of risks\n\n*   Start with a comprehensive national risk assessment that accounts for domestic and cross-border threats, as well as geopolitical factors. Other factors to take into account include market structure, business models, and prudential, conduct, operational and outsourcing risks. \n*   Prioritise quality over quantity in licensing or registration regimes and oversight models to ensure supervisors have adequate capacity to oversee all licensed\u002Fregistered entities. \n*   Consider providing pre-application consultations and enhanced guidance to parties wishing to be licensed as cryptoasset service providers.\n*   Use regulatory sandboxes to test innovative products and collect insights on emerging risks and technologies.\n\n> Advantages of regulatory sandboxes\n> \n> *   Test products and services in a real environment with real users.\n> *   Conduct supervised testing to identify and prevent potential flaws or regulatory breaches before the product’s final rollout.\n> *   Define new regulatory requirements or amend existing ones based on practical, real-world experience.\n\n_Why this matters:_ _A risk-based approach ensures scarce supervisory resources are deployed where it matters the most, thus supporting risk mitigation. Such an approach helps ensure that frameworks evolve as risks and technologies develop._\n\n### 2 Build strong coordination structures across government and sectors\n\n*   Set up structured working groups across relevant authorities, such as the central bank, tax authority, securities regulator, financial intelligence unit and law enforcement agencies, with the aim of enhancing internal coordination and building a common understanding. These groups can help ensure that policymakers integrate enforcement mechanisms at the policy design stage, for example in a stablecoin policy, the technical capability to freeze or block transactions as a condition for compliance. Within the main regulatory authority (such as the central bank), a formal arrangement such as a structured project framework can also enhance coordination. \n*   Establish and\u002For engage in structured public-private partnerships, such as working groups and task forces combining industry practitioners, legal specialists and academic experts, to enhance information sharing and awareness of market developments. Take care however to respect data privacy and other relevant regulations. \n*   Include wider policy goals like innovation, inclusion and economic resilience in regulatory design. \n\n_Why this matters:_ _Crypto markets cut across multiple policy domains. Whole-of-government coordination reduces gaps, aligns priorities and builds resilience against emerging risks._\n\n### 3 Use phased and proactive supervisory engagement\n\n*   Engage directly with industry actors through workshops, compliance days and joint training. Clearly communicate expectations on governance standards, safeguarding of client assets, outsourcing arrangements and technology risk management during early engagement.\n*   Encourage compliance through education rather than enforcement alone. \n*   Use structured questionnaires, interviews and audit reports to risk-rate firms before deciding on onsite or offsite inspections. \n*   Integrate risk-based supervisory models aligned with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations, applying proportional measures based on business models and risk profiles.\n\n_Why this matters:_ _Early-stage regimes benefit from proactive, educative supervision that builds sector capacity and reduces systemic non-compliance._\n\n### 4 Leverage data, traceability and technology\n\n*   Use blockchain analytics & intelligence, open-source intelligence and financial intelligence unit data to develop a comprehensive risk picture. Surveys of relevant market participants – including during on-site supervision – can contribute to a dashboard of aggregated sector data, such as total transaction volume, number of transactions, number of clients and their associated risk levels, as well as cross-border transaction counts and volumes. Common supervisory data also includes detailed information that enables reconciliation and further investigation, including wallet addresses, transaction amounts and ownership details.\n*   Promote interoperability and standardisation of blockchain analytics & intelligence tools for consistent supervision and risk monitoring. \n*   Ensure existing cooperation channels and recovery mechanisms are suited for cryptoassets and adapt the regulatory framework and practice if needed. \n*   Adopt risk-based due diligence, enhanced cooperation and common supervisory templates, ensuring consistency across jurisdictions.\n\n> Blockchain analytics & intelligence applications for regulators and supervisors\n> \n> *   Early-warning systems to identify suspicious transactions and typologies (sanctions evasion, ransomware, market manipulation…).\n> *   Risk profiling that combines blockchain data with traditional supervisory information.\n> *   Cross-agency data fusion linking financial intelligence units, law enforcement and market regulators.\n> *   RegTech–SupTech integration for automated compliance monitoring.\n> *   Creation of regional and global intelligence nodes for secure data exchange.\n\n_Why this matters:_ _Blockchain analytics & intelligence enables supervisors to move from reactive investigation to proactive oversight. This facilitates earlier detection of cross-border risks and supports convergence with AML, prudential and conduct supervision._\n\n### 5 Build capacity and invest in skills and research\n\n*   Invest in specialist training and staffing. Capacity building is not only about training; it can also be built through structured exchange between colleagues responsible for different aspects of cryptoassets, such as AML\u002FCFT and prudential supervision.\n*   Scale supervisory capacity to market size and complexity. \n*   Extend capacity building to cover tokenised assets and smart-contract-based services.\n*   Engage with academic institutions – for example through research partnerships, joint workshops, internships and secondments – to facilitate structured knowledge sharing, rigorous research and the development of evidence-based methodologies. \n\n_Why this matters:_ _Skilled human capital is critical to interpret complex data and manage the diversity of crypto business models._\n\n### 6 Take early action and make full use of existing legislation\n\n*   Leverage existing legal frameworks (e.g. taxation, banking supervision, reporting obligations) to mitigate risks, in addition to and even prior to developing specific legislation. \n*   Circulate inquiries to all already-regulated financial institutions to assess their interactions with crypto-asset markets and to understand their future plans.\n*   Set supervisory expectations to guide financial institutions’ engagement with cryptoassets and services. It may help to communicate the guiding principle of “same activity, same risk, same regulation”, i.e. crypto activities should be subject to the same regulatory standards and supervisory expectations as traditional financial activities when they present similar risks.\n*   Conduct public awareness campaigns and wide consultations to shape proportionate frameworks before full regulation is enacted. \n\n_Why this matters:_ _Early actions increase transparency, guide market behaviour and reduce risk prior to formal frameworks taking effect._\n\n### 7 Strengthen management of cross-border risks and unregulated providers\n\n*   Integrate guidance from the FATF, Financial Stability Board (FSB) and International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) into national regulatory and supervisory frameworks. \n*   Develop cooperation protocols for inspections and enforcement, including for providers outsourcing critical functions abroad. \n*   Assess risks from regulatory arbitrage and passporting and close enforcement gaps that could be exploited, especially by multi-function crypto intermediaries (MCIs). \n*   Issue official communications to inform consumers about market-related risks that may arise over time, for example, about the dangers of dealing with unregistered cryptoasset service providers.\n\n_Why this matters:_ _Cryptoassets operate globally; common standards and cooperative oversight reduce loopholes and prevent unregulated entities from evading supervision._\n\n### 8 Build structured and formalised peer-learning and cooperation channels\n\n*   Consider establishing or participating in supervisory colleges, taskforces and peer-learning networks for information exchange on cryptoasset regulation and supervision. \n*   Use study visits, secondments and technical peer support to accelerate knowledge transfer. \n*   Create secure forums for supervisors to share typologies and risk mitigation strategies.\n\n> Supervisory colleges for cryptoasset supervision\n> \n> A “crypto supervisory college” brings together home\u002Fhost supervisors of major cryptoasset service providers and issuers to coordinate oversight and conduct joint risk assessments, exchange information securely and prepare for coordination in a crisis. Additional members may include competent authorities for AML\u002FCFT, data protection and cybersecurity, as well as third-country authorities. \n\n_Why this matters:_ _Structured cooperation fosters practical learning, mutual trust and consistent supervisory approaches across jurisdictions._\n\n### 9 Engage international institutions and build shared knowledge infrastructure\n\n*   Collaborate with international and regional centres of expertise such as the World Bank, FATF-style regional bodies, Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) and Basel Institute on Governance for training, research and other resources. \n*   Pool resources for joint studies, typologies and tool development. \n*   Contribute to international standard-setting and interoperability initiatives to enhance the quality of blockchain analytics and supervisory data.\n\n_Why this matters:_ _Global collaboration enhances consistency, strengthens intelligence-led oversight and ensures technology is harnessed responsibly for the public good._\n\n### 10 Recommended resources\n\nEssential texts for jurisdictions seeking to develop and enhance their cryptoasset regulation. Consider establishing a crypto knowledge hub for your authority or working group, where staff and members can contribute relevant articles, research, news and resources.\n\nPractical guidance:\n\n[AML\u002FCFT National Risk Assessment on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers: Guidance Manual](https:\u002F\u002Fopenknowledge.worldbank.org\u002Fentities\u002Fpublication\u002Fbb5a7475-ac52-4697-afdc-5f618a550623) (updated October 2025) and related [tool](https:\u002F\u002Fdocuments.worldbank.org\u002Fen\u002Fpublication\u002Fdocuments-reports\u002Fdocumentdetail\u002F099710107122245889) – The World Bank. _A practical tool and guidance to help countries assess money laundering and terrorist financing risks linked to virtual asset activities and virtual asset service providers in line with FATF Recommendation 15._\n\n[Best Practices on Travel Rule Supervision](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fatf-gafi.org\u002Fcontent\u002Fdam\u002Ffatf-gafi\u002Frecommendations\u002FBest-Practices-Travel-Rule-Supervision.pdf) – Financial Action Task Force (FATF). _A set of good practices to help jurisdictions supervise and implement the FATF Travel Rule to enhance payment transparency and mitigate money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing risks._\n\n[Guidelines on supervisory practices to prevent and detect market abuse under MiCA](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.esma.europa.eu\u002Fdocument\u002Fguidelines-supervisory-practices-prevent-and-detect-market-abuse-under-mica) – European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). _Guidelines to promote consistent and effective supervisory practices under MiCA for preventing and detecting market abuse in cryptoassets, including insider dealing, unlawful disclosure of inside information and market manipulation._\n\nTrends and progress:\n\n[Thematic Review on FSB Global Regulatory Framework for Crypto-asset Activities](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fsb.org\u002F2025\u002F10\u002Fthematic-review-on-fsb-global-regulatory-framework-for-crypto-asset-activities\u002F) – Financial Stability Board (FSB). _A review of global progress and remaining gaps in implementing the FSB’s 2023 regulatory framework for cryptoasset activities and stablecoins, with recommendations to strengthen consistent and resilient regulation._\n\n[Thematic Review Assessing the Implementation of IOSCO Recommendations for Crypto and Digital Asset Markets](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.iosco.org\u002Flibrary\u002Fpubdocs\u002Fpdf\u002FIOSCOPD801.pdf) – International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). _An assessment of how selected jurisdictions are implementing IOSCO’s 18 policy recommendations for regulating crypto and digital assets to support market integrity and investor protection._\n\n[Targeted Update on Implementation of the FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.fatf-gafi.org\u002Fcontent\u002Fdam\u002Ffatf-gafi\u002Frecommendations\u002F2025-Targeted-Upate-VA-VASPs.pdf.coredownload.pdf) – Financial Action Task Force (FATF). _An update on progress and continuing challenges in implementing FATF Recommendation 15 for virtual assets and virtual asset service providers, including insights on emerging risks._\n\n[Advancing in tandem – results of the 2024 BIS Survey on Central Bank Digital Currencies and Crypto](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.bis.org\u002Fpubl\u002Fbppdf\u002Fbispap159.htm) - Bank for International Settlements (BIS). _A summary of the 2024 BIS survey showing how central banks are advancing work on retail and wholesale CBDCs alongside growing regulation of stablecoins, rising use of cryptoassets and increasing interest in tokenisation._","2025-11-25","designing-robust-cryptoasset-frameworks-practical-takeaways-from-international-regulators-and-supervisors-2880","Designing robust cryptoasset frameworks: Practical takeaways from international regulators and supervisors","https:\u002F\u002Fjam.baselgovernance.org\u002Fapi\u002Fassets\u002Fe78a30fa-3c74-4812-b35e-27eaa2f2cc3a?width=1000&height=650&format=webp&quality=80",[],[117,14],[119],[],2880,[117,21],[119],[],[],[268,25],[],"2025-12-02T11:01:41.000Z",[],"\u002Fresources\u002Fnews\u002Fdesigning-robust-cryptoasset-frameworks-practical-takeaways-from-international-regulators-and-supervisors-2880",{"left":351,"top":351,"width":352,"height":352,"rotate":351,"vFlip":353,"hFlip":353,"body":354},0,20,false,"\u003Cpath fill=\"currentColor\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" d=\"M17 10a.75.75 0 0 1-.75.75H5.612l4.158 3.96a.75.75 0 1 1-1.04 1.08l-5.5-5.25a.75.75 0 0 1 0-1.08l5.5-5.25a.75.75 0 1 1 1.04 1.08L5.612 9.25H16.25A.75.75 0 0 1 17 10\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\"\u002F>",1780676492116]