The 4th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptocurrencies, co-organised by the Basel Institute on Governance, INTERPOL and Europol and hosted this year by INTERPOL, closed yesterday with a convergence around seven key recommendations for strengthening the global response to new financial crime threats relating to cryptocurrencies.

Senior IWT Specialist Tim Wittig will make the keynote speech at an ambitious new webinar series aimed at finding collective solutions to wildlife crime.

On September 23, 2020, the Basel Institute on Governance, as part of its support to United for Wildlife, organised a webinar on zoonotic disease risks associated with the trafficking in bushmeat. The event gathered members of United for Wildlife's Financial and Transport Taskforces wishing to explore this topic in more detail following a recent alert from the Basel Institute's intelligence team.

On September 10, 2020, the Basel Institute's Tim Wittig and Juhani Grossmann presented to the Dutch Compliance Officers Association on the nexus of corruption and illegal wildlife trade. 

Thirty-five compliance experts, largely from financial institutions, participated in the conference. It featured a lively debate about:

Oscar Solórzano participated in a virtual discussion with Ecuadorian legislators and other leading asset recovery experts from across Latin America on 2 September. The topic: Non-conviction-based confiscation legislation as a tool to recover assets arising from corruption.

Basel Institute on Governance Managing Director Gretta Fenner moderated a discussion on Finding stolen assets – the role of transparency and proactive measures in developed countries at the new Global Forum on Illicit Financial Flows and Sustainable Development series. Hosted by Germany and Norway, the event takes place over two days starting 2 September 2020.

Where corruption is already rampant, a crisis makes it worse. There are flash floods of relief money landing in contexts where power is imbalanced, governance is weak and criminals already know how to game the system. But we can fight back by making anti-corruption an integral part of crisis relief efforts. Like emergencies in the past, the covid-19 pandemic demonstrates that anti-corruption is not just a nice-to-have but can really save lives.

Estamos encantados de haber firmado un Convenio de Cooperación Interinstitucional con la Procuraduría General del Estado del Perú. A continuación figura el discurso pronunciado por Gretta Fenner, Directora General del Basel Institute on Governance, en la ocasión de la ceremonia de suscripción del Convenio de Cooperación Interinstitucional el 29 de julio del 2020:

We are delighted to have signed a new framework agreement with Peru’s Special Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The Special Public Prosecutor’s Office (Procuraduría General del Estado del Perú) was established in 2019 as an independent authority within the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. In collaboration with the Attorney General’s Office, it is responsible for advancing prosecutions of offences where the Peruvian State is the victim, including corruption, money laundering and environmental crimes.

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