Oscar Solórzano, Head of Latin America at the Basel Institute on Governance and Senior Asset Recovery Specialist at our International Centre for Asset Recovery, interviewed Dr Hamilton Castro Trigoso, Provincial Prosecutor of the First Provisional Provincial Prosecutor's Office for Extinción de dominio in Lima, on his experiences in investigating and enforcing asset confiscation judgements abroad.

In the first such case in the Americas, Peru has issued a judgement ordering the non-conviction based confiscation of over USD 1.5 million in assets frozen in Mexico.

The achievement adds to Peru’s substantial experience and jurisprudence involving its 2019 law of Extinción de dominio. The non-conviction based forfeiture (NCBF) law allows assets of illicit origin to be confiscated in a judicial procedure, even if a criminal conviction is not possible.

A model law on non-conviction based forfeiture (NCBF), drafted 10 years ago by UNODC to support countries in Latin America in their efforts to recover stolen assets, will be updated following four days of intense discussions among practitioners and asset recovery experts from across the continent.

A newly published Compendium of Jurisprudence on Extinción de Dominio will enable Peruvian judges, prosecutors and other law enforcement actors to assess progress and legal precedents in the implementation of Peru’s 2019 law on non-conviction based confiscation (Extinción de dominio).

Twenty-five practitioners from 12 countries gathered online on 29 June for the first virtual meeting of the new Knowledge Community on Asset Recovery in Latin America.

An initiative of the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery, the regional Knowledge Community provides a collaborative space for interaction between leading practitioners in the field of asset recovery and international judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

Members of the Judicial Cooperation and Extraditions of the Public Prosecutor's Office in Peru are now better equipped to recover stolen assets from abroad.

Experts from the Basel Institute's Peru country office trained 30 members of the Peruvian Procuraduría in a novel form of non-conviction-based asset recovery last week.

Prosecutors specialised in corruption and money laundering crimes in the city of Trujillo in northwestern Peru have benefited from training in “Asset recovery via the legal mechanism of Extinción de Dominio”. This is one of several capacity building initiatives launched by our team in Peru this year as part of the Subnational PFM Programme of the Swiss SECO Cooperation.