We are delighted to announce that our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR)’s support to the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau in Tanzania is entering an ambitious second phase.
Congratulations to our partners in Kenya, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for their success in one of the country’s most significant corruption cases to date: the sentencing of John Waluke, a Member of Parliament, and Grace Wakhungu, who is the mother of a former Environment Cabinet Secretary, in a maize procurement fraud worth nearly USD 3 million.
In the third article in our series of perspectives on illegal wildlife trade (IWT) and financial crime, produced in collaboration with the International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators, Gretta Fenner explores the role of asset recovery in combating wildlife trafficking.
She asks: Should assets recovered from corrupt practices linked to wildlife trafficking be channelled into conservation and counter-IWT enforcement efforts? What are the pros and cons, and have there been any examples of this type of strategy?
Publication
Quick Guide 18: Mobile money and financial crime
The amount of money flowing through mobile payment systems such as M-Pesa, MTN Mobile Money and Orange Money has exploded, in part due to covid-19 lockdowns. Should we be worried about the use of mobile money for financial crimes?
In this quick guide, Andrew Dornbierer explains how mobile money could be abused for corruption and money laundering. Drawing on on-the-ground experience in Sub-Saharan Africa, he also outlines how law enforcement officers can take advantage of this widespread payment method to catch corruption and money laundering schemes and prove them in court.
Publication
Quick Guide 17: Open-source intelligence
Anti-corruption, transparency and freedom of information initiatives over the last decades have significantly boosted the value of open-source intelligence for both the private and public sectors.
In this quick guide, Intelligence Analyst Manuel Medina explains what open-source intelligence is and explores some of the tricky questions it raises.
From mid-June, the Basel AML Index Expert Edition will highlight countries included on the European’s list of “high-risk third countries” with strategic deficiencies in their anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT) regimes.
As we write in our 2019 Annual Report, our International Centre for Asset Recovery continues to be one of the only organisations specialised in the recovery of stolen assets. Our focus is on supporting our partner countries in particularly complex cases and the introduction of new working methods and legal and investigative tools.
In this short piece published in the Annual Report, Dr Hamilton Castro, Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor in Peru, explains how the impacts of our joint work go far beyond the money recovered:
Amid the current buzz around virtual training, it's good to be reminded that effective capacity building is about a lot more than just learning new skills. Some of the most important aspects of our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) workshops can't easily be transferred to cyberspace.
Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) can now benefit from half-price packages for our supercharged open-source search tool, Basel Open Intelligence.
Covid-19 lockdowns haven’t stopped crime and corruption, but they make it harder for compliance officers to do their jobs. This is especially true for SMEs, where corruption risks remain high but resources for compliance are more likely to be squeezed.
Before joining the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery, Tom Walugembe was a Senior State Attorney at Uganda’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. In this role, he secured the first ever money laundering conviction in Uganda in the case of Uganda v Serwamba David Musoke and 6 Others.
This landmark case blazes a trail not just for Uganda but for other countries to prosecute cases of money laundering and recover illicit assets.