At a Basel Institute-hosted webinar on illicit enrichment on 30 June 2021, practitioners from Uganda, Kenya and Mauritius agreed that illicit enrichment laws have significant potential to help their countries – and others – target corruption and recover stolen assets. But, they say, significant hurdles still need to be overcome, especially in transnational cases.
How do illegal wildlife products, live animals, exotic marine species and illegally logged timber end up in stores, zoos, aquariums and homes on the other side of the world?
Too easily, is the answer. Weaknesses in global supply chains make them vulnerable to exploitation by organised crime groups and bad actors working in legitimate businesses. Corruption opens the door to that exploitation. And the easy possibilities for laundering money from environmental crimes makes this illicit activity attractive to criminals around the world.
At a high-profile speech at the Ukraine 30 Forum last week, the Basel Institute's Managing Director Gretta Fenner emphasised that it is critical that Ukraine swiftly and professionally concludes the asset recovery processes started after the Revolution of Dignity. She also urged the country to fully empower its anti-corruption institutions and reduce the hurdles that have been put in their ways. High levels of corruption continue to drain the country's resources and threaten its democracy.
We are delighted to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in Zambia.
Under the new partnership, our International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) will support the Commission’s efforts to investigate and prosecute corruption cases and to identify and recover stolen assets. This includes support for international cooperation to obtain intelligence and evidence from abroad.
The following statement by the Basel Institute's Managing Director, Gretta Fenner, was aired at the Special Session of the UN General Assembly against Corruption on 4 June 2021. Watch the video here.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I thank you for the opportunity to deliver a short statement on behalf of the Basel Institute on Governance.
The Zanzibar Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Authority (ZAECA) and Basel Institute on Governance have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding to support Zanzibar’s fight against corruption.
The agreement covers a suite of capacity building and mentoring interventions focused on financial investigations, international cooperation to gather information and evidence to prosecute cases of corruption and related financial crimes, and the recovery of stolen assets.
News
New eLearning course: International Cooperation and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters
A new free eLearning course on the Basel Institute’s virtual learning platform addresses a common barrier to successful corruption and money laundering cases and attempts to recover stolen assets from abroad.
Major corruption and money laundering cases often have an international dimension and almost always require law enforcement practitioners to request information and cooperation from their counterparts abroad.
The UN General Assembly Special Session against Corruption (UNGASS) calls for countries to adopt a wide range of measures to recover assets stolen through corruption.
This includes non-conviction based forfeiture (NCBF), which is emerging as a powerful tool to recover illicit assets when a criminal conviction is not possible.
What can we learn from actual cases of NCBF around the world? What should States consider when introducing NCBF legislation? How can it be applied more effectively and what challenges stand in the way?
A new open-access book published by the Basel Institute on Governance explores the rapid growth of illicit enrichment legislation around the world and its use to target corruption and recover illicitly obtained assets.
What does illicit enrichment mean for combating corruption?
An increasing number of countries are introducing mechanisms to target people who enjoy an amount of wealth that can't be explained by their lawful income.