These seven recommendations for strengthening the global response to new financial crime threats relating to cryptocurrencies arose from the 4th Global Conference on Cryptocurrencies and Criminal Finances on 18-19 November 2020.
The conference was co-organised by the Basel Institute on Governance, INTERPOL and Europol and hosted this year by INTERPOL.
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.
On 28 October 2020, Uganda registered a landmark judgment in the case of Uganda v Geoffrey Kazinda. Although there have been a couple of other previously prosecuted illicit enrichment cases, the Kazinda case is the most significant because of the vast sum of money involved: a total of UGX 4,630,195,258 (over USD 1,252,600).
In this chapter of a report by Transparencia Venezuela, Estrategias jurídicas para la recuperación de activos venezolanos producto de la corrupción ("Legal strategies for recovering Venezuelan assets that are the proceeds of corruption"), Oscar Solórzano and Stefan Mbiyavanga devise asset recovery strategies in Swiss law from a practical angle. They also identify the most important authorities in all four phases of the asset recovery process: identification, seizure, confiscation and restitution.
Officials from Tunisia’s Financial Analysis Commission (TFAC), National Guard, and Customs and Economic Brigade are the latest to have undertaken our intensive training programme on cryptocurrency and money laundering.
The training team of the International Centre for Asset Recovery last week delivered an intensive Advanced Operational Analysis training programme to 20 anti-corruption practitioners in Ukraine. This was the first time our ICAR training team has delivered a virtual workshop that involved both complex group work and simultaneous interpreting, and we are pleased to say that it went flawlessly.
Congratulations to Malawi on achieving the first ever non-conviction based forfeiture order under the new Financial Crimes Act of 2017. We are delighted to have been able to support our partners in Malawi's Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Anti-Corruption Bureau, Financial Intelligence Authority and Malawi Police Service in this precedent-setting case.
The Basel Institute on Governance is delighted to have signed today a cooperation agreement with the Office of the Chief Prosecutor of Kosovo. This agreement lays the foundation for supporting Kosovo in the investigation and prosecution of corruption offences and recovering stolen assets.
The first Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) of the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office (SFO), secured on 30 November 2015 at the Royal Courts of Justice, London, has on 26 August 2020 given rise to a plea bargain settlement in Tanzania. As announced by Tanzania’s National Prosecutions Service (NPS), this nets the Tanzanian authorities TZS 1.5 billion (approx. USD 650,000 or GBP 500,000).
Thirty-three prosecutors, 22 judges and 22 investigators from across Mozambique’s 11 provinces have completed a series of intensive training courses on anti-corruption and asset recovery.
Delivered by the Mozambique team of our International Centre for Asset Recovery, the training sessions took place over three weeks from 17 August to 4 September. Investigators from SERNIC, Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service, joined prosecutors from the Prosecutor General’s Office and judges from across the country.