Financial investigators in Tanzania are sharpening their interviewing skills thanks to specialised training by the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR).

Mozambican prosecutors, judges and other anti-corruption practitioners came together from 4–8 November 2019 for a deep dive into the real-life issues of conducting financial investigations and recovering stolen assets.

Pakistan has jumped up the Basel AML Index, the Basel Institute’s independent, data-based index of the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) around the world. The country’s risk score rose from 6.45 to 7.66 out of 10, where 10 equals the highest assessed risk of ML/TF.

During 14–18 October 2019, experts from the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) conducted a 5-day training workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia as part of USAID CEGAH’s on-going programming with KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission), Office of the Attorney-General (AGO) and Ministry of Law and Human Rights relating to beneficial ownership.

What are best practices to promote transparency and accountability in the return of stolen assets?

This was the focus of a side event of the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group on 9 October 2019 at the OECD headquarters in Paris. The event gathered authorities and experts from the G20 countries plus international organisations including the World Bank and United Nations.

Basel Institute senior advisor and former board member Hans-Peter Bauer presented at the Baltic AML Forum on 2 October on the topic of Country Risk Assessment -  A Difficult Task. 

The Forum was opened by the Lithuanian Minister of Finance and attended by 150 participants, who were mainly compliance officers and tech experts from Baltic-region banks, FinTech companies and cryptocurrency ventures.

The ultimate aim of fighting corruption and returning stolen assets is to fight poverty and achieve sustainable development – and asset recovery is therefore not a nice-to-have but an obligation under international law.

In 2019, Estonia achieved the lowest risk score out of the 125 countries in the Public Edition of the Basel AML Index, 2.68 out of 10. In fact, Estonia has consistently been among the top performers since 2012, when the Basel AML index was first calculated.

Money laundering risks in Malta have been in the headlines recently.

At the opening of a five-day workshop in Malawi on Mutual Legal Assistance and the Misuse of Offshore Structures to Conceal Beneficial Ownership, the Honourable Justice Dr. Chifundo Kachale hit the nail on the head. Imprisonment alone is not enough, he said. Recovering the stolen assets sends a strong message that crime does not, and should not, pay.