On 24 April, the Ukraine Anti-Corruption Action Centre, jointly with Ukrainska Prvada & GOPAC Ukraine, hosted an international conference to discuss and identify challenges relating to the recovery of assets stolen by former President Yanukovych and his associates, and thereby to initiate a (inter-) national dialogue to address these challenges. ICAR spoke on modalities for the return of stolen assets, alongside senior representatives from the Ukraine government and Canada, the European Union, Switzerland and the US, as well as specialist civil society organisations.
On April 2-9, ICAR hosted its first international workshop on the use of virtual currency to launder money. Held at the University of Basel, Switzerland, the workshop brought together public and private sector practitioners from countries such as France, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The workshop circled around a case study presented by the FBI, presentations by ICAR experts and interactive group discussions to identify particular challenges and potential solutions for law enforcement.
In June 2014, in the context of the Security Fund of the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Programme, ICAR and the Superior Council of Magistracy of Romania delivered a 5-day training programme aimed at further developing the skills of members of the Romania National Anti-Corruption Directorate (NAD) to successfully investigate and prosecute international corruption and money laundering cases and recover stolen assets.
ICAR is partnering with two non-for-profit organisations in Romania, the Journalism Development Network and the Rise Project, to launch the 3-year "Mapping and Visualizing Cross-Border Crime Project.”
With funding support from the Swiss–Romanian Cooperation Programme, the objective is to enhance the investigative and research skills of journalists, civil society activists and law enforcement in Romania to detect and uncover local and cross-border illicit networks and to increase the exposure of organised crime structures as well as their modus of operandi.
At the request of the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA), ICAR is currently preparing and developing a one-year multi-component capacity building programme in asset recovery and financial investigation for the KACA.
In the context of the Swiss-Bhutanese cooperation framework (“DG and Democratic Governance Programme”), which seeks to consolidate Bhutan’s democratic institutions and practices, ICAR delivered a further five-day training workshop in financial investigation and asset recovery to 28 experts from the Judiciary, Office of the Attorney General, Anti-Corruption Commission, Royal Bhutan Police, Drug Regulatory Authority, Department of Revenue and Custom, Bhutan National Legal Institute, the Royal Insurance Corporation of Bhutan and the Royal Audit Authority.
Mandated by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine to assist with tracing and recovering assets stolen by the former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych and his inner circle, and with funding from the local office of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), ICAR conducted a five-day training workshop in financial investigation and asset recovery for the National Prosecution Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv from 19 to 23 January 2015.
The Basel Institute is partnering with Adams Smith International (ASI), Integrity Action and other expert organisations to implement a five-year multi-component anti-corruption project in Uganda ("Strengthening Uganda's Anti-Corruption and Accountability Regime Anti-Corruption Chain”) funded by the UK Department for International Development.
The Basel Institute’s primary role will focus on providing technical support and legal advice to Uganda’s local anti-corruption authorities on matters related to asset recovery.
In a joint effort with the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), ICAR has developed a new e-learning course for FIUs on analysing suspicious transaction reports (STRs). The course covers all stages from risk assessment of STRs, through planning and collection of information, to analysis and dissemination of intelligence to law enforcement agencies.
In 2015, experts from the International Centre for Asset Recovery conducted three training workshops in Kuwait City, as part of a one-year multi-component capacity-building programme for the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (KANCOR). Subjects covered in the three workshops included: "Financial investigations and Asset Recovery", “Corruption in Infrastructure Projects and Procurement”, and “Offshore Structures and Mutual Legal Assistance”.