ICAR continues to work closely with a series of partner countries increasing their autonomy in the fight against financial crimes and money laundering as well as in recovering stolen public funds. ICAR’s current partner countries in the context of its capacity building services include Bulgaria, Romania, Tanzania and Uganda.
In May 2017, Ugandan prosecutors secured convictions for money laundering in the Equity Bank trial, the first case of its kind in the country. Six of the accused in this trial, involving the embezzlement of $1,450 million from the bank, were convicted by the Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo of embezzlement and money laundering, and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 5 to 12 years. The court ruled that Equity Bank was to receive $1,25 million as compensation, and vehicles, land and about $70 million as additional compensation.
With a view to fostering co-operation across regional and international boarders to successfully handle asset recovery cases, the International Centre for Asset Recovery recently had the opportunity to conduct a regional training programmes in Botswana.
Sustainable capacity building at a national level is a key activity of the Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery. Train-the-Trainer (TTT) programmes play an important role in the process. Between January and September 2017, ICAR experts delivered a series of practical training workshops on Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery in Tanzania to nearly 100 investigators and prosecutors, four of which were also trained to become certified trainers.
In September, Ugandan prosecutors secured another conviction for money laundering by a former Swedish Embassy accountant, only a few months after the country's first ground-breaking money laundering trial. The accused, who stole almost EUR 1.9 million, was charged by the prosecution with money laundering, embezzlement, forgery and uttering a false document.
Our Peru office, established in 2016, is working intensively with local authorities at central and subnational level to strengthen Public Financial Management and increase transparency and integrity in the public administration. Building capacity is an important part of this effort, with several recent highlights focused on improving training courses and resources for stakeholders.
Our programme of work in Malawi, led by the International Centre for Asset Recovery with funding support from the UK Department for International Development, has been expanded to complement its original focus on corruption investigations and the recovery of stolen assets with prevention components.
These include assistance with a review of the national anti-corruption strategy, fresh engagements with the private sector and training on research methods and corruption risk assessment strategies.
Basel Open Intelligence is a new due diligence tool that allows users to collect open-source information on individuals and companies quickly and efficiently.
Powered by the latest natural language recognition technology, BOI uses an automated search function to detect connections between the subject and over 270 keywords in multiple languages. The keywords encompass financial and other crimes, law enforcement and judicial decisions.
The Basel Institute on Governance / International Center for Asset Recovery is proud to have signed an Executive Agreement with INTERPOL during a jointly organised conference on Kleptocracy in Lyon on 22 October 2009. This agreement will help both organisations to work closely together in asset recovery areas. Common projects will include training in asset recovery, exchange of experts, development of an e-learning programme, contributions to the Asset Recovery Knowledge Center.