A fundamental priority for law enforcement authorities dealing with financial crime is to recover illegally obtained assets and deny criminals access to the proceeds of their crime. The recovery of illegally obtained assets, however, requires first to successfully trace them.
Throughout 2016, ICAR experts have played a significant role in enhancing Uganda’s capacity to fight money laundering and terrorism financing. Part of this support, provided in the context of the Basel Institute’s involvement in the “Strengthening Uganda’s Anti-Corruption and Accountability Regime” (SUGAR) programme managed by Adam Smith International (ASI), involved assisting the country during the process of identifying and assessing its risk exposure to money laundering and terrorism financing.
To strengthen the capacity of East African anti-corruption agencies to investigate and prosecute international corruption and money laundering, and to enhance regional cooperation in this regard, ICAR led a regional training workshop on Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery.
The beginning of this year marked a growing interest in ICAR’s Train-the-Trainer programme in financial investigation and asset recovery with launches in Romania and Tanzania. The TTT programme comprises 4 to 5 successive training workshops, which are delivered over a period of several months. Potential local trainers are selected and trained to deliver similar workshops to their peers in the future, thus ensuring the sustainability of the project.
On 22 March 2017, the Basel Institute on Governance and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) have entered into an agreement whereby ICAR will assist NABU in strengthening their capacities to conduct complex investigations into cases of grand corruption, money laundering and related financial crimes. The support involves both assistance in on-going investigations as well as providing ICAR’s signature training.
The Basel Institute on Governance and Rwanda’s Office of the Ombudsman convened an anti-corruption training workshop in Kigali, Rwanda on 29 and 30 June 2017. The first day provided bankers with an overview of international standards against money laundering and corruption for financial institutions, while the second day equipped journalists with practical skills in using open-source tools and databases for anti-corruption investigations. The workshop followed a participatory and practical approach with case studies and on-site exercises.
In the context of the Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Programme, and building on ICAR’s previous operational engagements in Bulgaria in support of the country’s efforts to tackle corruption, ICAR is partnering with the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria (PORB) to offer technical assistance and guidance in financial investigations and asset recovery.
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.