Experts from ICAR delivered a 5-day training workshop on Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery for the benefit of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 11 to 15 April 2016.
In the context of financial crime the recovery of stolen assets is an essential aspect of sanctioning of corruption and it can remedy some of the social harm caused by corruption. These considerations are equally relevant when prosecuting international crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
On 27 January, 2016 an Anti-Corruption Court in Nairobi convicted a public officer who worked as an accountant/cashier at the Ministry of Special Programs in Kenya.
The officer was found to have embezzled funds that were allocated for specific donor funded water projects and was convicted on two counts: fraudulent acquisition of public property (count 1) and forgery (count 2) but was acquitted on a charge of abuse of office.
Singapore demonstrates a strong anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) legislative framework but despite this, it shows significant weaknesses in its effective implementation, according to a recent review by the Financial Action Task Force.
The Indonesian "Direktorat Jenderal Hukum Dan Perjanjian Internasional" (Directorate General of Law and Treaty) published a book in its series "Opinio Juris" featuring the article "Practical Hurdles to Effective International Recovery of Stolen Assets" written by Gretta Fenner Zinkernagel and Anja Roth.
The Basel Institute has been working with the Ministry of Justice of Romania in a two-component project seeking to enhance the capacity of the Romanian authorities to recover the proceeds of crime. The project is being implemented by the Asset Recovery Office (ARO) of the Ministry of Justice in collaboration with the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) of the Basel Institute. Funding of the project has been provided by the Swiss-Romanian Co-operation Programme.
The Basel Institute on Governance participated in several workshops between 8 and 9 October 2012 with key stakeholders of the South African anti-corruption system (Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority, Special Investigating Unit, Department of Public Service Administration, South African Revenue Services, National Treasury, Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations of the South African Police Services) at a special session hosted by the Anti-Corruption Task Team (ACTT).
The note evaluates the current legislation on the asset recovery process both at the EU and Member States level, with a view to assessing the need and the feasibility of establishing EU regulation on the use of confiscated assets for civil society and in particular for social purposes.
Publication
Tracing Illegal Assets - A Practitioner's Guide
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.