At the opening ceremony of the second Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery training workshop in Uganda during August 2016, the Inspector General of Government, Lady Justice Irene Mulyagonja, emphasised the importance of hitting those convicted of corruption where it hurts most: in addition to imprisonment, illicit assets had to be confiscated as this was essential for the anti-corruption fight to be meaningful.
Today, Europol, INTERPOL, and the Basel Institute on Governance have formalised the establishment of a tripartite partnership for a working group on money laundering with digital currencies. The working group will aim to:
Analysing suspicious financial activities is a key function of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs). To enhance the capacity of FIUs worldwide, the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) in cooperation with the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units has developed an e-learning course on “Operational Analysis”. The new course is now available online.
Uganda commenced the National Risk Assessment (NRA) process in early 2016 using the World Bank’s NRA tool and methodology to identify, assess and mitigate its Money Laundering/Terrorism Financing risks. Experts of the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) have been providing technical assistance and throughout the process that is now on the brink of being successfully completed.
Today (7 December 2016), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released its latest evaluation of Switzerland. According to this FATF report, Switzerland’s regulatory framework on anti-money laundering and terrorism financing (AML/CFT) is well developed, but its application shows certain weaknesses.
Romania has recently launched a project to “Support achieving the National Anticorruption Strategy objectives by increasing the efficiency of the asset recovery and management”. The project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC), through the Swiss-Romanian Co-operation Programme.
Between July and December 2016, as part of the DFID-funded and ASI-managed SUGAR programme, ICAR experts delivered a series of four workshops on financial investigation and asset recovery to investigators and prosecutors from a range of Ugandan law enforcement and prosecuting authorities.
The training team chose a multi-phase approach for Uganda, which included the training of nearly 100 practitioners as well as the selection and training of three highly competent local trainers.
From 16 to 20 January 2017, experts from the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) conducted the first training workshop in the Train-the-Trainer programme for the Prevention and Combatting of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Firstly there needs to be the desire, both in terms of public consensus as well as at governmental level, though some could argue these should be one and the same in an ideal world. Subsequently, the rule of law underlines the principles of a democratic government and there is no scope, in most cases, to deviate from the law, however damning the circumstances might be.
The Basel Institute on Governance welcomes the recent decisions by courts in Luxembourg and Switzerland to return almost USD 17 million to Peru in cases related to the regime of former Peruvian President Fujimori. We congratulate the involved authorities in Peru, Luxembourg and Switzerland for the successful conclusion of these 15-year old cases. We are honoured to have been able to support this successful outcome.