What does the web of connections look like that underlies grand corruption and money laundering schemes and the abuse of offshore financial centres? Who are the people involved, how do they interact and what do they do?

And what insights can we draw by looking at complex corruption and money laundering schemes from the perspective of social networks, rather than solely individuals?

These questions are at the heart of a new analysis of the so-called Lava Jato or Odebrecht scandal that has engulfed Latin America.

Twenty-five practitioners from 12 countries gathered online on 29 June for the first virtual meeting of the new Knowledge Community on Asset Recovery in Latin America.

An initiative of the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery, the regional Knowledge Community provides a collaborative space for interaction between leading practitioners in the field of asset recovery and international judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

More than 860 public officials from 20 cities across Peru have completed a five-week virtual training course of the Subnational Public Finance Management (PFM) Programme, which our Lima-based team implements under the Swiss-Peruvian SECO Cooperation.

Technical assistance from the Basel Institute on Governance in a landmark case of non-conviction based confiscation in Peru has enabled the successful confiscation of around one million dollars linked to terrorist financing.

We are delighted about the signing of a trilateral agreement on the return of illicitly acquired assets to Peru.

A Swiss-funded programme to strengthen public finance management at the local and regional levels in Peru has entered its second phase, with a virtual launch event gathering high-level diplomats and subnational government leaders.

I recently participated in a panel on the role of non-state actors in the recovery of stolen assets and proceeds of corruption at the 2020 International Anti-Corruption Conference, at which I presented the so-called “Russian arms dealer case”. The case is relatively small in monetary terms – around USD 700,000 plus interest – but hugely significant in terms of asset recovery efforts and international co-operation.

Peru’s Attorney General’s Office has recorded another successful use of its non-conviction based confiscation law, extinción de dominio, to recover stolen assets from abroad.

The case involves around USD 8.5 million plus interest frozen in a bank account in Switzerland since 2004. The assets derived from contracts for the purchase of overvalued MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-25 aircraft during the government of Alberto Fujimori.