A high-profile asset recovery case in Peru is putting the country’s new legislation on non-conviction-based confiscation (Extinción de Dominio) to the test.

The new Extinción de Dominio legislation, which roughly translates as "extinction of possession", allows stolen assets to be recovered even if the asset holder cannot formally be convicted of a crime. Introduced in August 2018, it enables the recovery of assets from foreign bank accounts whose owners, for example, are now dead or have absconded.

As the initial phase of a four-year programme to strengthen Public Finance Management in Peru at a subnational level draws to a close, we are intensifying our efforts to consolidate the programme’s significant achievements and ensure their sustainability. Signed in 2015 by the Peruvian and Swiss governments, the four-year, USD 6 million programme is funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

Members of the Judicial Cooperation and Extraditions of the Public Prosecutor's Office in Peru are now better equipped to recover stolen assets from abroad.

Six regional governments and five provincial municipalities in Peru are taking part in an ambitious global pilot to improve public financial management (PFM) for the benefit of their citizens.

Senior management and technical representatives from the 11 regions and municipalities – which have been receiving support from the Subnational PFM Programme funded by the Swiss SECO Cooperation and implemented by the Basel Institute’s Peru team – came together for an international workshop in the Peruvian capital Lima from 29–31 May 2019.

An exclusive interview with Elmer Chirre Castillo (photo: right), Provincial Prosecutor of the Third Anti-Corruption Supraprovincial Prosecutor's Office of Lima. 

By Oscar Solorzano (photo: left), Senior Asset Recovery Specialist and Country Manager for the Basel Institute's Peru country office.

Experts from the Basel Institute's Peru country office trained 30 members of the Peruvian Procuraduría in a novel form of non-conviction-based asset recovery last week.

Elmer Chirre, Peru's Specialised Prosecutor for Corruption, and Amado Enco, Specialised Anti-Corruption State Attorney, have jointly recovered over PEN 65 million (USD 19.5 million) in the first successful asset recovery case related to Operation Car Wash.

The Basel Institute's Peru team is launching a new free virtual course in open government. Running from 3 June to 30 June 2019, the four online modules cover:

Peru's pioneering Public Finance Management Experts Network has continued to expand, with the Andean city of Cusco being the latest to join.

The High Court of Piura in northwestern Peru has announced it will set up a specialised court for cases relating to a new law on extinción de dominio (which roughly translates as "extinction of possession"), a form of non-conviction-based asset forfeiture.