In the first such case in the Americas, Peru has issued a judgement ordering the non-conviction based confiscation of over USD 1.5 million in assets frozen in Mexico.
The achievement adds to Peru’s substantial experience and jurisprudence involving its 2019 law of Extinción de dominio. The non-conviction based forfeiture (NCBF) law allows assets of illicit origin to be confiscated in a judicial procedure, even if a criminal conviction is not possible.
The so-called “tuna bond” corruption scandal in Mozambique has drawn international attention. Twenty people are facing corruption and money laundering charges in the country. Swiss bank Credit Suisse has agreed to pay USD 475 million in fines and write off USD 200 million in debt owed by Mozambique as part of a series of settlements with regulators in the US, UK and Switzerland for its role in the affair.
In 2020, the Basel Institute on Governance with the support of the Siemens Integrity Initiative launched a series of roundtable discussions that brought companies together to analyse the potential nexus between corporate efforts to protect human rights and prevent corruption.
As countries improve their capacity to recover assets derived from criminal activity, they are faced with a challenge: how should these assets be managed while the judicial process is underway?
Emerging economies have long struggled with the question of how to combine economic development with sustainable use of natural resources. How does corruption factor into this combination?
A guest blog by Elisabeth Danon, Legal Analyst, OECD Anti-Corruption Division.
How can governments in South East Europe partner with the vibrant business sector and civil society to help combat corruption?
OECD experts and practitioners shared some novel ideas on this question at a two-day webinar on Collective Action – Building Alliances Against Corruption in South East Europe on 16 and 17 September.
Speaking at a B20-G20 dialogue on 13 September, the Basel Institute’s Managing Director Gretta Fenner called on G20 Member States to commit to and support the implementation of a multi-stakeholder approach to promoting integrity in procurement.
The Basel AML Index 10th Edition explore four aspects hindering the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF). The first element crunched Financial Action Task Force (FATF) data on how jurisdictions are responding to money laundering threats related to virtual assets. The answer: not well at all. Excerpt from the full report:
The use of virtual assets such as cryptocurrencies is exploding – for legitimate as well as illicit purposes.
This case study examines a 2021 unexplained wealth (illicit enrichment) case in Kenya involving a former Chief Accountant at the Treasury, Patrick Ochieno Abachi.
The case is related to Kenya’s so-called Anglo Leasing scandal, in which 18 high-value government security contracts were allegedly awarded to fictitious companies in the early 2000s. It illustrates one set of circumstances in which civil unexplained wealth (or civil illicit enrichment) legislation can be an extremely useful tool to target assets stolen through corruption.
Much has been said about palm oil and its impact on the environment. Major international debates are taking place about the issue, and numerous studies have highlighted the governance weaknesses associated with large-scale plantations.
To gain a better insight into what the Indonesian public thinks about this issue and others relevant to corruption, governance and natural resources, the Basel Institute on Governance and Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI), the leading Indonesian pollster, jointly conducted polls and interviews during July 2021.