In the context of the Basel Institute's partnership arrangement with the Inter-Agency Network of South Africa (ARINSA), the Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR), together with ARINSA and the Government of Botswana conducted a joint anti-money laundering (AML) workshop for prosecutors and investigators from 12-15 April 2015 in Gaborone, Botswana.
In the context of the International Centre for Asset Recovery’s (ICAR) ongoing partnership with the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network of South Africa (ARINSA) and the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to strengthen the capacities of partner countries to conduct investigations, trace and recover stolen assets emanating from money laundering and similar offences, ICAR, together with ARINSA and the Government of Swaziland conducted a further joint workshop for prosecutors and investigators on proceeds of crime and money laundering.
After conducting two very successful and similar workshops in financial investigation and asset recovery in Bhutan during 2014, the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) was invited to conduct a third such training workshop in Bhutan.
From 23 to 27 February 2015, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network of South Africa (ARINSA), the Government of Uganda and the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) carried out a joint workshop for prosecutors, investigators and other relevant stakeholders on the recovery of proceeds of crime from wildlife and forest offences and money laundering in Entebbe, Uganda.
During 2016, ICAR will be providing capacity-building workshops on financial investigation and asset recovery in India, Paraguay and Peru.
In India, ICAR will assist the country’s anti-money laundering investigating and prosecuting agency, the Ministry of Finance Enforcement Directorate (ED), to increase its capability to investigate financial crime with international links. In partnership with the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, ICAR is planning a financial investigation training for 50 ED investigators over a two-week period.
Phyllis Atkinson, Head of Training at the International Centre for Asset Recovery gave a presentation entitled “Global Challenges in Following the Money” on 9 October 2015 at an event hosted by the Institute for Commercial Forensic Practitioners (ICFP) in Johannesburg, South Africa.
At the request of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) of Thailand, the Basel Institute carried out a three-day executive workshop on the role of good governance and anti-corruption in the context of national development for senior executives from various relevant public offices and related institutions of Thailand.
A partnership and cost-sharing agreement was concluded in May 2015 between the ICAR, and the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan (PCUz) and the Swiss Co-operation Office under the Swiss Embassy in the country with regard to the PCUz’s project entitled "Support to combating and preventing corruption in Uzbekistan". Experts from the ICAR delivered a training workshop in Uzbekistan during September 2015 after first conducting an initial on-site scoping mission to engage with relevant authorities and to collect facts and figures for developing a relevant training programme.
Within the context of the three-year initiative on "Mapping and Visualising Cross-Border Crime” funded by the Swiss-Romanian Co-operation Program which was launched in 2014, experts from the ICAR conducted the second training workshop in Bucharest during 30 September – 1 October 2015. The workshop was once again conducted in partnership with two Romanian non-profit organisations, the Journalism Development Network (JDN) and the Rise Project.
Pursuant to an agreement signed in August 2014 between the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine (GPO) and the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR), the ICAR conducted its second 5-day training workshop entitled “Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery”. The workshop was held at the National Academy of Prosecutors of Ukraine in Kyiv during the period 27 – 31 July 2015 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The first workshop took place in January 2015.