Peru’s non-conviction based confiscation law is a crucial element in the country’s asset recovery toolkit, emphasised the country’s Special General Public Prosecutor, Dr. Daniel Soria Luján, following a three-day training course for 32 Peruvian prosecutors.

The virtual training was focused on Extinción de dominio, the country's non-conviction based confiscation law, whose implementation the Basel Institute is supporting through technical assistance and capacity building.

The use of virtual assets such as cryptocurrencies has expanded hugely around the world. Thousands of new users are added each day, and more individuals now use cryptocurrencies than trade on stock exchanges. Yet, as with all emerging technologies, there are risks that cryptocurrencies can be used for illegal activity such as money laundering and terrorist financing.

Our International Centre for Asset Recovery training team has delivered another virtual version of our flagship Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery training programme to 19 anti-corruption officers from 14 African countries.

The training was provided at the request of the Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre (CAACC) and funded by the African Development Bank. The virtual delivery took place using video conference and the Basel Institute’s LEARN platform.

The Basel Institute on Governance is offering a new Cryptocurrencies and Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Training course aimed at law enforcement officials, professionals in AML compliance and FinTech/RegTech fields, as well as policymakers and investigative journalists.

Delivered over four three-hour online sessions, the course covers the essentials of how to detect and prevent the use of virtual assets for illicit activities. 

On 28 October 2020, Uganda registered a landmark judgment in the case of Uganda v Geoffrey Kazinda. Although there have been a couple of other previously prosecuted illicit enrichment cases, the Kazinda case is the most significant because of the vast sum of money involved: a total of UGX 4,630,195,258 (over USD 1,252,600).