Mozambican prosecutors, judges and other anti-corruption practitioners came together from 4–8 November 2019 for a deep dive into the real-life issues of conducting financial investigations and recovering stolen assets.

During 14–18 October 2019, experts from the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) conducted a 5-day training workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia as part of USAID CEGAH’s on-going programming with KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission), Office of the Attorney-General (AGO) and Ministry of Law and Human Rights relating to beneficial ownership.

At the opening of a five-day workshop in Malawi on Mutual Legal Assistance and the Misuse of Offshore Structures to Conceal Beneficial Ownership, the Honourable Justice Dr. Chifundo Kachale hit the nail on the head. Imprisonment alone is not enough, he said. Recovering the stolen assets sends a strong message that crime does not, and should not, pay.

Another 30 specialised judges in Peru have benefited from innovative training in Extinción de Dominio, a new form of legislation that allows stolen assets to be confiscated even if the asset holder cannot formally be convicted of a crime.

The two-day course, which took place on 3–4 September in the Superior Court of the city of Trujillo, is part of a wider series of training programmes aimed at building the capacity of specialised judges across Peru to implement the new legislation.

There are still a few spaces available on a two-day FinTech AML Compliance course on cryptocurrencies and money laundering. The course is delivered by the Basel Institute in partnership with Swiss law firm MME and will take place on 10–11 December at MME's offices in Zurich, Switzerland.

Mark Pieth, Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Basel and founder/President of the Board of the Basel Institute, has been appointed to the University of the Western Cape in South Africa as an Extraordinary Professor.

The first intensive training workshop on Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery in Mozambique by the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) training team sparked vivid discussions on the practical challenges of investigating and combating money laundering in Mozambique and on how different agencies can work better together to achieve this.

Anti-corruption officials in Tanzania have been upgrading their skills in specialised financial investigation topics with the help of the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) and a local trainer certified by ICAR’s train-the-trainer programme.

The Thai National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has renewed a long-standing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Basel Institute on Governance to jointly foster the prevention of and international collaboration in the fight against corruption.

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.