Congratulations to our partners in Malawi on the launch of the new Malawi National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS II).
Anti-corruption practitioners at Tanzania’s Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) are now better able to translate corruption research and data into actionable anti-corruption insights.
Four graduates of our successful train-the-trainer programme have delivered high-impact training to over 300 law enforcement professionals in Tanzania and Zanzibar over the last year.
Between them, the trainers – themselves anti-corruption practitioners – have delivered multiple intensive training seminars and introductory courses on financial investigation, anti-money laundering, asset recovery and mutual legal assistance.
The following briefing notes are taken from the concept note for a side event at the Conference of States Parties (COSP) in Abu Dhabi on 20 December 2019.
The Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) is hosting a side event on "Living up to the spirit of articles 43 and 46 UNCAC" at the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption (COSP8).
UNCAC Articles 43 and 46 deal with international cooperation and mutual legal assistance.
Recovering criminals’ ill-gotten assets, i.e. confiscating property, cars, yachts, cash and other funds gained through corruption or other acquisitive crimes, is a big topic in law enforcement. Among other benefits, asset recovery acts as a deterrent against crime and makes a clear public statement that illicit wealth will be targeted and returned to the public treasury.
There is much discussion and numerous publications about how we recover illegally gained wealth through a legal process in the court system. How to find the assets in the first place gets less attention.
Every day, an unknown number of elephant tusks, rhino horn, pangolin scales and other wildlife products – alive and dead – cross the oceans in container ships and cargo flights for use in traditional medicine, crafts and the illegal pet trade. Rare trees are felled in ancient forests and shipped out under false certificates.
They leave behind the butchered carcasses of the last remaining animals of many species, scarred and emptied landscapes, legal livelihoods undermined by corruption and criminal activity, and communities ravaged by organised crime networks.
Financial investigators in Tanzania are sharpening their interviewing skills thanks to specialised training by the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR).
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.
Pakistan has jumped up the Basel AML Index, the Basel Institute’s independent, data-based index of the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) around the world. The country’s risk score rose from 6.45 to 7.66 out of 10, where 10 equals the highest assessed risk of ML/TF.