16th IACC

Asset recovery is critical to restoring the trust of people in two ways. On the one hand, the recovery of assets is considered an essential way to sanction criminal actions and reduce the incentives for corruption. As such it strengthens the effectiveness of the legal framework and bolsters the rule of law, which in turn enables more equal access to justice which is an essential component of citizens’ trust in the functioning of state institutions. On the other hand, returning stolen assets to their original purposes, often also serving to compensate victims, directly or indirectly, who have suffered from the underlying crimes, enables to restore peoples’ trust in the justice system and its ability to sanction and, more importantly, undo to a point the harm caused by crime.

It is money laundering and other illicit financial transactions that enable the corrupt to hide the proceeds of their crimes and benefit from them. Therefore it is essential for the fight against corruption to make clear to the corrupt that their loot is not safe anywhere and to eliminate all loopholes and safe havens for illicit financial flows. Illicit financial flows are also a development issue, as it is a general consensus that illicit financial outflows from developing countries likely exceed inflows of international aid and investment in volume. Consequently, it is equally critical to recognise that once stolen assets have been confiscated, they must be returned to the country and purpose of origin through mechanisms that ensure transparency and accountability and that gives consideration to victims, to the original purpose of the stolen funds, and to developmental impacts that returned assets can have. Thus, the session will examine good practices in investigation and prosecution in asset recovery cases. It will also examine good practices in asset return, and specific examples will be reviewed (e.g., Kazakhstan, Nigeria, as well as future cases such as Ukraine and Tunisia).

The main objectives of the session is to present the challenges surrounding the asset recovery process with a view to ensuring that involved jurisdictions devote the necessary resources to investigate stolen assets and ensure that corruption-related offences do not remain unpunished. Furthermore, showing the results of these efforts – the return of these assets to the country of origin – will send the message that government officials do not operate above the law.