The International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) accompanies law enforcement authorities and anti-corruption agencies in specific case management. The ICAR provides a full range of case management assistance ranging from general advice on how to commence and progress an investigation or a prosecution in a corruption or asset recovery context right through to hands-on coaching in specific cases. The team consists of members who have many years of experience in relation to investigating and prosecuting such cases.
Goal
To develop operational capacity in law enforcement personnel to enable successful prosecutions and repatriation of stolen assets.
Values
- Long-term engagement
- Trust
- Confidentiality
Methodology
Mindful of the sensitivities involved in such investigations, the ICAR works very closely with the host country to establish a careful and discrete level of trust with the law enforcement agencies involved in the case. Often the case and legal consultancy is the product of a long period of engagement with a country – often being the result of trainings. During a programme there are often open or even confidential discussions on open investigations or prosecutions which will form the basis of a sensitive cooperation between the ICAR team and the country.
Expertise
Our expertise extends to both investigative and prosecutorial aspects of cases. There is a considerable expertise in the ICAR that can assist law enforcement agencies to prepare a strategy for an investigation, to progress investigations that might have reached some level of impasse or even to act as a facilitator in exchanges with other foreign jurisdictions particularly where efforts are being made to secure mutual assistance or to track assets.
The ICAR aims to provide expertise in training and building the capacity of agencies involved in the fight against corruption but also to track and recover stolen assets. In some circumstances the ICAR will also assist in providing specific legal and case assistance to allow countries to make early and sometimes significant first steps in an investigation.
Projects
2013
03/04
Asset recovery lectures in the UNICRI/University of Turin LL.M. in International Crime and Justice
From the 19-21 February, Pedro Gomes Pereira, a Senior Asset Recovery Specialist at the Basel Institute on Governance, has given for the fourth consecutive year lectures on corruption, organised crime, asset recovery and mutual legal assistance to alumni attending the UNICRI/University of Turin...
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2013
01/09
Countering the Financing of Terrorism in North and West Africa
Charlie Monteith, Head of Asset Recovery and Case Consultancy, and our expert Kodjo Attisso, together with Mark van Thiel, led a workshop for an Experts Seminar on Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) in North and West Africa in Abuja during December 11 – 13, 2012 in Abuja, Nigeria.
The...
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2013
01/09
National Seminar on Asset Recovery Tunisia 14-15 December 2012
Charlie Monteith gave a presentation on issues around mutual legal assistance to the National Seminar on Asset Recovery held in Tunis on 14-15 December.
UNDP supported the Seminar, which was led by the Ministry of Justice, which leads the recently established national coordination committee on...
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2012
10/30
Romania Asset Recovery System Audit Workshops
The Basel Institute on Governance was invited to Romania on the 23-26 of October to present the preliminary findings of their upcoming report ‘Enhancing the investigation capacities of the Romanian authorities to confiscate and recover proceeds of crime’, which was drafted following the previous...
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2012
10/28
Corruption Cases and Asset Recovery: an Interactive Workshop
The Basel Institute on Governance participated in two back-to-back workshops to discuss the asset recovery process, covering elements of financial investigation, financial investigate techniques and mutual legal assistance. The workshops which were hosted by the American Bar Association (ABA) with...
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2012
10/23
Study on anti-corruption architecture of the Republic of South Africa
The Basel Institute on Governance participated in several workshops between 8 and 9 October 2012 with key stakeholders of the South African anti-corruption system (Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority, Special Investigating Unit, Department of Public Service Administration,...
[details]
2012
10/05
Overview and Analysis of the Anti-Corruption Legislative Package of Mozambique
An expert from the International Centre for Asset Recovery, a part of the Basel Institute on Governance, visited Mozambique between 10-14 October with a view to conduct an on-site assessment of the anti-corruption legislative package that had been proposed by the Council of Ministers to the...
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2012
04/23
European Parliament study on the social use of confiscated assets
The note evaluates the current legislation on the asset recovery process both at the EU and Member States level, with a view to assessing the need and the feasibility of establishing EU regulation on the use of confiscated assets for civil society and in particular for social purposes. It points...
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