2009
10/30
New book released: Tracing stolen assets - A practitioner's handbook

In many countries, criminal investigations are primarily directed towards the investigation of the underlying criminality. It is still comparatively rare for investigators, as a routine part of the investigation of major proceeds-generating offences, to “follow the money”. To trace money and property successfully, the investigator must be equipped to uncover and identify ownership interests often camouflaged by changes in the form and nature of the ownership.

This handbook aims to provide practical guidance to the investigator to the point where judicial proceedings aimed at the forfeiture or confiscation of the proceeds of crime may be instituted. It not only covers the pre-investigative and investigative stages during which information is collated and verified and assets are identified and located. It also provides guidance aimed at the freezing or seizure of assets. It is not the intention of this handbook to deal exhaustively with the entire process in terms of which assets are ultimately forfeited or confiscated. However, the authors do highlight some of the major steps an investigator needs to take in order to ensure a thorough and effective asset tracing investigation.

Download Tracing stolen assets - A practitioner's handbook

2009
10/16
New book released: Non-State Actors as Standard Setters

This analysis of 'globalised' standard-setting processes draws together insights from law, political sciences, sociology and social anthropology to assess the authority and accountability of non-state actors and the legitimacy and effectiveness of the processes. The essays offer new understandings of current governance problems, including environmental and financial standards, rules for military contractors and complex public-private partnerships, such as those intended to protect critical information infrastructure. The contributions also evaluate multi-stakeholder initiatives (such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative), and discuss the constitution of public norms in stateless areas. A synopsis of the latest results of the World Governance Indicator, arguably one of the most important surveys in the area today, is included.

See more information and buy the book on Cambridge University Press website.

2009
09/04
TI Global Corruption Report 2009

Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report 2009 (GCR09) brings together leading scholars, business practitioners and civil society experts to examine a broad range of persistent and emerging corruption risks for business, assess the efficacy of existing remedies, and propose practical and innovative measures to strengthen and future-proof corporate integrity.
The report includes a contribution by Gretta Fenner-Zinkernagel from the Basel Institute on Governance.

2009
05/29
New book released: International Law and Standards Applicable in Natural Disaster Situations

The International Development Law Organization (IDLO) has published the first
manual on international legal issues relating to post-disaster rehabilitation efforts.
The Manual on International Law and Standards Applicable in Natural Disaster
Situations aims to assist relief workers, particularly non-lawyers, in developing
humanitarian responses to natural disaster situations, and also serves as a tool
for state authorities and relief organizations to reform domestic legal, regulatory
and policy frameworks.

The Book is available on the IDLO website.

2009
05/19
New book released: Countering Terrorist Financing

This book contains essays presented at the seminar written by practitioners and academics with extensive experience in the field of CTF. The authors offer a diversity of views on the domestic, regional and international initiatives aimed at detecting terrorist funds in the financial system, preventing terrorists from moving their money via alternative financial channels and facilitating the recovery of terrorist assets. The editors conclude with in-sights into the ongoing challenge of making CTF measures both effective and legally sustainable in the lead-up to Giessbach III in December 2009.

Contents

• Micheline Calmy-Rey: Preface
• Guido Steinberg: Al-Qaida and Jihadist terrorism after 2001
• Kristel Grace Poh: Measures to counter the financing of terrorism
• Bob Upton: The financing of terror: a private sector perspective
• Yehuda Shaffer: Detecting terrorist financing through financial intelligence: the role of FIUs
• Henriette Haas: Systematic Observation as a tool in combating terrorism
• Giuseppe Lombardo: Terrorist financing and cash couriers: legal and practical issues related to the implementation of FATF Special Recommendation IX
• Kilian Strauss: Combating terrorist financing: are transition countries the weak link?
• Marco Gercke: Cyberterrorism: how terrorists use the Internet
• Stephen Baker: The misuse of offshore structures so as to assist the financing of terrorism
• Mark Pieth/Stephanie Eymann: Combating the financing of terrorism: the 'Guantanamo Principle'
• Jacques Rayroud: The UN listing system: challenges for criminal justice authorities
• Yara Esquivel Soto: An autonomous offence for the financing of terrorism: notes from an Ibero-American perspective
• Scott Vesel: Combating the financing of terrorism while protecting human rights: a dilemma?
• Radha Ivory: Recovering terrorist assets in the United Kingdom: the 'domestication' of international standards on counter-terrorist financing
• Mark Pieth/Daniel Thelesklaf/Radha Ivory: The international counter-terrorist financing regime at the cross-roads.

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2008
05/20
Mark Pieth (ed.), Recovering Stolen Assets

With a preface by Eva Joly, Peter Lang AG, 2008. ISBN: 987-3-03911-583-9.

Authors: Alan Bacarese, Hans-Peter Bauer, Bernard Bertossa, René Brühlhart, Daniel Claman, Tim Daniel & James Maton, Paul Gully-Hart, Willie Hofmeyr, Cornelis de Jong, Guillermo Jorge, Anne Lugon-Moulin, Antenor Madruga, Simeon V. Marcelo, Enrico Monfrini, Pierre-Yves Morier, Nikos Passas, Mark Pieth, Nuhu Ribadu, Sergio Salvioni, Mary-Jane Schirber & Frank E. Hydoski, Jean-Bernard Schmid, Pietro Veglio & Peter Siegenthaler, and Dimitri Vlassis & Dorothee Gottwald.

Abstract: Development efforts will remain frustrated so long as corrupt leaders continue to steal their countries' wealth and dispose of these ill-gotten gains in foreign jurisdictions. The prevention of such looting, and the recovery of the stolen assets are thus critical development issues and a cornerstone of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (2003) (UNCAC). However, to date experience with asset recovery is limited, and a number of legal and other obstacles continue to impede progress.

This is the first comprehensive work on asset recovery, written by renowned practitioners and academics representing different legal systems and countries, all of whom have extensive experience in the asset recovery field. The authors notably discuss the 'success stories' of the past (the recovery of the assets of Sani Abacha, Ferdinand Marcos and Vladimiro Montesinos) and the concrete challenges for thefuture with regard to search, seizure, confiscation and repatriation of stolen assets. The book also provides perspectives on the role of technical assistance and donors in asset recovery and the likely impact of the UNCAC.

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2004
05/20
Mark Pieth/Gemma Aiolfi (ed.), A Comparative Guide to Anti-Money Laundering, A Critical Analysis of Systems in Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and the USA

Study by the Basel Institute on Governance, commissioned by the Stiftung Finanzplatz Schweiz, Edward Elgar Publishers Cheltenham (UK) and Northhampton (USA) 2004.

> Order here
> Download short study

Abstract: All the major financial centres have experienced a rise in anti-money laundering rules and regulations. Initially, anti-money laundering laws were used as a weapon in the war on drugs, whilst more recently they have been deployed in the ongoing fight against terrorism. These developments, the authors reveal, have had serious consequences for banks and other financial institutions – affecting not only profit margins but also the way in which business is conducted.

Topical and pertinent issues addressed in this book include questions such as, has all the recent legislative activity really put a stop to the problem? Are the international rules being implemented as carefully as they should? How level is the playing field in cross border banking?

The regimes and implementation of anti-money laundering laws and regulations of four major, cross border, financial centres are also examined in depth: Switzerland, Singapore, the UK, and the USA. Going beyond the purely descriptive, there are also comparative analyses of these countries against existing international standards – with illuminating results.

This new book is full of original insight and analysis and will be an invaluable resource for lawyers, both scholarly and practitioner based, with an interest in economic crime as well as policymakers and compliance officers within banks and other financial institutions.