Experts discuss ways to recover stolen assets

Investigators and prosecutors from about 30 countries deliberated here on ways to identify stolen assets and return them to respective nations.
Around 90 international investigators and prosecutors from 30 countries and specialist international organisations held discussions at a conference from January 26-28.
In a statement today, the Swiss government said the discussions focused on how stolen assets can be identified and returned to the country of origin more efficiently.
There were also bilateral meetings to discuss current asset recovery cases, including those relating to Arab spring countries, it added.
The conference was held at Lausanne, Switzerland. It was organised by Switzerland along with its partners from the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) and the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) initiative of the World Bank.

Since the Arab spring, the public has developed a particularly keen interest in the return of stolen assets -- those illegally obtained by senior public officials, members of government and their entourages, the statement said.

"For the concerned countries' development and political stability the return of these assets is critical," it added.
The process of locating and returning such assets is difficult since they are often invested through complex corporate structures and moved through a variety of financial centres with a view to disguising their illicit origin.
"Processing these complex cases of financial crime places high demands on the authorities of the states involved, as well as presenting a challenge to modern financial centres such as Switzerland," the statement said.

To address this issue, Switzerland and many other countries have developed comprehensive practices aimed at more efficient asset recovery.
The UN General Assembly and the Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) both recently adopted a mandate to develop guidelines for efficient asset recovery based on the practical experience that has been gathered so far.
"An active policy on returning these assets is one of the key instruments Switzerland can use to fight international economic and financial crime and protect the reputation of its financial centre," the statement said.