Regional: Asset Recovery exercise and exchange of best practices in South-Eastern Europe

07-08 May, Rome, Italy: In collaboration with the Interagency Law Enforcement Academy of Advanced Studies in Rome and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy, as well as with support from Italian Experts and Diplomatic Missions across the South-Eastern Europe region, UNODC facilitated an operational exercise for the Western Balkans’ jurisdictions aiming at acquiring knowledge and exchange best practices on concrete cases and related institutions dealing with asset recovery and legal administration and legal re-use of such former illicit assets.

This workshop was a part of the UNODC project „Supporting Asset Recovery in the Western Balkans”, generously funded by the Government of Italy, and it is part of the UNODC Regional Programme for South-Eastern Europe. The activity had the overall objective of tackling corruption and illicit finance in the Western Balkans by supporting law enforcement and prosecutors to investigate, adjudicate, confiscate, deny and deprive criminals of their illicit gains as well as making available those former illicit assets for social and public benefits.

Over 20 high level participants from relevant authorities across the region, including Italian experts from key institutions (National Asset Administration Agency ANBSC, FIU/Banca d’Italia, SCICO/Guardia di Finanza, ARO/DCPC, Anti-Mafia Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior DIA), gathered in the Rome High Studies Academy to advance their understanding through real life scenarios and exercises related to seizing proceeds and instrumentalities of crime, with a focus on corruption offences. The topics included the delicate phase of management and reuse of different assets and property, collection and exchange of information, financial analysis and open-source intelligence (OSINT) gathering, computer-aided analysis in support of asset confiscation and others. In addition, the representatives from the Western Balkans exchanged their experiences and best practices in legislative developments and practical applications of asset recovery concepts in their jurisdictions.

Participants, panellists and UNODC convened that asset recovery regimes should be further strengthened in the region and nationally to ensure that criminals and corrupted officials do not benefit financially from their wrongdoings and show civil society and legitimate businesses that “crime doesn’t pay”.

UNODC and the Government of Italy will continue to support the Western Balkans jurisdictions in their efforts to strengthen their national and regional policies, regulations and institutions to tackle illicit finance and asset recovery and embed and sustain the progress made through the UNODC Regional Platform for Fast-Tracking UNCAC Implementation.