The Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) organised a Regional Seminar on Criminal Asset Recovery from 12 to 14 December 2011 at the Cape Verdean National Assembly in Praia, to deliberate on ways of depriving criminals of the benefits of their criminal activities through the recovery of proceeds of crime and stolen assets.
The seminar brought together stakeholders involved in the implementation of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism measures in GIABA member States to deliberate on the need to deprive criminals of the benefits of their criminal activities through the recovery of proceeds of crime and stolen assets.
Participants at the seminar included judges, prosecutors, investigators and officials of financial intelligence units who are responsible for asset recovery in their respective institutions.
The themes covered during the seminar included: Framework for Asset Recovery; the Role of Intelligence in Asset Recovery; Implementing the Asset Recovery Provisions in Relevant International Instruments: Issues, challenges and the way forward; Enhanced Monitoring of Politically Exposed Persons: a panacea to corruption; and ensuring Transparency and Public Accountability.
The seminar was addressed by international and regional experts through interactive sessions, including plenary presentations, panel discussions, case studies and experience sharing.
A major highlight of the seminar was the discussions on developing an asset recovery strategy for West Africa to encourage member states to adopt a Regional Asset Recovery Strategy to enable National and Regional institutions to recover proceeds of crime and stolen assets in a more coordinated manner.
It was expected that the seminar would enhance the capacity of the participants to recover proceeds of crime in the region, set the stage for the adoption of National and Regional Asset Recovery Strategies and policies and ultimately facilitate in combating transnational organised criminal activities, particularly corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing.
