Asset recovery legislation
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Quick Guide 30: Asset recovery legislation – best practices
Asset recovery tools are integral to combatting corruption, organised crime, sanctions evasion and other profit-motivated crimes. However, in many states, the range of asset recovery tools available to law enforcement and criminal justice agencies is limited.
This quick guide examines the established good practices in asset recovery legislation as well as less conventional, broader measures. It shows how states can widen their asset recovery toolkit and increase the potential for asset recovery success.
It is drawn from a comparative study of good practices in asset recovery legislation in selected Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) participating States, published as Working Paper 51 in March 2024 by the Basel Institute on Governance and OSCE.
About this Quick Guide
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. It is part of the Basel Institute on Governance Quick Guide series, ISSN 2673-5229.
Working Paper 51: Good practices in asset recovery legislation in selected OSCE participating States
Asset recovery tools are integral to combating corruption, organised crime, sanctions evasion and other profit-motivated crimes. However, in many participating States of the OSCE, the range of asset recovery tools available to law enforcement and criminal justice agencies is limited.
This Working Paper identifies legislative mechanisms in OSCE participating States that empower the state to confiscate suspected or proven proceeds of crime. The overall objective is to ascertain:
- Established good practices with regard to the design of these legislative mechanisms.
- Any unique approaches that particular countries have taken in this context that could be replicated and tested in other jurisdictions.
It covers:
- Conviction-based asset recovery mechanisms.
- Non-conviction based mechanisms including civil recovery.
- Additional mechanisms such as illicit enrichment laws and other laws that reverse the burden of proof regarding the legitimacy of assets.
- Considerations regarding the adoption of broader asset recovery laws.
- Approaches to the disposal of confiscated assets.
- Common challenges in the implementation of asset recovery mechanisms.
About this report
This comparative study was conducted and drafted by the International Centre for Asset Recovery at the Basel Institute on Governance for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The paper was commissioned under the extra-budgetary project ‘Strengthening asset recovery efforts in the OSCE region’ implemented by the OSCE Secretariat’s Transnational Threats Department and the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities.
It is published as part of the Basel Institute on Governance Working Paper series, ISSN: 2624-9650. You may share or republish it under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence.
Suggested citation: Dornbierer, Andrew. 2024. ‘Good practices in asset recovery legislation in selected OSCE participating States.’ Working Paper 51, Basel Institute on Governance and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Available at: baselgovernance.org/publications/wp-51.
Disclaimer
This Working Paper is intended for general informational purposes and does not constitute and/or substitute legal or other professional advice. The contents are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and the official position of the Basel Institute on Governance, the OSCE and its participating States.
Policy Brief 14: Targeting unexplained wealth: Implications of the EU’s 2024 Directive on asset recovery
The European Union’s 2024 Directive on Asset Recovery and Confiscation obliges Member States to, among other things, introduce legislative measures to enable the confiscation of “unexplained wealth”.
This policy paper examines this Article and the powers and restrictions that Member States will need to include in such “unexplained wealth” measures to ensure compliance with the Directive.
In brief, the Directive gives legislators in EU Member States flexibility to decide the scope of their own unexplained wealth measures. At a minimum, they must introduce measures that can be used to target unexplained wealth linked to organised crime.
Member States could, however, adopt broader measures target unexplained wealth relating to all criminal activity, including corruption.
About this Policy Brief
This publication is part of the Basel Institute on Governance Policy Brief series, ISSN 2624-9669.
You may freely share or republish it under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. Suggested citation: Dornbierer, Andrew. 2024. ‘Targeting unexplained wealth: Implications of the EU’s 2024 Directive on asset recovery.’ Policy Brief 14, Basel Institute on Governance. Available at: baselgovernance.org/pb-14.
This is a publication of the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) at the Basel Institute on Governance. ICAR receives core funding from the Governments of Jersey, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the UK.
Quick Guide 5: Illicit enrichment
This quick guide offers a short introduction to illicit enrichment laws, which are emerging as a powerful tool to combat corruption and recover stolen assets. Originally published in May 2019, it was updated in June 2021 following the Basel Institute’s publication of an open-access book on Illicit Enrichment: a Guide to Laws Targeting Unexplained Wealth.
In this quick guide the book’s author Andrew Dornbierer, Asset Recovery Specialist, explains what “illicit enrichment” or “unexplained wealth” mean – and how they can open the door to recovering stolen assets. He covers:
- What is illicit enrichment in a nutshell?
- Why are illicit enrichment laws useful in anti-corruption efforts?
- Is it a crime?
- Why is there some controversy?
- How is illicit enrichment investigated and prosecuted?
- Are there any recent case studies?
About this Quick Guide
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. It is part of the Basel Institute on Governance Quick Guide series, ISSN 2673-5229.
Enhancing the investigation capacities of the Romanian authorities to confiscate and recover proceeds of crime
The Basel Institute has been working with the Ministry of Justice of Romania in a two-component project seeking to enhance the capacity of the Romanian authorities to recover the proceeds of crime. The project is being implemented by the Asset Recovery Office (ARO) of the Ministry of Justice in collaboration with the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) of the Basel Institute. Funding of the project has been provided by the Swiss-Romanian Co-operation Programme.
The report refers to the external audit of the of the Romanian ARO and asset recovery system conducted by the ICAR, and assesses the legal and institutional framework of the Romanian asset recovery model, together with recommendations to improve its effectiveness.
