Arguably, fighting the flow of proceeds from corruption must be a shared responsibility between developing countries and those where dirty money ends as both sides are equally responsible.
Basel Institute on Governance Managing Director Gretta Fenner moderated a discussion on Finding stolen assets – the role of transparency and proactive measures in developed countries at the new Global Forum on Illicit Financial Flows and Sustainable Development series. Hosted by Germany and Norway, the event took place over two days starting 2 September 2020.
The panel looked at what the so-called “destination jurisdictions”, i.e. developed countries where laundered assets are ultimately placed can do to help with the recovery of stolen assets. The panel acknowledged that Financial centres in these destination jurisdictions need to do more to proactively identify and investigate stolen assets located in their jurisdictions, stating that the discrepancy between assets that are stolen and assets that are found is far too large for it to be credible that such small amounts of assets are effectively found in major financial centres. They identified some of the factors aiding the flow of procceds of crime as weak AML/CTF frameworks around the world and corporate secrecy around the establishment of beneficial ownership registries. Click here to read the key points of the discussions.