Thematic Priorities

Our Thematic Priorities address the evidence base needed for effective asset recovery. Going beyond individual country cases, these priorities represent our commitment to push the agenda forward on the most pressing challenges of asset recovery globally, regionally and nationally.

Asset Management

Asset management is a fundamental, but often overlooked or underdeveloped area of asset recovery. It is the process of overseeing and administering assets that have been seized, frozen, or confiscated as part of a prosecution or civil claim, through restitution orders, or voluntary surrenders linked to economic crimes and corruption.

Return mechanisms

Return mechanisms describe the practice of returning recovered money across borders indirectly via third-party entities that stand between cooperating governments. These entities might be called in to aid in the negotiations, as well as in the process of the distribution of the returned assets, especially in situations where there are challenging relationships between the negotiating governments or when receiving countries lack the necessary corruption controls to mitigate the risk of re-looting the assets.

Sanctions

Anti-corruption sanctions have been imposed against high-ranking public officials by several jurisdictions as a way to prevent them from removing their corruptly acquired wealth. They can also be used to give law enforcement agencies the opportunity to launch investigations and legal action to recover that wealth.

Social reuse and victims

The loss of public assets to corruption has a significant impact on countries and their populations. Infrastructure development, social welfare, and other public programmes are deprived of their intended impact due to loss of funding, which harms the people relying on these resources for their well-being.

Transparency in asset recovery

Accessible access to information around cases, legislation, policy and statistics is vital for public engagement in asset recovery and for civil society and journalists to support the process.