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 About $20 billion to $40 billion leaves developing and transition
countries each year, stolen by public officials. Libya has lost more
than $27 billion under Muammar Gaddafi, Ukraine is seeking to track
down billions siphoned off by former President Viktor Yanukovich and
his allies, and Switzerland has frozen $139 million in Syrian
assets.
Improved international cooperation and better methods for hunting
down and seizing stolen money has led to a 14 percent increase in
assets frozen to $1.4 billion between 2010 and 2012, compared with
the 2006-2009 period, according to the report from the Organization
of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank-U.N.
Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) project.
However, this amount pales in face of the billions of dollars lost
each year to corruption, and the amount of money actually returned
is even smaller, said Jean Pesme, StAR coordinator.
Between 2006 and 2012, $423.5 million was returned from the leading
developed and emerging countries that are OECD members, the report
said.
“Given the critical importance of these assets for development,
decisive, innovative and systematic action by governments against
the corrupt and their ill-gotten gains is what will make the
difference,” Pesme said.
He is calling for development agencies and countries to toughen
their policies and improve asset recovery so that money can be used
to improve the lives of the poor.
In Angola, for example, investigations by Switzerland led to the
return of $64 million in money laundered by Angolan officials, and
those funds were used to clear landmines, build hospitals, improve
water supplies and develop agriculture, the report said.
Tanzania has received $47 million for education after settlement of
an international bribery case.
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On the other hand, Arab Spring countries have expressed frustration
over slow progress in returning millions of dollars in foreign bank
accounts linked to their former leaders. Switzerland has frozen
$781.51 million tied to former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The report offered these recommendations for speeding up return of
stolen assets were for countries:
- Adopt comprehensive strategies to combat corruption and recover
stolen assets. Only three of the 34 OECD countries – United States,
United Kingdom and Switzerland – have repatriated corrupt proceeds
since 2006, and most countries surveyed reported very little
progress, despite signing high-level international commitments on
anti-corruption and asset recovery.
- Make flexible use of administrative and civil tools to identify
and quickly seize assets; pass new laws where needed, instead of
relying on criminal actions.
- Improve cooperation among jurisdictions especially over
technicalities such as establishing ownership of the assets; assist
in training asset hunters in developing countries, where legal
systems are less complex.
(Editing by Alisa Tang.)
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