At a juncture when United Nations and the World Bank are successfully pursuing the recovery of assets stolen by corrupt leaders throughout the world, the Pakistani Law Minister Dr Babar Awan is heard stating that the money-laundering case pertaining to President Asif Zardari has been declared a closed transaction by the Swiss Attorney General.
Dr Babar Awan has perhaps ignored the fact that it is virtually impossible today to hush up any corruption-related activity on the planet, given the fact that the powerful developed world is seemingly adamant to weed out this menace from the globe.
The suicide of former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun in the midst of a bribery investigation and the heated arguments in the trial of a US Congressman William Jefferson in not-so-distant past, bear ample testimony to the fact that the world is moving towards zero tolerance against corruption.
A study conducted by The News shows that in January 2004, former US President George Bush had issued a Presidential Proclamation 7750, which gave his country a legal authority to deny entry to individuals involved in public corruption.
The Proclamation was issued under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which allows the President to suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens into the United States whenever their entry would be deemed detrimental to the interests of the United States. It also provides specific legal authority for the US Secretary of State to identify people who should be denied entry because they are involved in public corruption that has serious adverse effects on the national interests of the United States, including the international economic activity of US businesses.
Though the US may not have implemented this Presidential Proclamation in its true and spirit yet, it has certainly emitted strong signals everywhere. Meanwhile, the concerted efforts of the United Nations and the World Bank to deter the illicit flows of the corruption proceeds often hid in international financial centres can be gauged from the fact that very recently in February 2010, Switzerland was diplomatically and legally forced to repatriate over $6 million stashed in its banks by Haiti’s former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier.
Courtesy the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative of the World Bank and United Nations, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court had to order the release of the public funds misappropriated by Haiti’s dictator. These funds were returned to the people of Haiti for use in development and humanitarian projects, rather than to purchase yachts and villas, after the international community had worked together the first time ever to help a poor country recover its looted assets.
The World Bank’s Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, commonly known as StAR, was launched jointly by the World Bank and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on September 17, 2007 in New York at an event chaired none other than the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon himself. This organization, which also collaborates with Interpol and global corruption watchdog Transparency International, has successfully sought international support in its efforts to track and recover dirty money parked in any offshore haven.
It only transpires after a thorough research that had these afore-mentioned organizations not raised a hue and cry over the wealth looted by corrupt leaders worldwide; the government of Philippines would not have succeeded in recovering the amount of $624 million, which was plundered by its former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. After an 18-year saga, which finally ended in January 2004, Philippines actually succeeded in getting the money, which Marcos had parked, in the Swiss Banks. Similarly, between August 2001 and 2004, Peru recovered nearly over $180 million stolen by its former Intelligence Chief Vladimiro Montesinos from several jurisdictions such as Switzerland, Cayman Islands and the United States, after the World Bank had voiced concerns in this matter as well.
Between September 2005 and early 2006, Nigeria recovered $505 million of Dictator Sani Abacha’s money frozen by the Swiss authorities. In July 2006, British authorities returned $1.9 million of the allegedly illicit gains of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the Governor of the oil-rich Bayelsa state in Nigeria.
In May 2007, an agreement between the governments of the United States, Switzerland and Kazakhstan allowed for the repatriation of $84 million to the Kazakh people.
Impressed by the World Bank’s initiative to recover stolen assets, the sitting Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed had recently announced that he would be seeking the help of the World Bank’s Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative to retrieve more than $2 billion in embezzled funds.
President Nasheed said recovering the money, embezzled by the former Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, was essential to help the government plug its gaping budget deficit, currently 34 per cent of the country’s GDP. Nasheed had established a commission last year to investigate the allegations of rampant corruption in more than 30 audit reports of state institutions under the control of his predecessor.
Apart from the UN-World Bank’s Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, there are several organisations worldwide that have prioritised asset recovery and have created initiatives to enable international cooperation while bringing the issue to forefront. These organisations include the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Commonwealth Network of Contact Persons, the Corruption Hunters Network and the European Judicial Network etc. The improvements in finance, transportation, and communications technologies in the 20th century may have made it easier for corrupt leaders and other “politically exposed persons” to conceal massive amounts of stolen wealth in offshore financial centers, but it is not easy anymore today to conceal ill-gotten wealth in any place guaranteeing secrecy and safety.
By taking advantage of differences in legal systems resulting in lengthy and expensive litigation, the high costs in coordinating investigations, lack of international cooperation and bank secrecy in some recipient countries, plutocrats skilled in an elaborate financial shell game have been able to preserve much of their loot overseas. According to the World Bank, the cross-border flow of proceeds from criminal activity, corruption and tax evasion is estimated between $1- 1.6 trillion per year, half of which is ransacked from the developing and transition economies. These estimates are roughly equivalent to the Bank’s total annual lending portfolio.
The WB has estimated that between $20 billion and $40 billion of this flow comprises of kickbacks paid to corrupt public officials from developing and transition countries. The World Bank has also evaluated that every $100 million recovered could fund firstline treatment for over 600,000 people infected with HIV/AIDS for a full year, it can help cure 50 to 100 million in drugs for the treatment of malaria and this amount can also be used to provide 0.25 million water connections for households.
Dr Babar Awan has perhaps ignored the fact that it is virtually impossible today to hush up any corruption-related activity on the planet, given the fact that the powerful developed world is seemingly adamant to weed out this menace from the globe.
The suicide of former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun in the midst of a bribery investigation and the heated arguments in the trial of a US Congressman William Jefferson in not-so-distant past, bear ample testimony to the fact that the world is moving towards zero tolerance against corruption.
A study conducted by The News shows that in January 2004, former US President George Bush had issued a Presidential Proclamation 7750, which gave his country a legal authority to deny entry to individuals involved in public corruption.
The Proclamation was issued under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which allows the President to suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens into the United States whenever their entry would be deemed detrimental to the interests of the United States. It also provides specific legal authority for the US Secretary of State to identify people who should be denied entry because they are involved in public corruption that has serious adverse effects on the national interests of the United States, including the international economic activity of US businesses.
Though the US may not have implemented this Presidential Proclamation in its true and spirit yet, it has certainly emitted strong signals everywhere. Meanwhile, the concerted efforts of the United Nations and the World Bank to deter the illicit flows of the corruption proceeds often hid in international financial centres can be gauged from the fact that very recently in February 2010, Switzerland was diplomatically and legally forced to repatriate over $6 million stashed in its banks by Haiti’s former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier.
Courtesy the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative of the World Bank and United Nations, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court had to order the release of the public funds misappropriated by Haiti’s dictator. These funds were returned to the people of Haiti for use in development and humanitarian projects, rather than to purchase yachts and villas, after the international community had worked together the first time ever to help a poor country recover its looted assets.
The World Bank’s Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, commonly known as StAR, was launched jointly by the World Bank and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on September 17, 2007 in New York at an event chaired none other than the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon himself. This organization, which also collaborates with Interpol and global corruption watchdog Transparency International, has successfully sought international support in its efforts to track and recover dirty money parked in any offshore haven.
It only transpires after a thorough research that had these afore-mentioned organizations not raised a hue and cry over the wealth looted by corrupt leaders worldwide; the government of Philippines would not have succeeded in recovering the amount of $624 million, which was plundered by its former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. After an 18-year saga, which finally ended in January 2004, Philippines actually succeeded in getting the money, which Marcos had parked, in the Swiss Banks. Similarly, between August 2001 and 2004, Peru recovered nearly over $180 million stolen by its former Intelligence Chief Vladimiro Montesinos from several jurisdictions such as Switzerland, Cayman Islands and the United States, after the World Bank had voiced concerns in this matter as well.
Between September 2005 and early 2006, Nigeria recovered $505 million of Dictator Sani Abacha’s money frozen by the Swiss authorities. In July 2006, British authorities returned $1.9 million of the allegedly illicit gains of Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the Governor of the oil-rich Bayelsa state in Nigeria.
In May 2007, an agreement between the governments of the United States, Switzerland and Kazakhstan allowed for the repatriation of $84 million to the Kazakh people.
Impressed by the World Bank’s initiative to recover stolen assets, the sitting Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed had recently announced that he would be seeking the help of the World Bank’s Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative to retrieve more than $2 billion in embezzled funds.
President Nasheed said recovering the money, embezzled by the former Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, was essential to help the government plug its gaping budget deficit, currently 34 per cent of the country’s GDP. Nasheed had established a commission last year to investigate the allegations of rampant corruption in more than 30 audit reports of state institutions under the control of his predecessor.
Apart from the UN-World Bank’s Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, there are several organisations worldwide that have prioritised asset recovery and have created initiatives to enable international cooperation while bringing the issue to forefront. These organisations include the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Commonwealth Network of Contact Persons, the Corruption Hunters Network and the European Judicial Network etc. The improvements in finance, transportation, and communications technologies in the 20th century may have made it easier for corrupt leaders and other “politically exposed persons” to conceal massive amounts of stolen wealth in offshore financial centers, but it is not easy anymore today to conceal ill-gotten wealth in any place guaranteeing secrecy and safety.
By taking advantage of differences in legal systems resulting in lengthy and expensive litigation, the high costs in coordinating investigations, lack of international cooperation and bank secrecy in some recipient countries, plutocrats skilled in an elaborate financial shell game have been able to preserve much of their loot overseas. According to the World Bank, the cross-border flow of proceeds from criminal activity, corruption and tax evasion is estimated between $1- 1.6 trillion per year, half of which is ransacked from the developing and transition economies. These estimates are roughly equivalent to the Bank’s total annual lending portfolio.
The WB has estimated that between $20 billion and $40 billion of this flow comprises of kickbacks paid to corrupt public officials from developing and transition countries. The World Bank has also evaluated that every $100 million recovered could fund firstline treatment for over 600,000 people infected with HIV/AIDS for a full year, it can help cure 50 to 100 million in drugs for the treatment of malaria and this amount can also be used to provide 0.25 million water connections for households.
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