Background

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendation 38 reads: “There should be authority to take expeditious action in response to requests by foreign countries to identify, freeze, seize and confiscate property laundered, proceeds from money laundering or predicate offences, instrumentalities used in or intended for use in the commission of these offences, or property of corresponding value. There should also be arrangements for coordinating seizure and confiscation proceedings, which may include the sharing of confiscated assets”.

Most crime leads to one objective; the amassing of wealth with the minimum of effort and without conscience of the repercussions of the criminal activity. As many have said, it is time to make sure crime does not pay.

The fight against crime and specifically the money laundering that comes out of that activity in the global context takes up huge, scarce resources. Part of the process and planning of that fight involves finding means to meet the significant costs incurred in setting up legislation and processes to discover, analyse, process and report on money laundering and financial crime activity regionally and globally.

One practical and very visible step that can be taken is to take the battle straight to the criminals and deprive them of their ill gotten gains. The proceeds of crime. This is a natural next step to any anti money laundering policy and enforcement programme. There are a number of groups such as the FATF and sister organisations that are the natural champions of that activity. But what of a coordinated approach further down the administrative chain?

Anti Money Laundering (AML) legislative and policy development is a predominant activity globally at this time. Many countries are yet to develop policy, let alone laws, to combat growing crime income and resultant activity in their own jurisdictions. However, most countries are well on the way to meeting this United Nations (UN) mandated target. There has been great progress  with setting up the enforcement processes to effectively target the money laundering engendered by organised crime in drug trafficking, people smuggling, financing of terrorism, particularly when it comes to cross border cooperation. The focus now is on how to best deal with the seizure and  management of restrained or frozen assets and the disposal of confiscated criminal assets.

In conference’s and meetings involving asset managers and criminal proceeds litigators over the past few years, members of CAMERA have agreed that;

  • it would benefit participating agencies and their operational personnel to hold proceeds of crime conferences and workshops into the future, with conferences to be held every 12 months to maintain the momentum obtained from previous conferences; and
  • embers should meet every 3 months by video conference or similar;
  • a forum (this website) should be created and maintained, that would assist participating jurisdictions primarily in:
    • Sharing of information;
    • Developing and training of operational and policy staff; and
    • Developing and maintaining cross border assistance policies in terms of the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and also the G8 recommendation on international cooperation in criminal asset restraint, confiscation and asset sharing.

The focus of the forum should be:

  • Further development and refinement of international practice standards in relation to obligations and compliance strategies for proceeds of crime issues and;
  • Providing guidance, support and a focal point for the establishment of interagency liaison groups within jurisdictions.

Identifying comparable practices in both conviction based systems and non conviction (civil) based systems for:

  • restraining/freezing proceeds of crime and instruments of crime;
  • mechanisms to manage assets that are restrained/frozen;
  • provision for forfeiture of proceeds of crime;
  • identifying/locating assets and developing asset profiles of offenders; and
  • conducting financial investigations in proceeds of crime matters

with the view to formulating models for the establishment of Best Practices that can be adapted to individual jurisdiction requirements.

Exploring ways that international cooperation may assist in:

  • Locating, restraining/freezing proceeds and instruments of crime;
  • Forfeiture of proceeds and instruments of crime; and
  • Identifying workable solutions in relation to assistance issues

Identifying Best Practices and the development of models in Relation to Managing Restrained or Frozen and Forfeited assets:

  • Use of Receivers/Trustees
  • Managing restrained assets
  • Use of funds from the disposal of forfeited assts

Identification of ways to provide technical assistance & training opportunities that will assist jurisdictions in dealing with proceeds of crime issues.

As asset location, seizure, management and disposal can quite often be the lengthiest portion of any asset recovery case, there is a need to ensure that any seized assets are maintained properly with the ultimate objective of preserving the value of the assets in a controlled environment, denying the use of the assets to the respondents (and in some cases, possibly over enthusiastic enforcement agencies) and of the ultimate administration of confiscation orders.

This is the role of the administrator & trustee of proceeds of crime assets. Asset recovery is still a young discipline in most areas of the world. There is much to learn by us all. The best way of dealing with the issues that stem from those needs is the creation of a dedicated association with the specific objectives that will assist all participants in the long term.

In March 2009, that association was formed by founding agencies from Australia, Canada, Jersey, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The association was named the Criminal Assets Management and Enforcement Regulators Association – CAMERA.

A constitution was drafted and the objectives of the association were agreed.