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What is the Endgame in the Investigation of Organised Criminal Activity?
1.2.2 Successful Asset Recovery The capture of assets is an equally important component to the endgame in organised crime investigations. During the investigation phase, some challenges that can emerge include difficulties in finding evidence that directly connects assets with suspects, or issues in establishing the direct monetary benefits that a certain offence has produced.15 Once the proceeds of crime have finally been identified via means of an investigation, countries should be able to initiate and successfully conclude key phases of the asset recovery cycle. A key goal of asset recovery is deterrence, turning organised criminal activity and corruption into a higherrisk and lower-reward activity.16 At the same time, successful recovery of assets means that governments can invest funds into a stronger judicial system or, for example, in highpriority development sectors, such as the education, health care and employment sectors,17 factors which can increase resilience to organised criminal activity or resilience to corruption. Such investments can lead to stronger rule of law and higher trust in the work of a government. Still, many obstacles exist during the asset recovery cycle, and these will be discussed in more detail throughout the report. Most often, these issues are practical and may be resolved by making more use of informal networks of communication, improving and incentivising inter-institutional cooperation, or through the adoption of non-penal measures to confiscate assets.
Both a moral and legal imperative, asset recovery must be a cornerstone in any successful fight against organised criminal activity, and in countering many acts of corruption. Yet, the mere recovery of assets, without policies and practices in place to optimise their liquidation and social re-use, can render “asset recovery” vacuous or hollow. Extensive research carried out by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI)18 has demonstrated that successful recovery of only 10% of total estimated Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) lost to criminal activity annually, when redirected to high-priority development needs, would strongly contribute to citizens’ quality of life.19 IFFs derived from criminal activity have a detrimental effect on developing countries, and often mean fewer hospitals, schools, pensions, and job opportunities.20 This lends greater credence to the prioritisation of tracing, seizure, confiscation and recovery of illicitly-obtained assets, and to the establishment or strengthening of policies that demonstrate to citizens that recovered assets are being injected into high-priority development needs. Indeed, policy makers might consider asset recovery (including accelerated mechanisms for seizure and confiscation) and crossborder cooperation as valuable and opportunistic modalities to strengthen development projects within their countries. In this context, it is important that policy makers place additional focus and emphasis on policies that streamline and simplify such crossborder cooperation (as well as incountry inter-institutional cooperation) 5
