Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

• Public Wrongs, Private Actions : Civil Lawsuits to Recover Stolen Assets

  Sotiropoulou, Anastasia; Sylvester, Katherine Rose; Mekki, Yannis; Brun, Jean Pierre; Dubois, Pascale Helene; Uttamchandani, Mahesh; Jaïs, Sarah; van der Does de Willebois, Emile; Hauch, Jeanne (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014-10-20)

  Corruption and thefts of public assets harm a diffuse set of victims, weakens confidence in public institutions, damages the private investment climate, and threatens the foundations of the society as a whole. In developing countries with scarce public resources, the cost of corruption is an impediment to development: developing countries lose between US$20 to US$40 billion each year through bribery, misappropriation of funds, and other corrupt practices. Corruption is by no means a "victimless crime." This study aims to explore the standing of States and Government entities as victims and the possible recourse to private actions to redress public wrongs. States and Government entities may act as private litigants and bring civil suits to recover assets lost to corruption. The goal of this work is to promote knowledge and understanding as well as to increase the use of civil remedies and private lawsuits to recover stolen assets in the context of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) offences. The UNCAC, the global standard for the fight against corruption, does not contain a legal definition of corruption itself but lists an array of offences, including public and private sector bribery and the embezzlement of public and private sector funds. The study will mainly focus on these two types of corruption, namely bribery and embezzlement of funds. This study is not intended in any way to minimize the importance of criminal proceedings and confiscation in addressing acts of corruption. Rather, it will show that civil law remedies can effectively complement criminal penalties by attacking the economic base of corrupt activities both in the public and the private sectors. In fact, given the magnitude of the challenges, all avenues of asset recovery, be they criminal or civil, should be explored simultaneously in order to tackle corruption from each and every angle and achieve the goals of deterrence and enforcement. Hence, while criminal law expresses society's disapproval of the corrupt acts and aims at dissuasion, punishment, and confiscation of illicit proceeds, civil law focuses on victims' interests and aims at compensation and restitution. These procedures may occur sometimes in parallel, sometimes sequentially. An effective response to corruption very often requires concomitant use of both criminal and civil law remedies to achieve the desired result.
• Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism : Honduras

  World Bank (Washington, DC, 2013-03-26)

  This Report provides a summary of the level of compliance with the Financial Action Task Force, and provides recommendations to improve compliance within the prevailing context of Honduras. The views expressed in this document are those of the assessment team and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government of Honduras or the Boards of the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Honduras has set up a number of the fundamental components of an anti-money laundering (AML) regime, through various legislative and regulatory instruments and an institutional framework which includes law enforcement, prosecution, and supervisory bodies. While progress has been made, key changes are needed to laws and regulations in order for Honduras to have more effective money laundering and financing of terrorism regime. There is a lack of strategic direction and coordination among the participants. A focal point and coordination body needs to be established, involving senior representatives of all the entities involved in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing to ensure the most effective and efficient collaboration of the initiative, and to ensure that necessary policy, regulatory and legislative measures can be expeditiously developed, approved and implemented and that initiative wide statistics on workload, performance and results are collected and shared.
• Justice for Forests : Improving
 Criminal Justice Efforts to Combat Illegal Logging

  Goncalves, Marilyne Pereira; Greenberg, Theodore S.; Magrath, William B.; Panjer, Melissa (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012-03-14)

  Every two seconds, across the world, an
 area of forest the size of a football field is clear-cut by
 illegal loggers. In some countries, up to 90 percent of all
 the logging taking place is illegal. Estimates suggest that
 this criminal activity generates approximately US$10-15
 billion annually worldwide funds that are unregulated,
 untaxed, and often remain in the hands of organized criminal
 gangs. Thus far, domestic and international efforts to curb
 forest crimes have focused on preventative actions, but they
 have had little or no significant impact. While prevention
 is an essential part of enforcement efforts to tackle
 illegal logging, it has not halted the rapid disappearance
 of the world's old-growth trees. New ideas and
 strategies are needed to preserve what is left of forests.
 This paper suggests that current practice be combined with a
 more targeted, punitive approach, through more effective use
 of the criminal justice system. It argues that the criminal
 justice system should form an integral part of any balanced
 and organized strategy for fighting forest crime. This
 strategy should include initiatives to enhance the
 efficiency of criminal justice in combating illegal logging
 that is, the investigation, prosecution, and conviction of
 cases, as well as the confiscation of the proceeds of
 criminal activity. These initiatives should be deployed in
 parallel with preventive programs, and the two approaches
 should complement and reinforce each other. The criminal
 justice system has been used in the fight against illegal
 logging, but only in very sporadic instances and in limited
 and ineffective ways. Moreover, in those few cases, it has
 tended to target low-level criminals whose involvement in
 illegal logging is due to poverty. As such, it has created
 no real deterrent and has encouraged skeptics to further
 discount the relevance of criminal justice methods. The
 objective of this paper is to inform policy makers and
 forestry and law enforcement actors how they can use the
 criminal justice system in fighting illegal logging. It
 seeks to mobilize them to take action and address the
 various criminal acts involved in illegal logging
 operations. The paper puts forward practical suggestions
 that can be implemented to achieve a tangible improvement in
 this fight. Rather than focusing on a single element of the
 criminal justice system, it provides a broad overview of the
 topic. Future papers may provide an opportunity to flesh out
 further detail.