Igoris Krzechkovskis, UNODC expert: to legalize criminal assets, criminals are constantly developing and implementing new methods

The problem of the return of assets illegally withdrawn to foreign jurisdictions to the national economy is extremely relevant. A significant share in the total amount of these funds is made up of proceeds from crime, including as a result of corrupt activities. The main ways of their legalization are investments in movable and immovable property, and other financial instruments, as well as placement on accounts in foreign banks. A considerable part of criminal assets settles in offshores - states and territories that represent a preferential tax regime, as well as the ability to hide the source of the acquisition of property.

Igoris Krzechkovskis, UNODC International expert will tell about how the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Programme Office in the Kyrgyz Republic assists the competent state bodies in resolving this problem.

- How would you characterize the state of the national system of detection, search, arrest and return of stolen assets in Kyrgyzstan?

Speaking about the national system for combating money laundering and property search, I would like to note that the competent state bodies of the Kyrgyz Republic, with the active support of foreign partners, pay great attention to the development and implementation of new tools that help to effectively counteract crimes that generate significant criminal profits.  A distinctive feature of UNODC’s project is its main goal - assistance in creating a systematic approach to the integrated use of financial investigation as a separate tool in the criminal process. Financial investigation should be used not fragmentarily within the framework of individual cases, but on an ongoing basis in the investigation of all criminal acts, during which their organizers managed to obtain significant criminal profit, including income received by causing significant damage to public and private financial interests. Meaning, when studying, analyzing and investigating the financial component of a crime, we must immediately use all the actions established in legal acts that will allow us to quickly identify, trace and seize those assets that were stolen from the state budget, obtained during the sale of drugs or obtained in the course of fraudulent activities against individuals.

At the same time, the main guarantee of success is the timely response from the financial intelligence agency and other law enforcement agencies, as well as the competent use of the very methodology of financial investigation. An important role is also played by the effective coordination and control of the process of organizing criminal prosecution by the prosecutor's office. The more often a financial investigation is applied, the problems associated with the identification and return of stolen funds will be minimized accordingly.

- How did the UNODC project help in improving the efficiency of work in this area?

- The project was carried out in close cooperation with colleagues from the Kyrgyz Republic. Creating a national system of financial investigations, the  primary task was to create it on a turnkey basis, i.e. to ensure the participation in the system of financial investigations of all state institutions, whose potential can be effectively used in the course of the search for and return of stolen property. As one of the main components of this system, we have developed a number of documents that have either already been approved or are being approved in the process of discussion. The adoption and implementation of these documents will improve not only the effectiveness of investigations conducted by individual state bodies, but also the entire system of financial investigations, designed to ensure the return to the citizens of Kyrgyzstan of the property that was illegally withdrawn from the state budget and financial system. An important step was also taken in improving the system for recording and managing seized property so that investigators and prosecutors have all the tools, like their counterparts in other countries, to ensure timely decisions on their confiscation.

- What is the positive trend of this project?

One of the positive trends of this project is the involvement of all state institutions that may encounter in their activities the search, arrest and return of stolen assets. At the same time, the activities of the experts were focused not only on the development of documents, but also on the active training of law enforcement officers. All the work we have done, with active interaction with the national experts of Kyrgyzstan, has laid a reliable long-term foundation not only for the creation of a national system of financial investigations, but also for its development and improvement. The criminal world does not stand still; to legalize criminal assets, criminals are constantly developing and implementing new methods. That is why, as part of the project, new tools have been developed to help counteract such “criminal innovations”, including the creation of interagency platforms for active interaction. It should be noted that when proposing certain steps, we carefully analyzed the legal framework and practice of law enforcement agencies and courts in Kyrgyzstan. We also relied on the best experience in the field of financial investigations of the leading countries of the world.

- What are the current problems faced by law enforcement agencies of foreign countries in the course of the search for criminal assets?

- First of all, it is possible to single out the activation of the use of cyberspace for the commission of criminal activities. Given the fact that the entire modern financial system of the world has "moved" to the Internet, the criminal world is there "hunting" for its victims. Also, cyberspace, such as virtual currencies, are actively used to mask criminal operations. Here we see the next stage of our cooperation and, first of all, we are talking about strengthening the capacity of law enforcement agencies of Kyrgyzstan in the field of searching for “crypto” property. First of all, we are talking about the organization of training.

Speaking about the practice of work in the countries of the European Union, it should be noted that the EU has created a unified legal framework designed to ensure the effectiveness of financial investigations. According to the requirements of European legal acts adopted back in 2007, each EU member state has created one or more so-called property search units, united in a single network administered by the European Police Bureau Europol.

Also, certain rules and legal acts were adopted on interaction in the framework of criminal prosecution, including with an emphasis on not only arrest, but also on the management of seized property. Therefore, in the Kyrgyz Republic, we actively used the practice of the European Union, which has been time-tested and proven to be effective. But at the same time, I want to note that none of the financial investigation tools that were included in the legal acts developed during the project was proposed and adopted without a comprehensive assessment of its applicability in the legal system of the Kyrgyz Republic.

- What would be your recommendation to the Kyrgyz Rebuplic?

- In the course of our joint work with national experts, a number of important documents were developed. But we also understand that the success of the entire project is also closely related to the active implementation of the established orders and instructions. Therefore, the main recommendation of the leadership of law enforcement agencies was to bring the provisions of all approved documents to the end user - investigators and prosecutors as soon as possible. Also, one should not forget that the judiciary must be fully informed about the results of the project, because it is the judge who, after evaluating all the evidence collected, decides on the confiscation of the seized assets.

First of all, we must help implement those recommendations of experts that need to be improved. Help investigators and prosecutors streamline the criminal process so that financial investigations are carried out as efficiently and quickly as possible. Here I see the creation of a comprehensive system of national character education, not forgetting the judiciary. To explain and show in practice the essence of those documents that were adopted, plus the best methods and practices, where all important points are noted, for example, with cryptocurrencies. And here I see nothing else but strengthening the national training platform for financial investigations. These are the further plans of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and I really hope that they will be discussed in the very near future and appropriate decisions will be made.

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For more information contact Vasilina Brazhko 

Communications and PR Specialist at 

UNODC Criminal Justice Programme for Central Asia 

UNODC POKYR 

+996775987817

vasilina.brazhko[at]un.org