In 2013, authorities in Colombia began to seize assets linked to a fraud ring, which had embezzled over a billion dollars from the tax office of Colombia (DIAN). The embezzlement is estimated to have cost Colombia around USD 1.5 billion. The newspaper El Espectador reported that prosecutors had begun to track bank accounts, properties and tax returns of more than 50 people implicated in the case, including close associates of Blanca Jazmin Becerra, who was found guilty in 2012 for one of the largest fraud cases in the country costing the tax office approximately USD 26 million.
Related to this and other cases, in 2019 Colombia was reportedly managing more assets seized than virtually any country globally. It was estimated that the country had roughly 64,000 assets in its inventory, including real estate, furniture, companies, livestock, and others. This included iconic assets that had been around for many years including the Chinauta Resort, which is 30 years old.
For countries with several and complicated assets like Colombia, but also any country actively involved in asset recovery, a robust asset management regime is imperative for successful administration of the confiscated proceeds of crime. Within this, asset registration and asset inventory management are key functions of any asset recovery mechanism.
This week we’ve launched a new policy brief exploring the topic of asset registers. While largely a technical discussion of processes and tools, the way this is done can have important impacts for anti-corruption and public participation more broadly.
As Jackson Oldfield, Director of Policy and Research at CiFAR said:
Without an asset registration system, there are risks that assets confiscated after anti-corruption prosecutions are re-stolen, or simply lost, and lose their value, depriving the State and the victims of corruption of the benefits of having recovered those assets. Without a system that has safeguards in place, there is a risk that corrupt officials manipulate records to do the same. And without asset registers being accessible to the public, it is impossible to have debate about what assets are confiscated, how authorities are managing those assets, and what should ultimately be done with them.
This paper observes and identifies the functions of such an inventory system, including the legal frameworks to establish the system. It also looks at and discusses best practices that could be used as guidance for the functioning of the asset register mechanism and identifies a series of best practices when it comes to asset registers.