One and a half years ago, CiFAR launched its first project with young, investigative journalists – Investigate the Mediterranean – supported by GIZ. This project was ambitious: to train young journalists who might have had no experience in investigations, let alone financial crime investigations, to bring them together with peers from North Africa and Europe, Read more about Investigating cross-border corruption 101[…]
Moldova – Europe’s tiny, little known and poorest country – has arguably become a giant of corruption and money laundering in the past ten years. Research indicates that the country landed in the hands of powerful kleptocrats – above all, Vladimir Plahotniuc – who were able to take control of most public institutions, making the Read more about Europe’s forgotten corruption heaven: Moldova[…]
This blog is part of a series monitoring the utilisation of Nigeria’s recovered assets and was prepared by Oluwatosin Fatoyinbo. Read Oluwatosin’s previous article on Nigeria here. As CiFAR reported, Nigerian civil society is fighting hard to make the re-use of returned assets transparent and accountable, especially since the recent return of $322 million from Read more about The Nigeria “Cash Transfer Programme” and the $322 million return: More shadows than lights?[…]
“Politicians must accept that stolen assets belongs to the Moldovan people and that they must be found and recovered” In October 2018, CiFAR co-founder Agatino Camarda travelled to Chisinau, Moldova to meet with activists and journalists fighting corruption. Zarul de Garda, one of the most important online and offline investigative journalism outlets in Moldova, interviewed Read more about CiFAR’s interview with Zarul de Garda[…]
This blog is a part of our Ukraine series – written and researched by Michael Howard. You can read the previous post here. On 4 November, media reported the passing of 33-year-old anti-corruption activist Kateryna Handzyuk, who three months earlier had been horrifically injured in an acid attack in the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine. Read more about The role of civil society in asset recovery and fighting corruption in Ukraine[…]
The 1MDB scandal is the principle asset recovery case in Malaysia at the moment and for good reason: it involves a lot of money: potentially up to US $4.5 billion, it alleges wrongdoing at the highest levels, with former Prime Minister Najib at the centre of the allegations, and it involves multiple jurisdictions. The scope Read more about 1MDB is moving forward, but it’s far from the end of the story[…]
Over the past few years, we have witnessed over and over again how immensely important and at the same time incredibly dangerous is the work of investigative journalists. To enhance the support for cross-border investigative journalism, in cooperation with the GIZ, we organised a workshop at the 18th International Anti-corruption Conference that took place between 22nd and 24th of Read more about How to ensure a bright future for investigative journalism? – Reflections from the 18th IACC[…]
This blog is part of a series monitoring the utilisation of Nigeria’s recovered assets. The series is a follow-up to our latest article on Nigeria. This blog was prepared by Oluwatosin Fatoyinbo. The recent return of $322 million to Nigeria from Switzerland have led to new fears among citizens and reignited the debate on Read more about Tracking Nigeria’s Recovered Assets[…]
This blog is a part of our Ukraine series – written and researched by Michael Howard. The day Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia in 2014 the entire Ukrainian treasury had a few thousand dollars. During 4 years in power, he and his cronies allegedly looted billions from the country (some say as much as Read more about The NeverEnding Story: the Yanukovych asset recovery[…]
Asset recovery is often between rich Western states that harbour illicit wealth and poorer countries rebuilding after a change in regime or dealing with a large corruption scandal whose former leaders have stolen public funds. It is not always the case though, with recovery taking place regularly on the basis of organized crime between different Read more about Returning to Germany: East German cash and Swiss Banks[…]