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In this well-documented and incisive piece, Vlasic and Cooper make a strong case for the vital importance of improving international stolen asset recovery^* efforts directed at corrupt public officials, or “Politically Exposed Persons,” as they are known.

While the News of the World phone hacking investigation is still in its early stages, the possibility of parent company News Corp. being forced to make restitution to victims, families, shareholders and even the UK and US governments through civil and criminal litigation, and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, is very real.

What does a declassified British security service's report have to do with the South African government's utter lack of political will to pursue corruption proceeds? Many onlookers are saying it is indicative of an endemic problem experienced by those who try to recover assets on behalf of the country. Meanwhile, billions of dollars in potential restitution hang in the balance.

Investigating corruption? Get ready to be investigated yourself.

After surviving an early attempt to blunt the legislation, the soon-to-be-released European Order for the Preservation of Assets and its sister law, the European Order for the Disclosure of Assets, could be effective in the cross-border fight to take back assets, if they are enacted.

A pair of US politicians are battling over the recent NOAA forfeiture funds scandal, and the agency's access to these funds hangs in the balance. Senator Scott Brown's "Asset Forfeiture^* Responsibility Act of 2011" seeks to remove regulation and forfeiture authority from the embattled agency, while Senator John Kerry's  "Fisheries Fee Fairness Act of 2011" proposes to deal with the specific harms done by federal fisheries law enforcement.

The International Association for Asset Recovery’s inaugural foray into the United Kingdom – a crucial battleground in the struggle to track and recover fraud assets – was well received by the 80 attendees of the 2011 Cross-Border Asset Tracing and Recovery Conference.

When it was founded in 2008, the International Association for Asset Recovery^* immediately flagged London as a critical theater for its efforts, and the first round of those efforts culminated last week in IAAR’S 2011 Cross-Border Asset Tracing and Recovery Conference.
 

HSBC asked a judge to dismiss a $9 billion lawsuit by the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff’s firm, saying he isn’t allowed by law to bring such cases on behalf of the confidence man’s former customers. Irving Picard, the trustee, sued HSBC and a dozen so-called feeder funds for $9 billion in December, accusing them of aiding Madoff’s fraud. Bloomberg, Friday, June 24, 2011