MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Forum on how to recover funds stolen by dictators and corrupt regimes

Managing Director of the World Bank Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

United Nations, the World Bank and Switzerland are organizing a two-day international conference in Paris to try and associate global financial centres in helping recover assets taken and hidden by dictators and other leaders of corrupt regimes.

The purpose of the “Global forum for the recovery of stolen assets and development” is to combat a phenomenon which is estimated to involve 20 to 40 billion US dollars annually of delinquency transfers to developed countries, according to the organizers.

The presentation of the conference on the first day will be done by Managing Director of the World Bank Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, followed by Swiss Foreign Secretary Micheline Calman-Rey and South Africa’s Justice minister Jeffrey Thamsanga Radebe.

Ms Calman-Rey in an article published in the French daily ‘Liberation’ argues that “international financial centres must ally to impede the circulation of the funds with a criminal origin and if necessary deliver them back to their legitimate owners”

The event in Paris not only is directed to promote the combat against corruption in the context of development, but also to put the accent in the importance and different cooperation modalities between countries for “the restitution of stolen funds or of misapplied origin”.

The Swiss minister adds that Berne has launched a “very complete legislative framework to avoid abuse of its financial hub with funds of criminal origin and with the purpose of being able to return assets from dictators and other corrupt politicians”.

This first forum with global projection is organized in anticipation of the G-20 summit of developed and emerging countries, scheduled for the end of June in Canada, when a greater regulation of the financial sector, given the ongoing crisis, is expected to be considered.