The MPs passed the National Criminal Assets Recovery Program for 2023-2027 and the action plan for implementing this. The goal of the program is to increase the efficiency of the national criminal assets recovery system, to improve communication, cooperation and coordination between the responsible authorities and their foreign counterparts, IPN reports.
“To strengthen our capacities to identify and recover criminal assets, we need to ensure proper interinstitutional cooperation and efficient cooperation with similar institutions from other states, especially the EU. We also want to produce a social impact. A part of the recovered funds will be redirected for the social needs of the country,” stated the director of the National Anticorruption Center Iulian Rusu.
The draft decision provides that the lack of a mechanism of confiscation in the absence of a conviction is an impediment faced by Moldova. The mechanism is regulated by the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and Directive 2014/42/EU on the freezing and confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of crime. The draft Directive presented by the Commission on May 25, 2022 extends the situations in which a confiscation order may be applied without the existence of a conviction, such as the death of the suspected or accused person, as well as immunity or amnesty.
In order to capture property which might be transformed and transferred in order to conceal its origin, the Penal Procedure Code should stipulate a shorter period of time during which the judge of inquiry can pronounce on the prosecutor’s request to confiscate assets as this can contribute to a more efficient recovery process.
In 2017-2021, the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency sequestrated assets to the total value of about 5.49 billion lei. The first four most valuable types of goods confiscated by the Agency represent about 2/3 of the value of all the assets sequestrated during four years of the institution’s establishment.
