Illegal Asset Confiscation

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL – BULGARIA HOSTED INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ASSET RECOVERY IN EUROPE

April 28, 2015

On April 28^th 2015, in Sofia, Bulgaria, an international conference “Forfeiture of Illegal Assets: Models to Combat Serious Crime in the EU” took place. The event was hosted by the national chapter for Bulgaria of the international movement for fight against corruption Transparency International.

The conference was opened by the President of the National Assembly of Bulgaria, Ms. Tsetska Tsacheva. Among other official guests and speakers were also Mr. Ognyan Minchev, President of the Board of TI – Bulgaria, Mr. Plamen Georgiev, President of the Commission for Illegal Asset Forfeiture and Ms. Anne Koch, Regional director for Europe and Central Asia of Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin.

Among participants at the event were also Mr. Ivan Ivanov, Vice-president of the National Assembly, Mr. Danail Kirilov, Chair of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament, MPs, judges of the Constitutional Court, magistrates, representatives of the Commission for Illegal Asset Forfeiture, the National Revenue Agency, experts, representative of the National Crime Agency of the UK, diplomats, representatives of civil society organisations and media.

During the conference national models for confiscation/forfeiture of criminal and illegal assets in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria were presented. The national models for asset confiscation/forfeiture of Bulgaria, Romania, and Italy were compared to the ‘ideal national model’ developed by the project partners in a thorough analysis.

The afternoon session of the event was dedicated to the non-conviction based confiscation model in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian approach, as well as proposals for changes in the existing legislation, were discussed.

The conference is the closing event of the two-year project “Enhancing Integrity and Effectiveness of Illegal Asset Confiscation – European Approaches” of Transparency International – Bulgaria, which is realised in partnership with the national chapters of Transparency International in Romania and Italy. The initiative is co-financed by the “Prevention of and Fight against Crime” programme carried out by DG Home Affairs of the European Commission.

PRESENTATIONS

ASSET RECOVERY IN THE UK – RECOGNISING STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Nick Maxwell, Transparency International – UK

“PLUCK-THEM” LEGISLATION: CONFISCATION OF ILLEGAL ASSETS IN THE NETHERLANDS

Anne Scheltema Beduin, Transparency International – Netherlands

CONFISCATION OF PROCEEDS OF CRIME IN GERMANY

Dr. Johann Kubica, Transparency International – Germany

ASSET RECOVERY IN ITALY: A LOT OF EXPERIENCE BUT A LOT TO IMPROVE

Giorgio Fraschini, Transparency International – Italy

ASSET RECOVERY: THE ROMANIAN MODEL

Iulia Coşpănaru, Transparency International – Romania

IDEAL MODEL FOR ILLEGAL ASSET FORFEITURE: WHERE WE ARE. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE MODELS OF BULGARIA, ITALY, AND ROMANIA (in Bulgarian language)

Asoc. Prof. Antoniy Galabov, New Bulgarian University

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