The commitment can be considered specific because it refers to a defined anti-corruption mechanism (asset confiscation and asset recovery).
The United States will use our authorities to seize and forfeit assets that represent the proceeds of, or were used to facilitate, crimes, including corruption. The United States is committed to returning the proceeds recovered for the benefit of the people harmed by the corruption.
Completion Status:
*commitment is not specific or/and not measurable
Commitment filtering:
The commitment can be considered specific because it refers to a defined anti-corruption mechanism (asset confiscation and asset recovery). “Our authorities” refers to the institution in charge of asset recovery in the United States – in this case, the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section within the Department of Justice.
The commitment cannot be measured because no comprehensive overview or database lists all national and international asset recovery cases with US authority involvement. The audit reports of the Assets Forfeiture Fund and Seized Asset Deposit Fund provide an overview of total sums of forfeiture revenue and victim compensation. However, they do not provide an overview of single cases.[1]
At the international level, there is the StAR (Stolen Asset Recovery) Watch Database, an initiative of the World Bank Group and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The database aims “to collect and systematise information about completed and ongoing recovery efforts of proceeds of corruption that have an international dimension”. Annex 1 lists all cases where the United States is the “Jurisdiction of Asset Recovery”. However, the database is temporarily disabled, and the World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included.[2]
[1] Annex 1: Forfeiture Revenue and Victim Compensation of the AFF/SADF.
[2] World Bank Group and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, StAR Asset Recovery Watch Database, https://star.worldbank.org/asset-recovery-watch-database
United States
