Cross-Border Asset Recovery, Mutual Legal Assistance and Repatriation

Course overview

Illicit financial flows leave Africa through foreign bank accounts, overseas property and offshore companies, and recovering them depends on cooperation with other countries. Many requests stall because they are poorly drafted, sent through the wrong channel or not followed up. This cross-border asset recovery course teaches practitioners how to trace, freeze, confiscate and repatriate assets held abroad, and how to make cooperation work.

Participants learn the international framework, including UNCAC, FATF standards and regional conventions, and compare formal mutual legal assistance with informal routes such as FIU exchange, police cooperation and asset recovery networks like ARIN-EA and ARINSA. They practise drafting requests that foreign authorities can act on, handling incoming requests, and enforcing foreign orders. The course also covers foreign company structures, evidence requirements abroad, asset sharing and the negotiation of repatriation agreements. A case runs through the week involving funds moved from an East African state to Europe and the Gulf.

Participants leave able to choose the right cooperation route, draft effective requests and manage a cross-border case through to the return of assets.

What you will be able to do

• Explain the international legal framework for cross-border asset recovery
• Choose between formal and informal cooperation channels for a given need
• Use asset recovery networks and FIU exchange to locate assets abroad
• Draft mutual legal assistance requests that meet foreign requirements
• Handle and execute incoming requests efficiently
• Plan freezing, confiscation and enforcement of orders abroad
• Negotiate asset sharing and repatriation arrangements

Who should attend

For prosecutors, investigators, central authority officers and FIU staff who send or handle international requests in asset recovery cases.

• Prosecutors and state counsel
• Central authority officers
• Asset recovery investigators
• FIU international cooperation officers
• Anti-corruption investigators
• Ministry of justice legal officers
• Police international liaison officers

Course outline

Fees are per participant in US dollars and cover tuition, course materials and your certificate. Travel and accommodation are not included.