MONEYVAL Urges EU Countries to Strengthen Confiscation of Criminal Assets

EU countries have been cautioned by the Council of Europe's expert group MONEYVAL that they are not doing enough to confiscate criminal assets, and successful confiscations are still considered "relatively rare" events.

According to MONEYVAL's annual report for 2022, there remains "insufficient" recovery of proceeds from crime across states, prompting a call for governments to intensify their efforts in strengthening national asset management and recovery frameworks.

MONEYVAL stressed the significance of enhancing the powers and resources allocated to criminal asset recovery, highlighting the need for more successful confiscations. Elżbieta Frankow-Jaśkiewicz, Chair of MONEYVAL, emphasized the importance of improving both the identification and freezing of criminal funds, as well as the confiscation and management of criminal assets. She urged states to adopt stricter sanctions and increase the number of convictions for serious money laundering offenses:

"States should not only improve their results in identifying and freezing criminal funds. There is also an urgent need for them to greatly improve their results in confiscating and managing criminal assets, adopt stricter sanctions and increase the number of convictions for serious money laundering offenses."

Frankow-Jaśkiewicz further stressed the connection between authoritarian regimes, corrupt actors, and illicit financial flows, particularly highlighting the impact of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. She emphasized the necessity of preventing illicit actors from accessing funds and resources used to facilitate harmful activities, and called for increased investment in national programs to combat money laundering and terrorist financing:

"Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has highlighted the link between authoritarian regimes, corrupt actors and illicit financial flows. The need to deny illicit actors access to the funds and resources used to facilitate harmful activities, including those that can undermine European security and stability, has become even more apparent. Governments should invest more in their national programs to combat money laundering and terrorist financing and adopt stricter policies to prevent the laundering of proceeds associated with corrupt regimes."

MONEYVAL's annual report assessed compliance with international standards and developments in legal and institutional frameworks across 33 jurisdictions by the end of 2022. It revealed that 72% of the recommended legislative and institutional reforms were fully implemented by MONEYVAL members. However, during the 5th round of mutual evaluations, 21 out of 26 assessed jurisdictions were subjected to enhanced follow-up procedures due to their limited compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) standards. These jurisdictions include Albania, Andorra, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Gibraltar, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco, Malta, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, the UK Crown Dependency of the Isle of Man, and Ukraine.

Furthermore, MONEYVAL's regular follow-up procedures involve Armenia, the Holy See, Liechtenstein, San Marino, and Israel.

By fLEXI tEAM