During 25-29 March 2019, three highly qualified trainers from International Centre for the Asset Recovery (ICAR) of Basel Institute of Governance conducted a 5-day training on “Mutual Legal Assistance and Use of Offshores Structures to Conceal Beneficial Ownership” for the experts from Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies.
Throughout the week, participants were trained using Basel Institute’s very effective methodology based on complex simulated investigations that replicate the real world as closely as possible within a classroom setting.
The experts, working in task force groups, were making independent decisions on investigative actions including surveillance, search warrants, interviewing hostile witnesses and tracking the proceeds of large-scale corruption across international borders.
“In addition to providing us with new knowledge and tools, this training was a perfect networking opportunity for professionals from different agencies often working on the same cases but usually not knowing each other personally. Thanks to this training, I can now better understand how ARMA can be more effective when working with other law-enforcement agencies during investigations,” said Yelizaveta, one of ARMA’s analysts, following the training.
Three highly skilled trainers — Ms. Phyllis Atkinson, a former prosecutor, Federico Paesano, formerItalian police officer and investigator, Thierry Ravalomanda, experienced judicial officer — had conducted similar trainings in Ukraine and have good knowledge of Ukrainian reality and the complexity of its cases.
“It’s been a complete pleasure working with this group of people. The success of the training can be attributed to the fact that we had several agencies present and these experts could learn now only from us, but from one another,” said Phyllis Atkinson after the training. She also added that the training helped Ukrainian experts familiarize themselves with trusts — structures that are often used in international corruption schemes, but don’t exist in Ukraine.
It was the second training that the EUACI has organized for local anti-corruption experts: detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, prosecutors of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, analysts from the Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA), and the State Financial Monitoring Service.
The Basel Institute on Governance is an independent not-for-profit competence centre working around the world to strengthen the quality of governance and counter corruption and other financial crimes.
