G20 governments and Dubai must act now to freeze and investigate any illicit assets

Transparency International (TI), the anti-corruption organisation, is calling on the Group of 20 countries and Dubai to freeze and investigate immediately any illicit assets, particular those originating from Egypt and Tunisia.

A letter from TI Chair Huguette Labelle sent last night to the heads of state of the G20 countries and the Emir of Dubai urges them to implement the request made by Egypt’s public prosecutor to freeze and investigate the foreign assets of former president Hosni Mubarak and his closest family members.

Global illicit financial flows present a massive transfer of wealth out of poorer nations, undermining poverty alleviation and sustainable growth.

The repatriation of assets illicitly transferred from Egypt could provide much needed funds for development in a country where 40 per cent of the population lives on less than US$2 a day.

The letter includes the following recommendations:

• Enact and implement new laws or regulations that require identification of suspicious assets and make it easier to freeze those funds.
• Support all legal actions aimed at recovering stolen assets, including assets transferred to trusts and assets owned or used by political leaders still in office, steps that would help the World Bank/UNODC Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative.
• Publicly disclose investigations into suspected illicit flows, so that the public see there is no impunity for corrupt dictators.
• Ensure the swift transfer of all frozen assets to specially created escrow accounts managed by an independent third party such as the World Bank and/or Regional Development Banks.
• Create a fund to assist developing countries in their asset recovery efforts.

Transparency International is the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption