On Tuesday, February 7th, 2012, the Washington Foreign Law Society, in cooperation with the ABA Section of International Law International Anti-Money Laundering Committee; The World Bank; Transparency International- USA; and the ABA Section of International Law Anti-Corruption brought together a distinguished panel of practitioners to lead a substantive discussion on the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR); current efforts to track and trace misappropriated monies from former government officials such as former Tunisian president Ben Ali and former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak; the DOJ’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative that is now up and running tasked to identify, and recover, the proceeds of foreign official corruption through civil forfeiture; the strength and weaknesses of criminal and civil laws in pursuing the recovery of these assets in foreign jurisdictions; and cooperation and challenges in building these types of asset recovery cases. Panelists included Claudia Dumas, Transparency International; Emile van der Does de Willebois, Financial Integrity Unit, World Bank (primary author of the StAR white-paper, “The Puppet Masters”); Mikhail Reider-Gordon, Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist, Navigant Consulting Inc.; and Daniel Claman, Assistant Deputy Chief, Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice. Sam Witten, President of the Washington Foreign Law Society, Counsel at Arnold & Porter and former Deputy Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State, moderated the event. The event was held at the World Bank from noon to 2:00 pm.
