On April 8, on the initiative of the Head of ARMA Olena Duma, was held a meeting between representatives of the Agency and the Department of International Police Cooperation of the National Police of Ukraine (Interpol National Centre Bureau).
On behalf of the Agency, the meeting was attended by Head of ARMA Olena Duma, her Deputies Pavlo Velykorechanin and Grigol Katamadze along with other Heads of the National Agency's departments.
Interpol was represented by Vitaliy Kasap, Acting Head of the Department of International Police Cooperation of the National Police of Ukraine, and his deputy Ivan Gulpa.
They discussed working issues, including the usage of Interpol tools by ARMA representatives.
“We need to have access to databases of stolen property - whether it is paintings, antiques, cars or airplanes - in order to maximize the recovery of assets illegally transferred abroad," said Olena Duma.
Vitaliy Kasap reminded that access to databases must be based on legal grounds and necessity due to the Agency's functionality. ARMA has such powers and actively cooperates with international partners, so the use of existing international cooperation tools significantly enhances the Agency's effectiveness.
In turn, NCB of Interpol, holding 19 databases, is ready to cooperate with the Agency to provide additional leverage and successful asset tracing, including for the purpose of coordinating actions in organizing the Agency's asset management function.
Olena Duma emphasized that there is a public demand for strengthening ARMA in asset tracing, and this will be facilitated by live communication with Interpol. Representatives of the Interpol National Central Bureau expressed their readiness to cooperate and promised to promptly process ARMA's requests and provide information.
According to Olena Duma, the Agency has sent documents to appoint Deputy Head of ARMA Pavlo Velykorechanin as ARMA's Focal Point in the Interpol network.
The participants of the meeting agreed to continue active cooperation in the interests of the state to return the taken and stolen property to Ukraine.
As a reminder, in December 2023, in the framework of participation in the 10th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, Head of ARMA Olena Duma held negotiations with Isaac Kehinde Oginni, Director of the INTERPOL Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre (IFCACC).
