In June 2019, StAR published an annual report reflecting current trends in the fight against corruption and financial crime, problematic issues and achievements regarding the return of stolen assets, as well as information on StAR's activities in assisting states in developing new legislative initiatives to improve the system of counteraction to corruption and criminal activity, return of illegally obtained and transferred to foreign jurisdictions assets, etc.
StAR is an authoritative platform, the activities of which, among other things, are aimed at assisting states in developing a legal framework, forming institutional knowledge necessary for the return of assets of unlawful origin.
Much of the report is devoted to Ukraine and ARMA, in particular. StAR stressed that Ukraine has been successful since its participation in the First Asset Recovery Forum in 2017, organized by StAR with the assistance of the United States and Great Britain, during which ARMA was presented.
As noted in the 2018 report, StAR carried out an analysis of the draft Law of Ukraine "On amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine regarding the regulation of activities on the finding, tracing and management of assets derived from corruption and other crimes" and provided its comments on the provisions related to the introduction of amendments to the legislation on management and disposal of seized and confiscated assets, which testifies ARMA's undeniable desire to implement the best world practices on management of seized property. This will contribute to the improvement of the national legal system and assist it in overcoming one of the greatest threats of our time - corruption.
Thus, at the end of last year, representatives of StAR participated in the first forum in Ukraine on management of seized assets – FORMA, jointly organized by ARMA and the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI). During FORMA StAR experts shared the results of their analytical work and experience in asset management, and also informed the participants of the event about the best practices of StAR partners, which was also noted in the annual StAR report.
StAR mentioned in its report that in 2018 a number of events were organized for the law enforcement agencies and civil society in support of Ukraine's efforts to return assets of an illegal origin.
ARMA highly appreciates the partnership with StAR and is interested in further development of a constructive dialogue.
The full StAR report for 2018 may be found at:
https://star.worldbank.org/sites/star/files/star-annual-2018-09-reduced.pdf
