ARINSA

About Arinsa

ARINSA is a multi-agency informal network between participating countries. We exchange information, model legislation and country laws in asset forfeiture, confiscation and money laundering. Other services are newsletters, publications, events, links to other networks. Read more ...

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Resources

Member Resources: Open Resources:

* Dar es Salaam Declaration Statement * ARINSA Manual

* Statistics * Contact Details

* 10th Anniversary Report * Annual Report 2017

* Annual Report 2016 * Annual Report 2015

* Submit a request

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ARINSA News

ARINSA Members sign the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Strengthening Asset Forfeiture for Development

ARINSA Members sign the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Strengthening Asset Forfeiture for Development.

Dar es Salaam, 12 June 2019-- Assets, including minerals worth $ 41 million USD, determined to be proceeds of crime were confiscated and nationalized by the Government of Tanzania in 2018 according to the Vice-President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, while delivering a keynote address on behalf of President John Magufuli, at the launch of the 10^thARINSA Anniversary and Annual General Meeting. The VP was speaking at the official opening, which was held at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The event was attended by more than 300 delegates from the 16 ARINSA member countries and other agents representing various stakeholders in the asset forfeiture field.

“ARINSA is a catalyst to Tanzania’s efforts in combating crime and ensuring that criminals do not benefit in any capacity from their crime. Today’s anniversary marks a historical event as it symbolizes our continued cooperation within the Southern African region, which was initiated by the founders of our States during our independence struggles.” She remarked. Read More ...

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Ex-Zimbabwe Mayor found with 120Kg of Ivory

Victoria Falls, ZIMBABWE. A former mayor of Zimbabwe's tourist hotspot Victoria Falls was caught with nine elephant tusks weighing 120 kilograms (264 pounds) and arrested with two other suspects, police said Friday. A former mayor of Zimbabwe's tourist hotspot Victoria Falls was caught with nine elephant tusks weighing 120 kilograms (264 pounds) and arrested with two other suspects, police said Friday. Sifiso Mpofu, 42, was elected mayor in 2013, serving until July last year when he lost to an opposition candidate. He was arrested on Thursday night at his house in Mkhosana township, police said. Acting on a tip-off, police and rangers swopped on the former mayor's house and found him and the two other suspects moving the tusks from a car, they said. Two other tusks were found in a bedroom during a search of the house. "Information was received that the accused were in possession of raw ivory," according to a police document seen by AFP Read More ... ______________________________________

Cybercrime Workshop for Prosecutors and Investigators

Windhoek, NAMIBIA. Electronic evidence is often thrown out of the courts by the judiciary due to lack of permissibility and attribution (the linking of a digital action to a person), yet on average an internet user leaves a footprint in at least 30 places on devices, networks and the internet” the workshop was told. Anecdotal evidence suggests that damage caused by cybercrime worldwide is getting to 6 trillion a year. Most companies are affected by cybercrime yearly, but they do not report to authorities for fear of reputational damage.

15 ARINSA countries attended this cybercrime workshop which was held in Windhoek, Namibia from 18 – 20 February 2019. Read More ...

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ARINSA Meets to discuss Asset Management and following the Proceeds of Crime

Pretoria, South Africa. On 20 - 24 January 2019, ARINSA contact points from all the 16 Member countries converged in Cape Town (South Africa) for a retreat. The retreat provided an opportunity for private exchanges among practitioners on topics related to the personal and corporate branding of ARINSA, the overall functioning of the ARINSA network and asset management. Topics discussed included branding and ethics, the planning and preparation phase before the execution of freezing orders the modalities of data collection and reporting, the sustainability of the network and development of asset management manuals. Read More ...

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Seven Chinese nationals in Zimbabwe Court over Rhino horn Stash

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Seven Chinese nationals appeared in a Zimbabwe court after they were arrested last month with rhino horn pieces worth nearly a million dollars.

They are facing charges of breaching the country’s wildlife laws.

Zeng Dengui, 35; Peicon Jang, 35; Chen Zhiangfu, 30; Qui Jinchang, 29; Yu Xian, 25; Yong Zhu, 25 and Liu Cheng, 23 were arrested two days before Christmas after police raided their home following a tip-off.

Police detectives found pieces of rhino horn stashed in a mattress, plastic bags and in boxes at a house in one of the town’s suburbs.The seven who are all unemployed, appeared in the dock wearing khaki prison garb at the court in the resort town of Victoria Falls. Read More ...

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Mozambique charges ex-miister, 17 others in $2bn fraud case

At least 18 people, including a former finance minister, have been charged for fraud involving $2bn in loans to state-owned companies in Mozambique, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) has said, in a scandal that has ensnared two major international banks.

"Mozambique AGO is indicting 18 defendants, (ranging) from public workers and other citizens, on charges of abuse of power, abuse of trust, swindling and money laundering," it said in a statement on Monday.

The indictment came days after three ex-Credit Suisse bankers were charged in the United States with fraud over their role in Mozambique's deal in 2013 to borrow money from international investors to fund projects that included a state tuna fishery. Read More ...

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Shocking report details massive illegal turtle trade network

In a posh hotel room in Kuala Lumpur, a 35-year-old man wearing a dark button-down shirt smiled. He had two suitcases crammed with 55 live turtles, and he was hoping to make a sale.

He watched as his customer, a man wearing shorts and sneakers, carefully examined the reptiles crawling across the hotel rug.

Bakrudin Ali Ahamed Habeeb, had posted on Facebook some seven months earlier that he had reptiles to sell, triggering a flurry of text messages and price negotiations. Now, Habeeb just needed to prove that his animals were in good health so he could pass them off into the exotic pet trade.

It was May 2017, and he was anticipating a big payday.

When his visitor left the room, ostensibly to get a colleague, Habeeb didn’t even look up. But minutes later, agents from Malaysia’s department of wildlife and parks flooded his room. The would-be buyer, as it turned out, was an undercover agent with the Wildlife Justice... Read More..

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Indian-origin woman Shamila Batohi appointed head of South Africa's prosecuting authority.

Pretoria, South Africa. Prominent Indian-origin lawyer Shamila Batohi has been appointed to head South Africa’s prosecuting authority, the first woman to head the agency facing criticism for its handling of the investigations against former president Jacob Zuma over corruption charges.

Batohi will start her new role as the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) in February 2019.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the appointment of Batohi, during a nationally-televised address at the government headquarters, the Union Buildings, on Tuesday.

During his maiden address, Ramaphosa gave the commitment that government would urgently attend to the leadership crisis at the NPA to ensure the institution is and able to perform its mandate without any outside interference.

Eleven months later, the prosecuting body now has a new head. Read More ...

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MEDIA MONITOR

Online sex trafficking ring active in Finland, Spain and Sweden busted and €1.5 million of criminal profits frozen in Hong Kong-based accounts.

Operation Webmaster targeted a Finnish organised criminal group involved in human trafficking for sexual exploitation and money laundering. The joint operation led to six arrests, 16 website shutdowns and multiple seizures of cash and luxury goods. Following the action day on 26 March 2019, the suspects’ bank accounts in 12 different countries were frozen. With support from Europol and Eurojust, the Spanish National Police (Policía Nacional) joined forces with national authorities from 14* other countries to bring down the trafficking ring.

Spanish authorities opened an investigation in 2016 targeting a Finnish national suspected of human trafficking for sexual exploitation and money laundering. The main suspect, based in Marbella, Spain, was allegedly managing websites advertising sexual services. The operation was triggered by an investigation into an organised crime group trafficking victims of predominantly Nigerian origin. The website was advertising services of victims from different countries based in Sweden and Finland. Other organised criminal groups involved in similar activities were also advertising the services of their victims on these websites. Read More ...

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Schoolchildren as young as 11 have been targeted to launder dirty gang money
Some 10,686 under-21s were caught acting as mules last year - a 26 per cent rise
Drug gangs use the 'clean' bank accounts of young children to deposit and move funds

Criminals are recruiting schoolchildren as young as 11 to launder their dirty money.

Ruthless gangs have been targeting children on their way to school to enlist them as ‘mules’, police say.

Although gangs have long used others’ bank accounts to hide their activity, a Daily Mail investigation can reveal the scale of the threat to young people.

Many are lured with promises of quick, easy cash if they let strangers use their accounts to deposit and move funds. In return, they keep a cut – sometimes as little as £60 – or are given ‘prizes’ such as a pair of trainers. Read More ...

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A Sun Online investigation reveals more than 300 of these villas have been built, paid for by the hundreds of children sent to beg and steal on the streets of Britain.

These children, some just toddlers, are ruthlessly exploited by Fagin-like gangs run by Roma gypsies. Through a miserable life of petty crime, each child can earn £100,000 in 12 months, as part of a £24million a year child smuggling ring, while their identities and fake child documents are used to swindle millions in benefits from the UK tax payer. In 2010, there was hope these children's ordeal was at an end when a major joint operation involving 300 officers from Scotland Yard, Romania and Europol saw 26 ring leaders arrested. Read More..

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Investigations into Hong Kong’s largest ivory seizure in 30 years have failed to produce a single prosecution, meaning the syndicate behind the smuggling operation is still at large, the customs department has confirmed.

That failure, along with a long-standing low prosecution rate for wildlife smuggling, has sparked concerns from experts, who called on Hong Kong authorities to put more money into investigations and make the offence a more serious crime with stiffer penalties.

Confirmation that the case had hit a dead end came 1½ years after the Customs and Excise Department announced in July 2017 that it had seized more than seven tonnes of tusks worth about HK$70 million in a shipment of frozen fish from Malaysia. Read More ...

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The Spanish Policía Nacional, with Europol’s active support, arrested 37 members of an international gang charging 730 Vietnamese migrants EUR 18 000 each to be smuggled to Spain.

The irregular migrants were smuggled from Vietnam via South America and finally into the EU in groups of 6 to 12 individuals. Each group was led by an English-speaking smuggler who travelled with them from the beginning and facilitated the communication during the journey. The network received EUR 18 000 from each migrant, which could be paid using several payment methods: either they paid the amount in their home country, gave up their land and property, or they paid in kind once in Europe .. Read More...