Jersey Lawyer Speaks to Government Agencies at World Bank event in Indonesia
Jersey lawyer Clara Hamon has spoken at a Mutual Legal Assistance Workshop organised by the World Bank in Washington and the Indonesian government. The event focused on global co-operation and the legal practicalities when recovering stolen assets.
The three day workshop in Yogjakarta, Indonesia, was arranged to meet one of the World Bank’s objectives, which is to build capacity amongst government agencies to work together through mutual legal assistance in cases involving corruption and stolen assets. The event was staged in association with UNODC’s (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR).
A range of specialists presented case examples on the practical aspects of handling legal assistance requests in Australia, the United States, Hong Kong and Switzerland, as well as Jersey.
BakerPlatt were selected to provide a speaker because of their experience in handling international cases where the authorities attempt to recover assets in cases of corruption. Advocate Stephen Baker, Partner, specialises in conducting investigations into the flow of suspected corrupt payments made to politicians through Jersey and other finance centres and he successfully prosecuted Jersey’s first substantial drugs money laundering trial. He commented:
’An unfair criticism sometimes levelled at Jersey is that because the Island is an offshore jurisdiction, it must therefore be easy to hide stolen funds in the Island. The fact is that the Island has extremely robust legislation which enables governments and international agencies to recover stolen assets when criminals and corrupt government leaders try and use Jersey for this purpose.’
He added:
’The idea behind the World Bank’s workshop is to help familiarise the government agencies in Indonesia with the mutual legal assistance process and to develop action plans to help progress asset recovery cases that have already been identified. The firm’s participation helps us to highlight to an international audience the rigorous nature of the Island’s legal system when tracing assets derived from criminal activity.’