NCJ Number
210208
Date Published
March 2005
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article presents an overview of the new repatriation obligations under the United Nations Convention against Corruption and outlines United States repatriation laws.
Abstract
Once finalized, new repatriation obligations will be placed on nations by the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The obligations focus on six substantive matters, including strengthening domestic infrastructure to prevent corruption, establishing standards for criminalizing corruption offenses, and facilitating the recovery of proceeds of foreign corruption. The United States is not expected to be greatly impacted by the new obligations because this country already has in place many of the mechanisms outlined in the Convention. The author describes repatriation under United States law and notes that there is one area most likely to cause the United States trouble in terms of meeting the requirements of the new repatriation obligations. The trouble lies in cases where there are concerns about the integrity of the government seeking repatriation, where the United States has problems with how the other country will use the funds, and in cases where repatriating the funds would be inconsistent with other efforts to resolve obstacles to law enforcement cooperation with that country. Finally, a case study is offered in which Peru’s treasury and Military and Police Pension Fund were looted and the criminal suspect was apprehended by United State police in Miami. The United States is currently in discussions with Peru concerning the best way to transfer the forfeited funds. Footnotes