CARA of the NAC takes over the Presidency of an important Balkan Network. Iulian Rusu: We have a year in which we will increase our experience in recovering criminal assets

The Criminal Assets Recovery Agency (CARA) within the National Anticorruption Center will take over, by rotation, the Presidency of the Balkan Asset Management Interagency Network (BAMIN-founded by the OSCE) - an organization that includes 19 states, 8 of which are from the Western Balkans and 11 countries with observer status. The taking over of the Presidency of BAMIN by the Republic of Moldova is a premiere, for the first time a country from outside the Balkans becomes the President of the Network.

The director of the NAC, Iulian Rusu: "We are honored by our new status within the BAMIN Network, of Presidency, which we will hold for one year. We have a year in which we will increase our experience in the management and the recovery of criminal assets and develop, together with other Member States, our capacity to investigate and trace illicit assets. We will improve our practices and take over the experience of other countries to be able to advance, including the high profile cases. We are going to promote solutions for the development of cooperation capacities between the members of the BAMIN Network to achieve a more effective and operative exchange of data and information. The NAC is ready to assume this mandate, which we will exercise with responsibility together with the CARA, the International Cooperation Directorate and together with the representatives of the BAMIN Secretariat to achieve mutually beneficial results".

In her speech, BAMIN's senior adviser, Jill Thomas, congratulated the Republic of Moldova for taking over an important mandate in this regional network, noting that it is a great success, which our country has reached after only 4 years from  joining the organization.

Jill Thomas: "I want to congratulate the Republic of Moldova on my own behalf and that of the Secretariat of the 19 jurisdictions on the occasion of assuming the mandate of the Network President by the CARA of the NAC. Since its creation in 2017, the CARA has integrated very well into the international community dealing with the criminal asset recovery. In 2019, the CARA became an observer member of BAMIN, and today, after 4 years, it takes over the Presidency. The field of illicit asset recovery is a complex process. We know all the challenges related to this process and we are confident that we have enough capacity to face them. Together with the CARA, we will implement effective solutions to achieve good results in the interest of all jurisdictions that are part of BAMIN".

The technical details, but also the activities for the next period, are being discussed these days at the NAC, within the BAMIN Steering Group Meeting.

BAMIN is an informal network of practitioners who work operationally with asset management offices and agencies or within departments mandated to deal with the management and disposal/storage of criminal assets within their jurisdiction. The purpose of the network is to increase the efficiency of management and sale of assets derived from crimes. The main goal of BAMIN members is to improve cross-border cooperation and speed up the exchange of information between agencies.