1299 Views To identify illegally acquired assets, be it expensive cars, land or cash, within the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency (CARA) the Financial Investigations Directorate was created, made up of criminal investigation officers, who carry out parallel financial investigations. Such investigations are carried out in cases of corruption, money laundering, drug trafficking, human trafficking, smuggling, tax evasion or one of the 55 income-generating crimes under the CARA’s jurisdiction.
In an exclusive interview, the head of the CARA’s Financial Investigations Directorate, Vitalie Racu, and international expert Pedro Gomes Pereira, spoke about the importance of parallel financial investigations and the help offered by international experts in improving the process of recovering criminal assets from the Republic of Moldova.
"In 2015, studies were carried out by international experts, who found that criminal investigation bodies and prosecutors focus more on identifying the criminal fact, accumulating evidence regarding the person who committed the crime and sending the case to court. The identification of assets remained uncovered, or, in general, was not even carried out. Later, it was found that such a specialized body is necessary to carry out these parallel investigations on important criminal cases, such as cases of corruption, money laundering, cases of drug or human trafficking, smuggling and tax evasion", said the head of the CARA’s Financial Investigations Directorate, Vitalie Racu.
The purpose of parallel investigations is not only to identify the assets that the subjects of property crimes have, but also to identify the assets that belong to them through third parties. International experts recommend that parallel financial investigations be carried out in collaboration with other institutions. Thus, the CARA collaborates with the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering Service, the National Integrity Authority, banking institutions, etc.
"Law enforcement agencies, parallel investigation teams should be encouraged to meet regularly to discuss operational difficulties and issues, of course, respecting the limits imposed by legislation on what they can discuss during informal meetings. This is an example that has worked very well in Spain and Great Britain", noted the international expert, Pedro Gomes Pereira.
The Criminal Assets Recovery Agency is a specialized autonomous subdivision within the National Anticorruption Center. The CARA was founded in 2017, it aims to carry out parallel financial investigations, as well as to seize criminal assets. In the five years of activity, the CARA has managed to identify and seize, in the country and abroad, goods and assets worth over 6 billion lei.