IAAR to host panel of asset recovery and anti-corruption experts to address impending UK Bribery Act

April 20, 2011 - PRLog -- MIAMI – After more than a year of controversy and lackluster guidance, the United Kingdom Ministry of Justice is set to begin enforcement of the 2010 Bribery Act on July 1 – and interests on all sides are just as confused and unprepared as they were a year ago.

In response, the International Association for Asset Recovery (IAAR) has organized a panel of top anti-fraud and anti-corruption experts to explain exactly what this landmark legislation will mean to asset recovery professionals and explore the hazy definitions of "official," "bribe" and "conducting business" as they are laid out in the Act. The panel session will be on the final day of the 2011 Cross-Border Asset Tracing and Recovery Conference, to be held June 12-14 at the Waldorf Hilton in London. Details can be found at http://www.iaarlondon.co.uk.

The panel, Navigating the Requirements of the (Imminent) UK Bribery Act and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – Keeping the Corruption Assets in View, will feature three of the preeminent names in international asset recovery and will close the three-day conference.

Expert speakers boast an array of multijurisdictional asset recovery experience

Fraud-fighter extraordinaire Martin S. Kenney of the British Virgin Islands-based Martin Kenney & Co. Solicitors will lead a group that seeks to determine what impact of the new law will be on the asset recovery community at large. Kenney is founder of a specialist, multi-jurisdictional investigative and litigation practice in Tortola and was called "one of the world's leading authorities on the legal aspects of freezing and seizing assets in multiple jurisdictions," by the Miami-based publication Offshore Alert.

Kenney will be joined by Sion Richards, a Partner in the London offices of Jones Day, and Christopher Osborne, a Director at Alvarez & Marsal’s Dispute Analysis and Forensic Services practice in Europe with more than 12 years of experience investigating and advising on many civil and criminal fraud cases.

The panel will be co-moderated by IAAR President and founder Charles A. Intriago, a former federal prosecutor who pioneered the Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist credential, and Grant Thornton UK LLP Partner James Earp. Earp is a co-chair of the Cross-Border Asset Tracing and Recovery Conference along with Kenney and Jonathan Edward Wheeler of Morrison Foerster, who will also speak at the conference.

Panel will also address public corruptions and recovering assets from despots

It is not enough to punish corrupt public officials. The citizens of the victimized jurisdictions should have their national treasuries made whole. In recent decades, an art has emerged in the challenging work of tracing and recovering corruption proceeds of dictators such as Abacha, Marcos, Duvalier, Obiang and dozens of others, as well as their corporate counterparts.

The panel will also touch on heightened enforcement of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and promises to answer the question, "Where's the money and how do we get it back?" The tracing and recovery of official corruption proceeds is a job for public and private sector professionals. Here, top experts will illustrate how asset recovery and anti-fraud professionals can break through barriers to locate and take back the national treasures that corrupt corporate and public officials steal in and out of the ambit of the UK Bribery Act and the US FCPA.

Cross-border program provides hands on, dynamic and interactive experience

The panel is one of 10 scheduled for the Cross-Border conference, a must-attend for professionals in the US and UK who work in the fields of asset recovery, asset tracing, insolvency, bankruptcy and compliance.

Unlike other legal learning events, IAAR conferences incorporate crowd participation, interaction and dynamic dialogue with experts. IAAR also holds an annual member conference in Las Vegas, USA. With more than 15 top experts slated to speak on 10 critical panels, the learning opportunity is a once-a-year experience for asset recovery professionals in the UK, European Union and around the world.

IAAR promotes CSAR certification to address paltry sums recovered from fraudsters

Also offered during the three-day conference will be a live training seminar on Sunday, June 12, for those preparing to take the Certified Specialist in Asset Recovery (CSAR) examination. The CSAR certification is the first unitary, comprehensive examination to address the neglected art of tracing and recovering the proceeds of corruption and financial crime. The credential confers confidence, assurance and satisfaction on those who earn it while allowing them to grow personally and professionally. In the same vein as the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and CAMS designation, CSAR denotes a baseline of competence in its field – competence that employers and clients can rely on.

The CSAR was developed as an answer to the pathetically small amount of assets recovered in the wake of modern day financial crimes. Less than one percent of criminally-derived proceeds are returned to victims, a paltry sum that IAAR has pledged to help improve by providing training and certification for members of the international asset recovery community.

(Media inquiries concerning IAAR, the Cross-Border Asset Tracing and Recovery Conference and the CSAR credential may be directed to Patricia Valdes, Executive Director, at +1 786-517-2715, or e-mail at pvaldes@iaaronline.org. Visit http://www.iaarlondon.co.uk for more information about IAAR and the CSAR.)

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The International Association for Asset Recovery (IAAR) is the international membership organization for private sector and government professionals who work to recover assets derived from illegal activity or withheld from their rightful owners.

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