The criminal assets that have been seized must be administered correctly. For example, cars must be kept in specially arranged parking lots, money – transferred to treasury accounts, and cryptocurrency – kept in special digital wallets. Radu Nicolae, Regional Coordinator of the network of correspondents on corruption for Eastern Europe, developed by the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission, and Pavel Calpajiu, Head of the Directorate for Evaluation, Management and Disposal of Criminal Assets within CARA, explained in an exclusive interview how important the administration of criminal assets is, how it is carried out and what is the whole process until they become state property.
“The final, positive recovery is the result of good cooperation between state institutions, starting with the criminal investigation bodies, continuing with the prosecutors and CARA. The Agency ensures the preservation of the value of seized assets by using our expertise, and we hope it will be used more and more often by judicial courts to decide in the field of confiscation. It is important to mention that in this complex process, from the moment the state takes over the administration of certain seized assets, it will bear the expenses for maintenance, upkeep, evaluation, and expertise. Therefore, it is important that the means spent to ensure an effective administration to preserve the value, is somehow connected to the asset’s value”, says Pavel Calpajiu.
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For the seized assets, the international practice provides for their early sale, the money being kept in a special account. Moreover, the international anti-corruption expert Radu Nicolae, claims that our country has both national and international support to improve the processes, but also the legislation in this regard.
“Asset administration is a very important step in the criminal asset recovery process because these seized assets must maintain their value over time. For example, we seize an asset today, which is worth 10 MDL, and we might eventually find in one, two, or three years – when the final process is completed, that the confiscated asset is only worth 1 MDL. This is why we have to take care of that asset so that when it is confiscated or recovered, its value remains the same or even improves over time when we talk about this kind of objects”, said Radu Nicolae.
The Criminal Assets Recovery Agency is a specialized autonomous subdivision within the National Anticorruption Center. CARA was founded in 2017, aiming at carrying out parallel financial investigations, as well as seizing criminal assets. In the five years of activity, CARA has managed to identify and make available, in the country and abroad, goods and assets worth more than 6 billion MDL.
This material has been made with the support of the Soros Foundation Moldova, in partnership with the Criminal Assets Recovery Agency, an autonomous subdivision within the NAC. The Foundation does not influence the editorial policy of the Realitatea Press Group.