Italy: Global testing phase of Silver Notice for recovery of illicit proceeds of crime begins.
It has started 1 January this year's global testing phase of the new instrument, proposed by theItaly, to track the proceeds of illicit crime globally and be able to seize and confiscate them.
It bears the sign of the Tricolore the first Silver Notice, issued today by INTERPOL General Secretariat, during the pilot testing phase of this new instrument of international police cooperation to trace – for the purposes of seizure and confiscation – the illicit proceeds of transnational criminal organisations.
This historic Italian Silver Notice concerns a request from the investigators of the Guardia di Finanza di Palermo and is related to the search for information about the presence of patrimonial assets, movable and immovable, mainly in Asia e South America, referring to an activity of Recycling worldwide, for a value of over half a billion euros.
The hope is to intercept the greatest number of patrimonial assets, to then start requests for judicial cooperation with the aim of seizing and confiscating them.
La Silver Notice It is the latest in tools INTERPOL for the global communication of warnings and requests for information, useful for police investigations 196 Countries which are part of the Organization and, from 1 January this year, its use will be tested, on a voluntary basis, by over fifty of such countries.
The project for the introduction of the Silver Notice is the result of an Italian proposal, presented by Central Directorate of the Criminal Police during the'INTERPOL General Assembly, held in New Delhi (India) inOctober 2022.
Voted by a large majority, the Italian initiative has brought about 2023 to the establishment of a specific working group of experts, the presidency of which was entrusted, by unanimous vote, to Colonel of the Guardia di Finanza Roberto Ribaudo, Director of Division at the Joint Service for International Police Cooperation of the Central Directorate of the Criminal Police.
Al Working group, in which more than thirty countries worldwide, was given the task of analyzing various methodologies to introduce appropriate tools by INTERPOL for tracking and recovery of illicit proceeds arising from criminal activities.
Subsequently, during theINTERPOL General Assembly held a Vienna (Austria) since November 2023, which, among other things, celebrated its Centenary of the Foundation, a new resolution was approved with which the Expert Working Group was charged with defining the aims and methods of operation of the Silver Notice, to be tested through a pilot phase.
How will the pilot phase actually work, who will be able to actively participate and what information will be exchanged?
For the first aspect, over 100 were selected fifty Member States of the Organization that meet two fundamental requirements: having a national legal framework which allows for cooperation in relation to the tracing and recovery of assets and possess a operational structure in this sense (asset recovery offices).
Each country participating in the pilot phase will be able to request a proportionate number of Silver Notice, taking into account the total number of participants.
Le Silver Notice will serve exclusively for the purposes of exchanging information in support of various types of asset recovery: both following a conviction (conviction-based confiscation), both for the implementation of preventive patrimonial measures (non-conviction based confiscation) and it will also be possible to attach judicial seizure or confiscation orders, requesting their execution by letter rogatory.
Le Silver Notice will be issued for crimes with a penalty of more than four years, in accordance with the threshold of punishability referred to in the UN Palermo Convention against transnational organised crime, but there will be no minimum thresholds for the amounts to be traced or recovered and, at least in the pilot phase, they will only refer to natural persons, excluding judicial provisions intended for legal persons.
At the end of the first testing phase of the Silver Notice, the results of which will be reported to theINTERPOL General Assembly which will be held in November this year in Morocco, the subsequent steps will then be evaluated to reach the definitive introduction of the instrument.
Valdecy Urquiza, the Secretary General of INTERPOL recently elected, said in a press release: “Depriving criminals and their networks of illegal profits is one of the most powerful ways to combat transnational organized crime, especially considering that the 99% of criminal assets is not recovered. Targeting their financial gains, theINTERPOL is working to dismantle criminal networks and reduce their harmful impact on communities around the world.”
Il Prefect Raffaele Grassi, Deputy Director General of the Public security and Central Director of the Criminal Police, said: “I am sure that the pilot phase of the Silver Notice will have positive results and will further convince the global law enforcement community to make greater use of financial investigations and asset recovery functions. Furthermore, I consider it an important signal that the first Silver Notice was ever issued by theItaly and that it was requested by the investigators of the Guardia di Finanza who work at Palermo, the city associated with the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its “follow-the-money” principle: is it perhaps a sign of destiny that wishes “good luck” to the initiative? Silver Notice di INTERPOL. Finally, I am sure that other requests for publication will follow shortly. Silver Notice by the investigative bodies of the State Police,Arms of the Carabinieri and Antimafia Investigation Directorate, with whom we held an information meeting in recent months to illustrate the potential of the tool and encourage its use”.
The project Silver Notice underlines, once again, the commitment of the Department of Public Security of the Ministry of the Interior in spreading the “worldwideItalian model” of prevention and contrast to transnational organized crime, through the aggression of illicit assets.
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