StAR Initiative
Definition
The Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, a joint World Bank and UNODC programme launched in 2007 that assists developing countries in recovering stolen assets, building institutional capacity, and tracking global recovery outcomes.
- Full name
- Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative
- Launched by
- World Bank and UNODC
- Year launched
- 2007
- Focus
- Capacity building and tracking asset recovery in developing countries
Common questions
What role does StAR play in a specific asset recovery case?+
StAR does not itself prosecute or seize assets. It provides technical assistance, training, and knowledge resources to help a country's investigators and prosecutors trace and recover stolen assets through their own legal processes.
Why was a joint World Bank and UNODC initiative needed for asset recovery?+
Recovering stolen assets usually requires both the financial and development expertise of the World Bank and the criminal justice and anti-corruption mandate of UNODC, so combining the two agencies covers both the legal and the financial-tracing sides of the problem.
Related terms
- Civil Forfeiture
- A legal mechanism, particularly used in the United States and United Kingdom, that allows courts to order the forfeiture of assets that...
- Confiscation Order
- A court order transferring legal title to specified property from the defendant to the state or (in civil forfeiture) from unnamed property...
- Egmont Group
- An international network of 166 financial intelligence units (FIUs) that share financial intelligence through a secure system. FIUs are the operational channel...
- MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty)
- A bilateral or multilateral treaty framework through which countries agree to provide legal cooperation in criminal investigations, including compelling disclosure of evidence...
- UNCAC
- The United Nations Convention Against Corruption, adopted in 2003. Chapter V establishes the first binding international framework for asset recovery, requiring signatories...