Civil forfeiture, cryptocurrency in financial sector discussed at asset recovery workshop

One of the most important aspects of the battle against corruption, money laundering, and even crime in general is asset recovery. The Guyanese Government has recognised the significance of putting effective asset recovery and confiscation measures into place as a critical component of setting up a strong anti-money laundering/anti-corruption regime in the nation.

In this perspective, the Judiciary and Magistracy, the Guyana Police Force, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Financial Intelligence Unit, the Bank of Guyana, the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit, the Guyana Revenue Authority, among other important organisations, are currently engaged in a Financial Investigation and Asset Recovery Workshop which has a specific emphasis on civil forfeiture and on areas such as cryptocurrency and those issues now emerging in the financial sector as part of financial investigations.
The workshop, which will run from October 9-13 at Duke Lodge, Kingston Georgetown, is a collaboration between the Government of Guyana and the Asset Recovery Unit of the Regional Security System (RSS).

Modern challenges
While delivering brief remarks at the opening ceremony on Monday, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC, said that this training engagement is once again demonstrating the Government’s commitment to the rule of law and more particularly, to ensuring that Guyana has a robust financial system along with the capabilities to tackle the new challenges that certainly will emerge from the country’s growing and expanding economy and by extension, the financial sector.
“So, it’s a very holistic approach to training and preparing ourselves to meet the modern challenges and to meet the modern obligations which Guyana as a nation-state has to discharge at the international and regional level,” he added.

Highlighting that the workshop has a deep emphasis on civil forfeiture and on areas such as cryptocurrency and those issues now emerging in the financial sector as part of financial investigations, Nandlall said, “We have, I suppose, at a philosophical and policy level, never really focused on civil forfeiture. Persons charged with criminal offences go through the court and the focus has always been to convict for the offences charged and not necessarily pursue available remedies in terms of going after the assets that may have been acquired from proceeds of crime or that particular offence before the courts.”
The Attorney General acknowledged that prior to 2023, Guyana lacked the necessary legal framework to address this issue, but that is no longer the case, thanks to the recently passed Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Amendment) Act of 2023, which includes a very thorough regime of civil forfeiture provisions.
With this, he pointed out, “So, we [Guyana] now have perhaps in the Caribbean, I would say one of the most modern expressions of civil forfeiture legislation in with a bias towards AML-CFT type offences. We now have to orient ourselves and orient ourselves from a policy perspective, and then we have to do the training to ensure that we know how to approach this.”

Yield huge benefits
Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards expressed that this workshop will yield huge benefits.
“The mutual assistance and cooperation will provide a vital necessity for our regional integration, sharing of ideas, combating crime and providing security.”
She implored Judges and Magistrates to use this opportunity to deepen their understanding and enhance their capacity in the areas of asset recovery for the overall benefit of the Judiciary and Guyana.

She said that due to Guyana’s swift economic transition, there is a greater need for regional partners to work together to advance knowledge and apply the law throughout the entire nation.
For his part, the Executive Director of RSS, Commodore Errington Ricardo Shurland told the gathering that the organisation is committed to tackling crime in the Region.
He added that asset recovery is a critical step in legal actions intended to seize assets obtained through criminal means, and that judicial personnel are essential to this process.
“The Regional Security System is dedicated to sending a consistent message to criminal elements that crime does not pay and that we will utilise every tool legally available to deprive them of their gains,” Shurland went on to say.
The workshop will focus on the following areas: Digital Evidence; Investigative Orders: Procedural Requirements and Appropriateness; Disclosure Orders: Procedural Considerations; Restraint Orders: Procedural Considerations, Cash Seizure, Re-seizure and Detention; Investigative Orders: Application, Evidential Burden and Procedure and Civil Recovery: Building a Civil Recovery Case.
This workshop will seek to strategically address some of the identified deficiencies in Guyana’s legal and AML/CFT/PF architecture and the Government is committed to addressing these deficiencies swiftly, a statement from the Attorney General’s Chambers noted. (G1)