Italy and Romania strengthen cooperation in the fight against economic and organised crime, including in support of civil society

Over the last months, the Embassy of Italy to Bucharest, with the presence of a legal expert, cooperated at operational level with the Italian Asset Recovery Office of the Ministry of the Interior – International Police Cooperation Service (SCIP) on some pending requests for tracing criminal assets to be confiscated for the Romanian authorities.   The cooperation included, similarly, the recovery of the sums deriving from the execution in Romania of seizures of corporate and real estate assets seized from Italian organized crime networks, to be allocated to the Single Justice Fund FUG according to the Embassy’s press release.   As a result of this operational cooperation, a bilateral working group dedicated to strengthening asset tracing, seizure and confiscation activities met on 20 January. The mandate of ANABI in Romania and that of ANBSC in Italy, the regulatory frameworks on judicial control and administration, as well as the models and practices of destination and utilisation of confiscated assets were compared. In this context, on the Italian side, the role of the receivership was emphasised in order to ensure the continuity of commercial activity and the protection of jobs, aiming at reintegrating into the legal economy the businesses previously controlled by criminal groups.   Similarly, there was presented the innovative solution adopted at the initiative Interpol in Italy which generated Silver Notice, the new instrument designed to track illicit goods internationally.   Last but not least, the Italian Finance Guard illustrated new techniques for investigation for tracking crypto assets with the help of satellite instruments, including for anti-money laundering purposes.   On the Italian side, the bilateral consultations were chaired by Prefect Maria Rosaria Laganà, Director General of ANBSC, Cons. Antonio Balsamo, Deputy General Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, Col. GdF Roberto Ribaudo, Director of the ARO Office of the Ministry of the Interior, Col. GdF Luca Cioffi, Head of the Analysis Office of the General Command of the Italian Finance Guard, Major Francesco Venditti, Officer of the Specialised Unit for Privacy and Technological Fraud of the Italian Finance Guard.   The next day, the Italian delegation took part in the conference promoted by the Romanian civil society on the theme of social reuse of the goods confiscated as awareness-raising tool in the fight against organized crime and active citizenship. The meeting took place with the initiative Democracy and Rule of Law capacity – building participative camp and benefitted from the collaboration between the Embassy, ANABI, the National Romanian Anticorruption Department, the European Centre for Legal Education Research, the Centre for Human Rights and Migration, Libera, Chance, Association for Cooperation and Sustainable Development. The restitution of confiscated property to local communities that have been dispossessed can be a step forward in Romania towards better and more conscious forms of social inclusion.  (Photo:https://ambbucarest.esteri.it/)