The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global terror-funding watchdog, has acknowledged India’s asset-recovery mechanism, lauding the country’s efforts to seize and restitute the proceeds of crime to victims and implement a law on confiscating properties of fugitives.
In its latest report, Asset Recovery Guidance and Best Practices, released on Wednesday, the watchdog has described the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as a “model agency” for its efficiency and coordination in tracing and confiscating criminal
proceeds.
The Paris-based FATF, which sets global standards for combating money laundering and terror financing, has also flagged how countries can strengthen their systems to trace, freeze, manage and return proceeds of crime.
Quoting the FATF report, the ED said in a statement: “The report outlines practical measures for policy makers and practitioners to identify, trace, freeze, manage, confiscate and return assets derived from criminal activity… The guidance serves as a benchmark for countries to enhance their national frameworks
and align with emerging best practices.”
The report highlights money-laundering investigations taken up by the ED to secure assets linked to financial crimes without disclosing the parties involved in those cases.
The report mentions the restoration of assets to the victims of the alleged Rose Valley Ponzi fraud, a drug trafficking case request received by India from the US where Bitcoins (cryptocurrency) worth ₹130 crore were seized by the ED, besides another case in which the federal agency and the Andhra Pradesh CID coordinated to restore assets worth ₹6,000 crore to the victims of an alleged investment fraud.
The FATF report also cited alleged fraud and diversion of public funds to a Maharashtra-based cooperative bank in which the ED restored benami assets worth ₹280 crore to compensate the victims after the auction of the properties.
The report said the properties confiscated here “have been identified as a site for construction of a new airport, to build infrastructure in India for the benefit of society at large”.