Public Wrongs, Private Actions : Civil Lawsuits to Recover Stolen Assets
Corruption and thefts of public assets harm a diffuse set of victims, weakens confidence in public institutions, damages the private investment climate, and threatens the foundations of the society as a whole. In developing countries with scarce p...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Publication |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/01/20306383/public-wrongs-private-actions-civil-lawsuits-recover-stolen-assets http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20456 |
| Summary: | Corruption and thefts of public assets
harm a diffuse set of victims, weakens confidence in public
institutions, damages the private investment climate, and
threatens the foundations of the society as a whole. In
developing countries with scarce public resources, the cost
of corruption is an impediment to development: developing
countries lose between US$20 to US$40 billion each year
through bribery, misappropriation of funds, and other
corrupt practices. Corruption is by no means a
"victimless crime." This study aims to explore
the standing of States and Government entities as victims
and the possible recourse to private actions to redress
public wrongs. States and Government entities may act as
private litigants and bring civil suits to recover assets
lost to corruption. The goal of this work is to promote
knowledge and understanding as well as to increase the use
of civil remedies and private lawsuits to recover stolen
assets in the context of the United Nations Convention
against Corruption (UNCAC) offences. The UNCAC, the global
standard for the fight against corruption, does not contain
a legal definition of corruption itself but lists an array
of offences, including public and private sector bribery and
the embezzlement of public and private sector funds. The
study will mainly focus on these two types of corruption,
namely bribery and embezzlement of funds. This study is not
intended in any way to minimize the importance of criminal
proceedings and confiscation in addressing acts of
corruption. Rather, it will show that civil law remedies
can effectively complement criminal penalties by attacking
the economic base of corrupt activities both in the public
and the private sectors. In fact, given the magnitude of
the challenges, all avenues of asset recovery, be they
criminal or civil, should be explored simultaneously in
order to tackle corruption from each and every angle and
achieve the goals of deterrence and enforcement. Hence,
while criminal law expresses society's disapproval of
the corrupt acts and aims at dissuasion, punishment, and
confiscation of illicit proceeds, civil law focuses on
victims' interests and aims at compensation and
restitution. These procedures may occur sometimes in
parallel, sometimes sequentially. An effective response to
corruption very often requires concomitant use of both
criminal and civil law remedies to achieve the desired result. |
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