Ukraine Needs New Mechanisms to Recover Illicit Assets, ILI Head
Ukraine’s asset recovery system remains underdeveloped, as is the case in many other countries. Tetiana Khutor, Head of the Institute of Legislative Ideas, said this during a panel discussion in Cambridge focused on corruption risks in Ukraine’s security, defence and reconstruction sectors.
The discussion brought together representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, the defence sector and anti-corruption bodies, as well as representatives of the British and US governments and judiciary. The event was organised by the Future of Ukraine Programme, the Centre for Geopolitics and CIDOEC in partnership with the Atlantic Council UK.
“Over the past twenty years, there have been only around three asset recovery cases in Ukraine. In particular, in the latest case, the Polygraph Kombinat case, around €3-3.5 million was successfully recovered,” Tetiana Khutor said.
According to her, the amounts of recovered funds remain negligible compared to the overall scale of embezzlement from the state budget.
“In this context, it is important to understand that we have a number of gaps, not only in policy but also in law and legislation,” the expert noted.
In the ILI Head’s view, harmonising Ukrainian legislation with European Union standards could help improve the situation. In particular, this includes introducing an extended confiscation mechanism similar to the UK’s Unexplained Wealth Orders.
“The implementation of EU legislation would allow us to introduce extended confiscation. This would give the state and anti-corruption bodies the possibility to seize illicit assets from a convicted person when their value exceeds their lawful income, even if these assets are not proceeds of a specific crime,” Tetiana Khutor emphasised.
Another necessary step, according to the expert, is the introduction of non-conviction-based asset confiscation. She links the need for such a mechanism, in particular, to the length of court proceedings.
“The maximum duration of proceedings in the first-instance High Anti-Corruption Court may be around 60 years. At the same time, the HACC remains one of the most effective and transparent courts in the country,” the ILI Head said.
Tetiana Khutor believes that introducing non-conviction-based confiscation would allow the state to seize assets more quickly, without waiting for all court procedures to be completed over decades.