ASTANA – The Kazakh Prosecutor General’s Office has set up the Committee for Asset Recovery, the office’s press service reported on Oct. 12.
Photo credit: inform.kz.
The newly formed committee, which was established by an Oct. 5 decree of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, is the authorized body responsible for asset recovery.
As a working body of the Commission on the Return of Illegally Acquired Assets headed by Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov, the committee is entitled to request and receive all the information about assets and their owners. It will also engage researchers, experts and specialists to identify and eliminate the causes and conditions that facilitated the illegal concentration of economic resources and the illegal withdrawal of assets.
In addition to its core responsibilities of searching and recovering assets, the committee is tasked to develop international legal cooperation in this field.
The committee is also authorized to send requests to foreign countries for the seizure, provisional measures and confiscation of illicitly withdrawn assets.
It is empowered to file claims in Kazakh and foreign courts seeking the return of assets illegally acquired to the state’s benefit. It also has the capacity to initiate and conduct pre-trial investigations independently and enter into settlement agreements, procedural agreements, and other arrangements aimed at facilitating the voluntary return of assets.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed the law on the return of illegally acquired assets to the state in July. The law provides a framework for the government to identify and repatriate assets that have been illegally acquired and taken out of the country.
