Following on from our successful workshop on cryptocurrency, Restitution was honoured to be invited to host another workshop for Zambia’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA). This workshop had disclosure as its focus. Some 120 members of the various constituent bodies that make up AMLA participated in this Restitution-chaired workshop which was entitled: Disclosure Requirements: The gathering, protecting and using material throughout the life of an investigation and potential trial. We were fortunate to have Mr Mulilo Kabesha SC, the Attorney General of Zambia and Chairperson of AMLA to open and close the event with encouraging words. The AG remained throughout the 3.5 hours event along g with other heads of bodies that comprise AMLA: Mr Gilbert Phiri SC the Director of Public Prosecutions, National Prosecution Authority (NPA), Mrs Liya B. Tembo the then Acting Director General of theFinancial Intelligence Centre (FIC), Ms Mary Chirwa, the then Director General of the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), Dr Denny H. Kalyalya, the Governor of the BoZ, Mr Dingani Banda, the Commissioner General of the ZRA and Mr Tom T. Shamakamba, the Director General of the ACC. Two of our partners, Pallas LLP and Alaco Investigators, gave the participants the benefit of the expertise in this field. A case study showed how important this issue is with a spotlight on current legislation being brought before the High Court of London by the Government of Mozambique.
Following an in-depth consideration of open-source investigation tools (eg the Wayback Machine which has been capturing a snap shot of the world wide web from time to time since 1996) and a look at how the former PM of Pakistan’s assets were traced by Alaco, the workshop turned to the issue of the disclosure requirements. A takeaway lesson for all, no doubt, from Pallas LLP’s presentation was that if a government fails to apply a proper disclosure procedure and the appropriate handling of material obtained during the investigation either due to lack of understanding or, as with with Mozambique, potentially deliberately such as to lead a court to find that a fair trial can no longer take place, then this important aspect can cause the litigation to potentially being derailed. That litigation is ongoing and a UK Financial Times report from mid-June 2023 shows the difficulties this issue can cause anybody pursuing litigation in this field – https://www.ft.com/content/d2c38494-b574-485b-9b6b-dad4e91c29b6
Restitution intend to follow up on this workshop with others looking at this vital part of the litigation process in further detail.
Notes:
1. AMLA is mandated to provide general and specific policy directives to the Zambia Revenue Authority and advise the Minister of Finance on measures required to prevent and detect money laundering in the Republic. It comprises 11 bodies including those set out above.
2. Restitution’s aim is to combat the 1 trillion dollars in Illicit Financial Flows is stolen every year by pursuing previous IFFs thus making it deeply unattractive to current persons in positions of power who may think if organising their own financial flow out of States. If IFFs were tackled effectively, Africa would become a net creditor.
For further information on this or future events please contact Harry Hewitt – hh@restitution.org.uk