Judge Joseph Camilleri to head asset recovery bureau
Board appointed for Asset Recovery Bureau to deal with assets of proceeds of crime
Retired judge Joseph David Camilleri has been appointed chairperson of the new asset recovery bureau (ARB), which was set up in 2015 to recover assets confiscated in criminal cases.
The ARB board will include Superintendent Ian Abdilla as representative for the Commissioner of Police, the Inland Revenue Commissioner Marvin Gaerty, the law courts' director-general Frankie Mercieca, and FIAU director Kenneth Farrugia.
The Bureau will trace and identity assets held by individuals or groups involved in organised crime. The Bureau will not only trace and identify assets but it will also manage and administer attached or frozen assets in view of investigations or persecutions underway.
The Asset Recovery Bureau shall administer, sell, transfer, exchange, dispose of in whatever manner and deposit in the consolidated fund any money the value whereof corresponds to such instrumentalities and property recovered from proceeds of crime. Amongst other functions, the Bureau shall assist the Auditor General in carrying out annual audits of its property and the administration thereof and administer property attached or seized, frozen and confiscated.
The Bureau will bring together entities such as the Police, the Economic Crimes Unit and the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit. The Board shall be responsible for the policy to be adopted by the Bureau and to be executed and pursued by the Director, Deputy Director and Bureau Officers and to ensure that the Director, Deputy Director and Bureau Officers carry out that policy accordingly.
