An inter-agency initiative tasked with curbing unexplained wealth has led to a collaboration amongst several law enforcement agencies in an attempt to de-escalate this illicit phenomenon within South Africa.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), Department of Justice (DOJ) and South African Revenue Service (SARS), led by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) and operating under the auspices of the Anti-Corruption Task Team (ACTT), are joining forces and will use existing asset recovery legislation to secure appropriate orders issued by our courts to confiscate unexplained wealth by suspected criminals. The stakeholders in this joint venture say that this bold initiative will be financially viable and could expedite investigations to recover assets acquired through suspected unlawful activities i.e.: corruption, fraud, tax evasion and money laundering. This inter-agency initiative aims to determine whether existing legislation can be effectively utilised to preserve and forfeit assets by targeting unexplained wealth.
Current asset recovery legislation requires the State to prove that a defendant’s legitimate sources of income are not sufficient to justify assets that the defendant owns with the defendant thereafter needing to prove that same were not acquired from the proceeds of criminal activities. A court can therefore make an order to confiscate unexplained wealth that is disproportionate to the lawful income derived/declared by the defendant. This approach will enable inter-agency entities such as SARS to act even in cases where such unlawful activity cannot be proven beyond reasonable doubt. In order to effectively manage this joint initiative, the participating agencies have entered into an agreement to control the operation as well as regulate the confidentiality of information shared among the different agencies.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has indicated that South Africa could potentially be grey listed due to inadequate Anti-money laundering/Terrorist Financing measures being implemented to combat financial crimes and corruption within the country. It is anticipated that the collaboration between these different sectors will assist South Africa to not only curb corruption but also mitigate some of the areas of concern highlighted by the FATF.