On 10 January 2025, ten years after the General Assembly Resolution proposing the creation of a new Silver Notice, INTERPOL published its first ever Silver Notice.
The inaugural Silver Notice, requested by Italy in relation to assets belonging to a senior member of the mafia, was welcomed by INTERPOL General Secretary, Valdeny Urquiza, who laid bare the scale of the challenge when commenting that “… 99 per cent of criminal assets remain unrecovered.”
A Silver Notice is a new weapon in the arsenal of Notices and Diffusions available to INTERPOL, supplementing the seven existing colour coded Notices and the INTERPOL-UN Security Council Special Notice regarding sanctions.
By Resolution GA-2023-91-RES-11, INTERPOL approved the launch of a pilot, testing Silver Notices and Diffusions for a period of two years. Silver Notices will be available to participating countries, including the UK and the US, until at least November 2025.
INTERPOL has clarified the purpose of Silver Notices, in the legal framework governing the pilot, as being:
“Through Silver Notices and Diffusions, member countries can request information on assets linked to a person’s criminal activities such as fraud, corruption, drug trafficking, environmental crime and other serious offenses. It will facilitate locating, identifying, and obtaining information about laundered assets including properties, vehicles, financial accounts and businesses. Countries may subsequently use such information as a basis for bilateral engagement, including bilateral requests for seizure, confiscation or recovery of assets, subject to national laws.”
Silver Notices will be available for the purpose of criminal and/or civil forfeiture, post-conviction and/or non-conviction-based forfeiture; however, for the term of the pilot will be limited to non-coercive measures, including requesting and sharing information with a view to facilitating follow-up bilateral cooperation.
The countries and territories participating in the pilot phase include Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Burundi, China, Colombia, Congo, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Gabon, Georgia, Gibraltar (UK), Guinea, Hungary, India, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea (Rep. of), Kuwait, Latvia, Malawi, Malta, Moldova, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Trinidad & Tobago, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
According to the Asset Recovery Statistical Bulletin, the total value of asset recovery in the UK, for the financial year ending March 2024, was £243.3 million. Notably, only £5.8 million of that figure was obtained through international co-operation. Even allowing for asset sharing between countries, this is a remarkably low rate of recovery.
Mutual Legal Assistance, the existing procedure for the UK to seek assistance from foreign jurisdictions, is a cumbersome and inadequate response to the challenge faced by modern acquisitive offending. An alternative and streamlined process is required to efficiently identify and trace assets outside of the UK and, thereafter to effectively recover their value.
The comment by INTERPOL General Secretary, Valdeny Urquiza, that “… 99 per cent of criminal assets remain unrecovered” indicates that stubbornly low rates of recovery is not a phenomenon unique to the UK. The decade long delay in bringing forward the new Silver Notice, arguably, goes some distance in explaining the rate of recovery.
Acquisitive offending is fertile and innovative ground. It remains to be seen whether the new Silver Notice can act as a silver bullet in relation to international asset recovery.
If you have received a Silver Notice, we can help. We strive to offer pragmatic, strategic and creative solutions and to maximise outcomes for our clients.
How to get in contact
If you require assistance in relation to a Silver Notice and are interested in finding out how we can help, please contact our business crime team on info@ilaw.co.uk or call +44 (0)203 987 0222.
