Confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of corruption crimes in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

effective practices
on confiscation of the corruption assets and proceeds of money laundering 
have been provided by such countries as Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, 
and Montenegro.
In March of 2014, in 
Azerbaijan
, the criminal case was initiated against the Chairman of the Board of the 
Bank ‘Birlikbank’ – 
А., who was suspected of
embezzlement in 2006-2008, by abusing his official position, 
of Manat 3 918 000 (approximately the same amount in EURO at that time) from the National Agency for 
Entrepreneurship Support under the Ministry of Economy. After the money had been transferred to the bank, 
it was transferred to fictitious companies, controlled by A., as the loans to support the entrepreneurship 
activities. The similar scheme was applied by А. to get into possession of the loan funds of the Bank 
‘Texnikabank’ to the amount of Manat 40 150 000 during the period of 2007-2010. In addition, in 2006-
2010 he misappropriated Manat 899 479 that was paid by 53 different debtors of the Agency through the 
accounts of the Bank ‘Birlikbank’, but which was not transferred to the Agency. All this money was legalised 

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through the Business Center ‘Amay’, which was under the effective control of А; this money was shown as 
the earnings from his commercial activity. It was used for the purchase of the company ‘Garadagh 
Construction’, vehicles and other 
property. Finally, А. was convicted by court of fraud and money 
embezzlement in the amount of Manat 48 473 241 and for abuse of official position and money laundering, 
whereas the construction company, vehicles and other property was confiscated under the judgment, which 
allowed recovering Manat 43 547 000 for the actual damages. 
Besides, in March of 2014, the criminal case was initiated on corruption involving the officials of the 
company ‘Meridian’ company. The investigation found that the founder and director of this company – 
К. 
through several fictitious companies under his control, which were registered in the name of persons close 
to him, got into possession of the loan funds of ‘Bank Technique’ to the total amount of Manat 25 756 547 
through loan agreements, secured by the shares of the hotel, belonging to him, to the amount of Manat 1 706 
072 and which were already under arrest by the court’s decision. By using the obtained funds, K. purchased 
apartments, plots of land and other property. By the cou
rt judgment, К. was convicted of fraud, 
embezzlement, tax evasion, abuse of official position and forgery; he was sentenced to 13 years of 
imprisonment. As a result of conviction, 853 036 shares of the hotel, 11 apartments, 6 other property objects, 
and plots of land were confiscated in accordance with the procedure of the special criminal confiscation.
Under the criminal case No.2K-387-677/2015, examined in the courts of