Viktor J. Vavricka
Directorate of International Law
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs viktor.vavricka@eda.admin.ch
G8/OAS-Seminar Miami, May 2-5, 2006

• November 2004: Nigerian commitment to use funds for education, health (HIV/AIDS) and basic infrastructure (national MDG strategy)
• February 2005: Swiss Federal Tribunal to allow return of remaining
USD 458 million
• Coordination, stakeholders, negociations (and TKELA…)
• September 2005: The Governments of Nigeria and Switzerland agreed on a transparent process to return the funds (win-win)
• Agreement with the World Bank to proceed with a Public
Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review
(PEMFAR)
• Civil society participation, funded by Swiss Government
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• 2002: Criminal proceedings in Geneva in connection with the restructuring of public
Angolan debt towards the Russian Federation.
• Bilateral tensions and negociations with
Angolan Government regarding the use of possible funds
• November 2003: preliminary agreement reached
• December 2004: case closed in Geneva (no irregularities found in the settlement of the public debt)
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Angola
• Geneva judicial authorities agreed to lift blocking order on four accounts containing
USD 21 million to enable the bilateral agreement to be implemented
• Agreement: funds transfered to account with
Swiss National Bank
• Account holder: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
• Social and humanitarian program, joint implementation by executive secretariat
• SDC pays overhead costs
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• Transfer to an account of the victim state (no strings attached),
• Transfer to an account of the victim state, monitoring by recipient state or a third party
• Transfer to an institution which uses the funds in favour of the victim State (transfer via a third party, e.g. debt reduction, country specific trust fund)
• Transfer to an institution which uses the funds in favour of the population of the victim state
• Transfer to the returning country's development cooperation or humanitarian projects in favour of the population of the victim State
• No transfer at all.
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• Fundamental interest that assets of criminal origin are not invested in CH
• Comprehensive range of legal and institutional measures to protect financial center against inflow of illegal assets
• If assets of criminal origin find their way into CH, CH wants to return them quickly to the country of origin
• Banking secrecy: does not protect criminals
• Coherent measures at international level, need for cooperation between financial centers
• G8 Disposition Paper
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• Transparency and accountability in the transfer and administration of returned assets
• Presumption of transfer to the benefit of the people harmed
• Case-specific treatment
• Encourage UNCAC principles
• Consistency and coordination
• Use of an agreement
 Principles are fully in line with the Swiss experience
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Viktor J. Vavricka
Directorate of International Law
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs
G8/OAS-Seminar Miami, May 2-5, 2006