Rita Tamašunienė: We Must Take Effective Measures to Recover the Unlawfully Acquired Assets
The Minister of Justice Rita Tamašunienė participates in the informal meeting of the Ministers of Justice of the European Union in Nicosia (Cyprus), where the main focus is on strengthening the search for and recovery of criminally obtained assets and measures to facilitate the return of unlawfully exported cultural properties.
In the discussion on asset recovery in the changing financial environment, the Minister emphasised that effective asset recovery is one of the most important tools in the fight against organised crime and other forms of crime. Lithuania has clear legal regulations that allow identifying, freezing, seizing and confiscating crypto-assets, but challenges are encountered in practice: the need for faster operation, privacy-enhancing technologies, decentralised systems and limited institutional resources.
The Minister also emphasised the importance of public and private sector partnership, as the structured exchange of information between law enforcement, financial intelligence units and the financial sector make it possible to identify emerging risks, criminal schemes and achieve better results in the search for assets.
“The most important thing today is to ensure that the legal instruments already in place work effectively in practice. At the same time, we need to invest in EU-level capabilities that would allow us to quickly trace and freeze cryptocurrencies, and strengthen cooperation with the private sector, subject to clear legal and data protection safeguards”, pointed out Rita Tamašunienė.
The Ministers also addressed the issue of returning unlawfully exported cultural properties.
According to Rita Tamašunienė, although cultural properties that has disappeared in Lithuania are registered in the INTERPOL database, this system does not cover all lost objects, especially in cases where no police investigation is being conducted. This makes it difficult to identify and prevent the illegal trade in cultural property at the European Union level.
According to the Minister, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation at the European Union level, focused on the monitoring, identification, and prevention of unlawfully acquired cultural property. This could be facilitated by an active network of expert contacts, allowing for the rapid determination of the origin and status of found or unregistered cultural objects, as well as by improving the Directive on the return of unlawfully removed cultural objects.