Lebanon could utilize unexplained wealth orders to recover stolen assets

Asset recovery requires global cooperation. According to the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative database, in 2018 the approximate amount of stolen funds that have been frozen, confiscated, or returned to affected countries since 1980 equals $8.2 billion, involving over 50 requesting and over 40 requested jurisdictions. These numbers, however, pale in comparison to the estimates of annual asset theft—given the nature of the activity, stolen assets are calculated based on estimates of laundered money—that range from $800 billion to $3.4 trillion. Asset recovery has been in the Lebanese discourse as part of the greater calls for accountability and transparency since the October 2019 uprisings. This July, Alain Bifani, the former director-general of the Ministry of Finance (who resigned his position and his place as part of Lebanon’s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund in June in protest of the handling of the country’s economic crisis) alleged in an interview with