The President of Moldova Maia Sandu met last week with Nicolas Bessone, director of the French Agency for the Recovery and Management of Seized and Confiscated Assets (AGRASC).
The head of state stressed that Moldovan authorities want to learn from the experience of the French agency on how to improve the efficiency of the process of recovering stolen state assets. On this occasion, the President mentioned that the government must propose the modification of the legal framework and strengthen the capacity of the institutions to enable an effective recovery of criminal assets and the return of their value to the state budget. The recovered money could be used to finance public services, including the recovery of the situation in the areas affected by the targeted crimes.
The French state is helping Moldova to manage seized assets in France and provides expertise to the National Anti-Corruption Centre (NAC) and the Criminal Asset Recovery Agency (CARA) to develop the capacities of these institutions.