The Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism reported on its fifth AML/CFT Forum, held in Ashgabat on Oct. 14-15, which focused on criminal asset confiscation and the conduct of parallel financial investigations. The discussions were framed by the start of the EAG’s third round of mutual evaluations of member states’ compliance with FATF standards and the effectiveness of national systems, with the forum concentrating on how countries trace, seize and recover illicit assets, including virtual assets. The first half of the forum examined confiscation tools, including extended confiscation, non-conviction-based confiscation and confiscation of equivalent-value property. That work is linked to an ongoing typologies project on a mechanism to strengthen national AML systems in asset recovery. The second half focused on improving parallel financial investigations and strengthening the detection, investigation and prosecution of money laundering. More than 50 delegates from EAG member states, including law enforcement, judicial authorities and financial intelligence units, shared national cases involving virtual assets, corruption-related asset seizure, fraud in the credit and financial sector and construction, theft of budget funds, drug trafficking and pharmaceutical smuggling. EAG Secretariat staff also presented changes to FATF Recommendations on confiscation and proposals to improve financial investigations and the implementation of extended confiscation in national law. The EAG said the forum’s findings, together with other typologies work, will feed into the regional money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment and support national and regional countermeasures. The next forum is planned for the second half of 2026.

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