India-led ARIN-AP Meet Focuses on Tracing, Confiscation and Return of Crime Assets

The India-led annual general meeting of the Asset Recovery Interagency Network, Asia Pacific (ARIN-AP), focused on tracing illicit assets, confiscation, asset management and the return of recovered proceeds, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Saturday.

The 11th annual general meeting, hosted by the ED under India’s presidency of the network for 2026, concluded in New Delhi on September 30. India subsequently handed over the ARIN-AP presidency to Singapore for 2027. The three-day meeting brought together prosecutors, investigators, asset managers, financial intelligence officers and policy practitioners from member jurisdictions and observer organisations, along with representatives of Indian agencies and partner institutions.

ARIN-AP is an informal network of law enforcement and judicial contact points working on the recovery of proceeds of crime across the Asia-Pacific region. Launched in South Korea in 2013, it facilitates direct and rapid exchange of information and good practices among 32 member jurisdictions and 10 observers, according to the ED.

The meeting was held on the theme “Closing the Loop: From Tracing to Return”, bringing together different stages of asset recovery, from identifying and tracing assets to confiscation, custody and their eventual return. ED Director Rahul Navin highlighted discussions on tracing virtual assets, including the need for swift engagement with service providers, blockchain analytics and cross-border cooperation with foreign counterpart agencies.

The meeting also examined non-conviction-based confiscation, asset management and mechanisms for returning recovered assets through restitution to victims, transfer to the exchequer and social reuse of confiscated property.

“India shared its experience of restoring assets to victims at scale under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002,” Navin said. Case studies were shared by agencies including the UK's Financial Conduct Authority and HM Revenue and Customs, the US IRS Criminal Investigation, Italy's Guardia di Finanza and Ukraine's ARMA.

Navin stressed that effective asset recovery requires financial intelligence, law enforcement cooperation, prosecution, courts and asset management to work in sequence. Singapore's David Chew received the presidency and said trust among members was fundamental to the network's success.