Close to €60 million of assets acquired through criminal means have frozen last year, marking an exponential rise to the €3.5 million seized in 2018. This figure was divulged in the 2021 annual report of the Asset Recovery Bureau which is an autonomous public entity whose remit is to trace, freeze and dispose of assets derived from illicit activity.

Since its establishment in 2018, the ARB has stepped up its activity with the total amount of assets seized increasing from €3.5 million, €5.9 million in 2019, €18.9 million in 2020 and €58.8 million in 2021.

The ARB attributed this upward trend as direct result of applying knowledge obtained through previous cases, and examining and improving on current procedures.

A further analysis of the frozen assets reveals that €44.5 million comprised immovables such as properties, followed by €9.2 million deposits from bank accounts, €3.1 million in investments and €1.5 million in cars.

Rise in money laundering

Following the tendencies as set in the previous year, this reporting year indicated that once again drug trafficking was the predominant offence for the arraigned subject persons, followed by money laundering. However, money laundering charges are reported to have increased from last year especially when reported alongside the related predicate offences of fraud and tax evasion.

Cases getting more complex

The years 2020 and 2021 feature an increasing disparity between the “number of

cases” versus “the number of reports” which emerges due to the complexities that the cases themselves have. Whereas cases for 2019 and the majority of 2020 featured one or two arraigned natural persons or legal persons per case, during 2021 there were multiple cases which featured numerous arraigned subjects indicating a possible change in the complexities of the cases themselves.

This is better reflected in the amounts denoting the total number of investigated persons which were being covered by the freezing orders issued in 2019 versus those issued in the following years. Whilst in 2019 the 71 freezing orders were covering a total of 76 investigated persons; 2020 had 66 freezing orders encompassing 102 investigated persons and in 2021 the 96 freezing orders issued were covering a total of 173 investigated persons.

During this year the Bureau, received a total of 13 foreign freezing certificates and issued 3 freezing certificates in different Member States.