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| Africa North |
| Bounty hunter on the trail of Arab Spring loot |
| 2012-05-24 |
| Growing up in Africa, he used to hunt buffalo, a passion that still serves Geneva-based lawyer Enrico Monfrini well. His dogged pursuit of ill-gotten assets has made him the scourge of many of the world's dictators and kleptocrats. An affable man with a sharp wit and a ready smile, the 67-year-old blends easily into a city of sprucely-dressed asset managers, bankers and lawyers, though his chosen calling would likely surprise many of them. Working from an austere legal practice in central Geneva which belies its global reach, Monfrini has made his mark as a bounty hunter. In light of the Arab Spring, the available bounty may just have got a whole lot bigger. Monfrini told Reuters in an interview he was already working on finding the assets of Tunisia's former ruler Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali: "We're on a good track for finding some of the money." Tunisian justice minister Nourredine Bouheiri said this week Ben Ali and his entourage were believed to have stashed billions of dollars in accounts around the world. Since the start of the Arab Spring, Switzerland, the United States, Britain and others, have frozen several billion dollars belonging to regional strongmen and former leaders. Like Irving Picard, the lawyer seeking fraudster Bernard Madoff's hidden assets, Monfrini is officially appointed to track down assets seized by former dictators like Haiti's Babydoc Duvalier and their cronies. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #6 I'd luv to see DOG THE BOUNTY HOUNTER + BABE, BOYZ going into a major Geneva bank dressed, armed as they do + demanding to see a suspect's finance records. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-05-24 23:08 |
| #5 Living large I'd say. Hat tip to ole Ricky! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2012-05-24 17:36 |
| #4 Corruption? Let me know when he starts going after Solyndra, Light Squared, etc. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2012-05-24 15:41 |
| #3 Gromky, most bounty hunters get to keep a hefty percentage for their trouble. |
| Posted by: Omoluque Hapsburg8162 2012-05-24 12:10 |
| #2 The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) entered into force in December 2005 and pushed signatory nations to set up legal frameworks identifying and outlawing corruption, and guidelines for international cooperation and asset recovery Oh, restitution by a Geneva-based lawyer to the UN kleptocrats--I almost got excited over the thought of the missing trillions being recovered to the people. |
| Posted by: Omoluque Hapsburg8162 2012-05-24 12:08 |
| #1 Why? So he can return it to the government, who will then steal the money for themselves? Why go to all that trouble? |
| Posted by: gromky 2012-05-24 11:08 |