The World Bank and the United Nations launched a broad new effort to help developing nations recover cross-border flow of global assets estimated at up to USD 1.6 trillion a year as a result of criminal activities, corruption and tax evasion.

In announcing the plan, Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick, and Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said a truly international effort is needed to strip crooked leaders of the money they steal from poor nations.

The Stolen Asset Recovery initiative launched Monday is supported by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the World Bank, which said at least 25% of gross domestic products of African states, about USD 148 B, have been lost each year. Similar problems exist in other continents.

The UN said bribes received by public officials in developing countries and those in transition have been conservatively put at USD 20 B to USD 40 B a year. Corrupt leaders of poor countries skim as much as USD 40 B each year and stash their looted funds overseas. Once gone, they are extremely difficult to recover, as countries like Nigeria and the Philippines have discovered.

Among major cases of embezzled assets, the UN said Ferdinand Marcos stole between USD 5 B and USD 10 B from government coffers during his long reign; former Serb president Slobodan Milosevic stole USD 1 B; former Peru president Alberto Fujimori USD 600 M and former Haitian leader Jean-Claude Duvalier between USD 300 M and USD 800 M.

Other embezzlers included former President Mohamed Suharto of Indonesia, USD15 M to 35 B; Mobutu Sese Seko, former president of Zaire, USD 5 B; and Sani Abacha of Nigeria USD 2 B to USD 5 B.

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