Attorney General Retrieves 50 Mn Birr from Embezzlers, Working to Recover 300 Mn Birr from Abroad

Ena  December  20/2019 The Federal Attorney General announced that it has retrieved 50 million birr in cash and assets from embezzlers during the past five months.

Briefing journalists today, Federal Attorney General Public Relations Director Zinabu Tunu said it has also finalized preparations to retrieve additional 300 million birr from state-owned enterprises, federal government institutions that illicitly funneled money abroad.

The whereabout of the embezzled cash and properties have been identified, he said, adding that “discussions with 'heaven' countries are underway to finally return the public wealth.”

According to Zinabu, “this is a step forward as the nation had only been brining embezzlers and corrupt persons to justice but not returned public wealth.”

The strategy to help return national wealth that had been stolen by government officials and affiliate investors to be deposited in foreign countries is already in place, according to the public relations director.

Zinabu further stated that over the last six months the attorney general was able to settle 312 million birr unaccounted money expended by federal government offices in 2009/10 Ethiopian budget year.

According to him, the recognition by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently was mainly due to the strategy in place to fight corruption.