CETS141 information

Strasbourg Convention

Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime (CETS 141)
Participation in the Strasbourg Convention   Signed and ratified   Only signed
Type	Money laundering; International criminal law
Signed	8 November 1990
Location	Strasbourg, France
Effective	1 September 1993
Condition	Ratification by 3 Council of Europe member States
Parties	48  Albania  Andorra  Armenia  Australia  Austria  Azerbaijan  Belgium  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Bulgaria  Croatia  Cyprus  Czech Republic  Denmark  Estonia  Finland  France  Georgia  Germany  Greece  Hungary  Iceland  Ireland  Italy  Latvia  Liechtenstein  Lithuania  Luxembourg  Macedonia  Malta  Moldova  Monaco  Montenegro  Netherlands  Norway  Poland  Portugal  Romania  Russia  San Marino  Serbia  Slovakia  Slovenia  Spain  Sweden   Switzerland  Turkey  Ukraine  United Kingdom
Depositary	Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Languages	English and French

The Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime, also known as the Strasbourg Convention or CETS 141, is a Council of Europe convention which aims to facilitate international co-operation and mutual assistance in investigating crime and tracking down, seizing and confiscating the proceeds thereof. The Convention is intended to assist States in attaining a similar degree of efficiency even in the absence of full legislative harmony.

Parties undertake in particular to criminalise the laundering of the proceeds of crime and to confiscate instrumentalities and proceeds (or property the value of which corresponds to such proceeds).

For the purposes of international co-operation, the Convention provides for forms of investigative assistance (assistance in procuring evidence, transfer of information to another State without a request, adoption of common investigative techniques, lifting of bank secrecy etc.), provisional measures (freezing of bank accounts, seizure of property to prevent its removal) and measures to confiscate the proceeds of crime (enforcement by the requested State of a confiscation order made abroad, institution by the requested State, of domestic proceedings leading to confiscation at the request of another State).

The Convention was drafted between October 1987 and June 1990 by a committee of governmental experts under the authority of the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC)^[1] and was approved by the Committee of Ministers in September 1990. It was opened for signature on 8 November 1990 and subsequently entered into force on 1 September 1993. The Convention was last ratified by Georgia on 13 May 2004, bringing the number of parties to 48.

The scope of the Strasbourg Convention has been further expanded by the 2005 Warsaw Convention.