From Legal Authority to Recovery Outcomes: Diagnosing and Reforming Saudi Arabia’s Asset-Recovery Architecture

Abstract

Asset recovery has become a core enforcement objective in contemporary financial-crime control, yet global recovery outcomes remain structurally weak. The existence of confiscation powers is not equivalent to recovery effectiveness. This dissertation evaluates Saudi Arabia’s asset-recovery system as a governance problem across an end-to-end cycle—from detection and financial intelligence, through tracing and preservation, to adjudication, asset management, and cross-border return—rather than as an isolated question of whether confiscation is legally available. Using doctrinal legal analysis and comparative institutional assessment, the dissertation develops a cycle-based framework that distinguishes formal legal authority from institutional capacity, workflow discipline, and accountability. It examines two primary international reference frameworks: UNCAC Chapter V, which anchors asset recovery as a fundamental principle and provides treaty-based cooperation and return pathways; and FATF standards, which supply offense-neutral operational infrastructure for restraint, confiscation, and international cooperation. These frameworks are tested against recurring cross-border bottlenecks—dual criminality, MLA delay, beneficial-ownership opacity, evidentiary packaging, and inter-agency friction—and against the accelerated challenges posed by cryptocurrency-enabled proceeds. The central finding is institutional: Saudi Arabia possesses substantial legal building blocks, but recovery effectiveness is constrained by handoff failures and the absence of a unified recovery doctrine assigning clear ownership, timelines, and chain-of-custody governance from restraint through disposition. Accordingly, the dissertation proposes a twenty-three-article Asset Recovery Regulation establishing a national steering mechanism, mandatory parallel financial investigation, a secure inter-agency coordination platform, unified asset management, and standardized MLA sequencing. Its contribution is a practical, standards-informed blueprint for converting dispersed mandates into a governable recovery lifecycle.