Recovering stolen assets has become a vital factor in international anti- corruption efforts. The theft of public assets and resources by corrupt officials has enormous cost for victim countries, because it weakens confidence in public institutions, damages private investment climate, and reduces funds available for investment in public health, education and other poverty alleviation measures. Also achieving international cooporation on many aspects of identifying and recovering stolen assets is a major problem. Victim countries are facing many problems for recovering their stolen assets. These problems involve preventing assets from leaving the victim jurisdiction, preventing stolen assets from entering international financial centers, and indentifying and tracing assets. Given the billions of dollars stolen by political leaders and other high ranking officials, the United Nation initiated the anti- corruption initiative to assist countries with recovering and returning these stolen assets to victim jurisdiction. Under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, countries agreed on asset-recovery, which is stated explicitly as the fundamental principle of the Convention. Several provisions specify how cooperation and assistance will be rendered. The methodology of this study is based on the doctrinal, qualitative, and legal research. The authors use doctrinal data, normative sources, and information collected from scientific journals, legal reference system, the Internet, library, etc and conduct a descriptive-legal research by identifying, examining, describing and clarifying existing international legal standards on stolen assets recovery. This article applies international legal standards on national corruption cases. This can clarify how international cooporation can be used to return the Iranian stolen asset to the country.
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