HomeInterpol Silver Notice Legal Support
If you’ve been told that INTERPOL has issued or may issue a Silver Notice regarding your assets, the first thing to understand is this: it does not freeze or seize anything on its own.
It’s an information-sharing request circulated among the 52 countries currently participating in INTERPOL’s asset-tracing pilot. But a Silver Notice often precedes formal freezing or confiscation requests under national law, so early legal review matters. Our lawyers assess the validity of the underlying request, challenge notices issued without proper legal basis, and work to protect your assets before matters escalate further.
What is a Silver Notice?
The Silver Notice was first proposed by INTERPOL in 2015 during the 84th General Assembly in Kigali, in response to a growing need for better tools to trace and recover assets linked to criminal activity. Its development was formally mandated by Resolution GA-2023-91-RES-11, adopted at the 91st General Assembly in Vienna in 2023, which tasked INTERPOL’s Expert Working Group on Asset Tracing and Recovery with designing a pilot programme.
In May 2024, INTERPOL and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued a joint statement calling on member states to intensify efforts against illicit proceeds from transnational organized crime — a precursor to the pilot’s launch. Its first use came on 10 January 2025, when Italy’s Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police) requested tracing of property, financial accounts, and other assets linked to a senior organized crime figure.
The pilot launched in January 2025, with 52 member countries and territories participating. Its first use came on 10 January 2025, at the request of Italian authorities, to trace property, financial accounts, and other assets linked to a senior organized crime figure. As of November 2025, INTERPOL had published 133 Silver Notices and 35 Diffusions at the request of 39 countries, connected to suspected financial harm exceeding €30 billion. Following review at the 93rd General Assembly in Marrakech, the pilot has been extended through the end of 2026.
What Does a Silver Notice Actually Do?
A Silver Notice is a non-coercive intelligence tool — it identifies and traces assets (property, vehicles, financial accounts, businesses) connected to serious criminal offenses such as fraud, corruption, money laundering, and organized crime. It is not limited to terrorism financing or cryptocurrency, though digital assets can fall within its scope where relevant to a specific case.
Importantly, a Silver Notice does not by itself authorize freezing, seizure, or confiscation of anything. Any such measures still require separate action under the applicable national law and judicial procedure. In practice, a Silver Notice is often the first step that precedes a formal request — which is exactly the stage where early legal intervention has the most impact.
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Protect My AssetsWho Can Issue a Silver Notice?
Like other INTERPOL notices, requests are reviewed by the General Secretariat before circulation — a safeguard intended to keep the tool within INTERPOL’s Article 2 mandate (facilitating cooperation within national law and human rights protections) and Article 3 prohibition on political, military, religious, or racial motivation, as well as the data-quality standards set out in the Rules on the Processing of Data (Articles 73–81 and 97–100).
What does receiving an Interpol Silver Notice in Dubai imply?
Being named in a Silver Notice signals that one or more countries participating in the pilot are actively tracing assets connected to an alleged offense involving you. While the notice itself doesn’t freeze anything, it commonly leads to:
- Heightened scrutiny of your financial transactions and asset holdings by regulatory and enforcement bodies across participating countries;
- Follow-up requests for formal freezing, seizure, or confiscation under UAE or foreign law, once the traced information is shared;
- Reputational exposure, particularly with banks and business partners who may treat the notice as a red flag;
- Complications with travel or residency if the underlying matter also involves a parallel Red Notice or extradition request — see our Interpol Red Notice removal guide if that applies to your situation.
Given how early this stage is, this is often the most effective moment to challenge the basis of the request — before it hardens into a formal freezing action.
Can a Silver Notice Be Misused?
Because Silver Notices are still in a pilot phase with limited public oversight of the review process, the same risks that apply to other INTERPOL notices apply here — arguably with less established precedent to draw on:
- Wrongful targeting — an individual named due to errors, misunderstanding, or a requesting country acting in bad faith;
- Reputational harm that persists even where the underlying allegations are never substantiated;
- Disproportionate follow-through — national authorities pursuing freezing action based on incomplete or contested information;
- Difficulty responding — because Silver Notices, like Diffusions, are not published publicly, individuals often only learn of one indirectly, through a bank inquiry or a parallel investigation.
Challenging a Silver Notice draws on the same legal grounds available for other INTERPOL notices: Article 3 neutrality violations, data-quality issues under INTERPOL’s Rules on the Processing of Data, and disproportionality relative to the underlying allegation.
This concern isn’t speculative — international law scholars have flagged it directly. Because a Silver Notice doesn’t require a prior conviction, commentators have warned it could, in principle, be used by some member states to target political dissidents or critics under the guise of financial crime allegations, in a manner inconsistent with Article 3 of INTERPOL’s Constitution. Given how recent this tool is — with limited public precedent to draw on — early legal scrutiny of any Silver Notice request matters even more than it does with better-established notice types.
A second widely reported use came from the United Kingdom, seeking to trace assets belonging to a convicted individual — illustrating that the tool is already moving beyond its first, high-profile case into more routine asset-recovery work across multiple jurisdictions.
Which of our lawyers work with Interpol Silver Notices?
Dmytro Konovalenko, is a lawyer with many years of experience in dealing with the Interpol Notices. Dmytro has successfully challenged Silver, Red, Green, Yellow and Blue Notices for clients from Europe, Asia, the Far East.
Anatoliy Yarovyi, lawyer, Doctor of Laws. Anatoliy specializes in appeals against INTERPOL Notices, including Silver, Red, Green and Blue notices.
How We Help With Silver Notice Cases
If you’re facing a Silver Notice, early legal review matters — both to assess whether the request itself complies with INTERPOL’s rules, and to get ahead of any follow-up freezing or confiscation action before it’s filed. Our approach includes:
- Reviewing the legal basis for the notice and identifying grounds for challenge with the General Secretariat;
- Engaging with UAE authorities and financial institutions before a formal freezing request is filed, where possible;
- Coordinating with counsel in the requesting country where the underlying allegation originates;
- Preparing supporting documentation on asset ownership, legitimate source of funds, and UAE ties where relevant.
Don’t delay in addressing your situation — contact our team for a consultation and an assessment of your options.
FAQ
How is a Silver Notice different from an Interpol Diffusion in asset cases?
A Silver Notice is reviewed centrally by INTERPOL’s General Secretariat before circulation to participating pilot countries, while a Diffusion is sent directly from one National Central Bureau to another without that central review — the same distinction that applies to Red Notices versus Diffusions generally, just applied here to asset-tracing requests instead of wanted-person alerts.
How does a Silver Notice differ from a Red Notice?
A Red Notice targets a person, requesting their location and provisional arrest pending extradition. A Silver Notice targets assets, not the person directly — it requests information to trace property, accounts, or other assets connected to a criminal allegation. The two can run in parallel in the same case, but they serve entirely different functions and require different legal responses.
What should I do if I find out that Interpol has issued a Silver Notice regarding my assets?
Avoid moving or transferring the assets in question — this can itself be treated as evidence of concealment, even where the underlying allegation is contested. Instead, get legal advice quickly to review the basis of the notice and, where warranted, engage with the relevant authorities before a formal freezing request is filed.
