Investigation - Asset Tracing & Recovery

Follow the links on the left to the various investigation topics pages

2007

Asset tracing: getting evidence and injunctive relief (UK)

DECEMBER 2007: The English court has teeth to deal with asset tracing. Laurence Katz examines the scope of the bite.

This article examines the wide-ranging powers of the English court (outside of the 1986 Act) to assist IPs seeking to trace and secure assets. Key among these are the ability to grant:

• freezing orders on a domestic or worldwide basis

• proprietary injunctions to preserve relevant property
  search orders

• third party disclosure orders. (Read more...)

Tracing and Recovering Stolen Funds: The Civil Approach (UK)

JULY 2007: Fraudsters and other financial criminals have, on many occasions, proven their imagination and intelligence, in the variety of methods used to hide the proceeds of their crimes. It follows that to recover the cash and assets which they have removed and concealed – sometimes with the benefit of careful forethought and planning over months or even years – requires a similar level of inventiveness and creativity, together with a thorough understanding of the legal options available. Below are some of the elements that need to be considered when investigating and attempting to recover cash and assets. (Read more...)

Proceeds of crime: the seizure of criminal assets

JULY 2006: Until two or three years ago, if you had asked the average UK police officer what they would regard as success in tackling organised crime, they would have said something along the lines of: we receive solid intelligence which leads us to gather specific evidence. We make arrests and recover further evidence, perhaps quantities of drugs or illegal firearms. We go to court and the defendants are found guilty, following which they should get a reasonable term of imprisonment.

In today’s environment, achieving custodial sentences alone may no longer be good enough. Why not? Because in many cases the organised crime gang will continue to operate even without some senior players. In the worst cases, those imprisoned will continue to operate the organisation effectively even from within the confines of their cells. (Read more...) (1 MB)

2005

Gathering the Evidence - Following the Money

JULY 2005: The first few hours of an investigation can secure critical evidence and set the tone for everything that follows. This article examines the investigative and legal options available in the early phases of dealing with fraud, including how to use disclosure orders against banks in order to trace the proceeds of a fraud, and how to make the best use of freezing orders against fraudsters. The authors explain the critical issue of following the money, without which any investigation and legal action will achieve no more than a mere understanding of how the victim was defrauded. (Read more...)

2003

Follow the Greenback Road

NOVEMBER 2003: With a sixth-grade education, legendary gangster Al Capone thought he was smart enough. By the time he was 26, “Scarface” had 1,000 employees and a weekly payroll of $300,000. In the 1930s, when the average American worker made about $2,400 annually, Capone was raking in more than a hundred million dollars a year. The mobster, thought to be responsible for more than 300 gangland executions, was chauffeured around the mean streets of Chicago in a seven-ton limousine with 18 bodyguards. He had everything money could buy.

“Financial investigators know the credo by heart: Follow the money.” In this article we will explore the most effective ways that fraud examiners and prosecutors prove that funds were derived from criminal activity. (Read more...)

2001

Recovery of Embezzled Assets Half a World Away

AUGUST 2001: In August most Persian Gulf businesses and government agencies shut their doors as key officials vacation elsewhere to escape daily temperatures that often reach 115 degrees or more. That seasonal standstill caused us to schedule our Middle East arrival for September even though our client would have preferred us to start in midsummer. The crime was an embezzlement. The client’s attorneys engaged our firm, Arthur Andersen, to work closely with them in building a case for recovering the property. (Read more...)

2000