Global Asset Tracing and Recovery

One of our most high-profiles cases in this area involved a twelve-month investigation on behalf of a New York City law firm representing a New Jersey-based industrial firm. That firm had obtained a federal judgment against entities of the Government of Iraq for more than $57 million.

Starting in 1992, The Repton Group worked toward locating Iraqi assets to assist the client in satisfying the judgment. The difficulty was that any Iraqi assets had to be connected specifically to the Iraqi Ministry of Mining.

After a lengthy search, sufficient assets were found in an account in Belgium. A Belgian court – after complex litigation – made it possible for the client to receive the funds.

To this day this remains one of a few cases where a company has been able to collect funds from Iraq.

The Complex Business of Asset Tracing

Few investigative tasks are more complex than tracing assets. Such work is difficult even when limited to one country, for example, the United States or Germany. But most asset tracing now requires a careful analysis of money flows across international borders and often through jurisdictions with very tight banking secrecy rules. Criminals, individuals, governments and companies intent on hiding assets have become expert in using jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Channel Islands, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and even the Vatican Bank.

Over the years, The Repton Group has been able to assemble a team of experts who can negotiate even the most complex searches. Our experts include:

• Several retired United States Secret Service officers. The Secret Service is tasked with many of the investigations of major financial crimes in the United States.

• Former intelligence operatives who worked for institutions such as the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Interpol, Scotland Yard, the Internal Revenue Service (U.S.), the Inland Revenue Service (U.K.), and the German Bundesnachirchtendienst, as well as retired intelligence officers who worked for the Japanese, Taiwanese, Philippine, Argentinean and Australian governments.

• Auditors and accountants with expertise in forensic examinations of financial records.

We have excellent contacts within FinCen, the arm of the U.S. Department of the Treasury charged with monitoring money flows and controlling money laundering. We have access to key sources at institutions such as the U.K. National Criminal Intelligence Service.

For each investigation we will assemble a customized team headquartered either in New York City, Washington or Portugal. We have also set up ad-hoc operations in Taiwan, Tokyo and Hong Kong. We typically work with a law firm or the in-house legal staff of a major corporation or a government.

Key Investigative Rules

• Having access to as much existing documentary information as possible contributes immensely to our chance of success.

• Our first objective is to conduct proper asset identification, proof of ownership and clear and provable linkage to the criminal act or fraud in question. This often requires relatively detailed background work on individuals alleged to have hidden assets.

• We develop a matrix of information that includes known telephone records and calls, patterns of international travel, existing real estate ownership, use of aliases and past financial behavior. We use global public sources as well as – where needed – often privileged access to certain government databases.

• The most complex aspect of the operation is in following the money trail. Funds can jump between jurisdictions within hours or days. If we can follow that trail we will typically be able to work with attorneys toward rapid freezing and ultimate seizure of the assets in question.

• The challenges in such investigations are enormous. In no way can we minimize this. The secrecy of the process is considerable and access to sources is critical.

• Communication is essential: Clients are fully informed of each move by our investigator, each failure and each success.

• We often encounter problems in certain jurisdictions that are of a purely political nature. Some governments – often due to a high degree of corruption – will assist criminals in shielding assets. In these cases we have in the past resorted to using our contacts with the U.S. Department of State or other major foreign offices.

• It is critical for clients to accept that the risk in asset searches and recovery can be considerable. Not all searches obtain the desired results.

Key Issues for Clients

• Many clients prefer to first conduct a quick look to see if there are any assets that could be seized before embarking on the often costly legal procedures to actually be able to recover assets. The Repton Group counsels against such preliminary searches. The cost of a "quick look" is similar to an actual asset search. And without the legal mechanism in place to actually recover assets, such preliminary work is often useless: By the time a judgment has been recognized, the assets in question may have disappeared again.

• The client is often best served by having the entire mechanism needed for asset recovery in place before starting with the actual search. This includes a judgment as well as the ability to have the judgment recognized quickly in foreign jurisdictions.

• Speed is of the essence. When our investigators advise a client that assets have been located, we typically recommend immediate action that will freeze those assets. In most cases such action should take place within hours.

• There are no magic tricks in asset recovery. Most of it is slow, painstaking investigative work with an occasional lucky break.

Costs and Time Requirements

• We have conducted asset searches that lasted as little as six weeks – even though it involved a complex money flow from London to Anguilla and from there to Taiwan – and others that lasted over a year.

• After an initial briefing by the client on a case we will attempt to provide a time estimate. Often such estimates turn out to be inaccurate. However, a review of the personal background of individuals who have committed fraud, or are believed to have hidden assets, has proven to be a good predictor of the difficulties we are likely to encounter in an asset search.

• Costs are equally hard to project. We operate on an hourly charge basis with a sliding scale from $475.00/hour for a senior investigator to $150.00/hour for a junior analyst or investigator. Our disbursements are charged at cost.

• We do not – as a rule – work on a success fee basis. However, we are willing to discuss flat-fee arrangements in some cases.

215 East 58th St., Suite 3B | New York, New York 10022 | tel. 212.308.1212 | fax: 212.308.1219