Global Asset Tracing and Recovery
The Repton Group LLC has a proven track record in assisting law firms and financial institutions in tracking and recovering assets on a global basis. Over the past twelve years, Repton has performed such services for numerous firms including:

• Dorsey and Whitney LLP
• Proskauer Rose LLP
• Bingham McCutchen LLP
• Deutsche Bank
• CitiCorp
• The Government of Morocco
• The Royal Family of Kuwait
• Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Trust
• HSBC Bank

Our most "famous" case was 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 towards locating Iraqi assets in order to assist this client to satisfy 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 the only case were a company has been able to collect funds from Iraq. Note that at the same time Kroll and Associates had been tasked by the Royal Family of Kuwait to locate Iraqi assets on a global basis. No funds were ever found. That family is today a client of The Repton Group.

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, such as, 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 very 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 Repton has been able to assemble a team of experts who can be called upon for even the most complex searches. 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 Investigations, Interpol, Scotland Yard, the Internal Revenue Service (U.S.), the Inland Revenue Service (U.K.), the German Bundesnarchichtendienst, and retired intelligence officers who worked for the Japanese, Taiwanese, Philippine, Argentinean and Australian governments.

• We do 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.

• We have access to auditors and accountants with expertise in forensic examinations of financial records.

For each investigation we will assemble a customized team that will be 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 of a government.

Key Investigative Rules:
• We desire access to as much existing documentary information as possible.

• 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 – the often privileged access to certain government databases.

• The most complex issue is to follow the money trail. Funds can move from jurisdiction to other jurisdictions within hours or days. If we can follow that trail we will typically be able to work with attorneys towards rapid freezing and ultimate seizure of the assets in question.

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

• Communications are essential: clients need to be fully informed of each move by our investigator, each failure and each success.

• We often encounter problems in certain jurisdictions that are of 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. Repton 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 ultimate client is often best served by having the entire mechanism needed for asset recover 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 essence. When our investigators advise a client that assets have been located, we typically recommend immediate action that will freeze such 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 occasionally 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 one 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 $325.00/hour for a senior investigator to $75.00/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.