Asset Recovery
Victims of fraud, corruption and financial crime will often find that their problems are multi-jurisdictional in scope and fluid in nature. Those that have reaped the monetary benefits of fraud, corruption, or theft will frequently go to great lengths to hide their spoils. Financial, corporate and tax structures allow wrongdoers to obscure ultimate beneficial ownership or to move their ill-gotten gains to a different jurisdiction in a matter of minutes. Combatting well-resourced individuals and their facilitators to recover assets and recoup losses requires a high level of expertise that few can provide, a knowledge of multiple legal systems that few possess, and a toughness and commitment that few are willing to sustain.
Successful asset recovery also requires out-of-the-box thinking and resourcefulness. Sequor Law has pioneered the concept of “value recovery” as opposed to the more restrictive notion of asset recovery limited to the freezing and recovery of tangible assets such as funds in a bank account, real estate, or an expensive vehicle or work of art. Our definition of asset recovery is much broader and seeks opportunities to make victims of fraud, corruption and financial fraud whole by looking not only at traditional assets, but also at the possibility of holding aiders and abettors, conspirators, and facilitators liable through third-party actions. In other instances, the asset to be recovered may be a valuable claim (chose in action) or savings that flow from a contract that is declared to have been obtained by fraud or corruption and cancelled. In yet other contexts, asset recovery may involve the exercise of restitution rights in a criminal action, the re-opening of a matrimonial dissolution settlement or the enforcement of a judgment previously written off as a dead end.
Sequor Law’s asset recovery practitioners are recognized world-wide for their leadership in building the practice area and continue to gain recognition for making new, asset recovery-related law, where none exists. Among other recognitions, Sequor Law was named Asset Recovery Firm of the Year in 2015 and 2016 by Who’s Who Legal and the leader of the practice group, Edward H. Davis, Jr., was named as the inaugural Asset Recovery Lawyer of the Year in 2013 and then was so honored again in 2014, 2015 and 2016. At Sequor Law, you will find a dedicated team with a great depth of expertise in common law and civil law jurisdictions alike, including financial and tax haven jurisdictions. The asset recovery team focuses on piercing through to the wrongdoer’s inner circle, utilizing powerful tools like asset freeze orders and other pre-judgment remedies, discrete but calculated methods of discovering concealed assets and beneficial ownership information, insolvency remedies, and direct claims against wrongdoers and third-party facilitators. Sequor Law has also paved the way in deploying pre-suit tools such as the versatile 28 U.S.C. § 1782 statute to gather evidence for use in foreign proceedings and made law in the sphere of cross-border insolvency using Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer in asset recovery. Sequor Law is committed to finding the answer in your case and to the global and relentless pursuit of your rights.