Asset tracing can be an essential part of any civil fraud case.
When it comes to asset tracing and recovery, speed and expertise are essential. This is because the chances of success will increase the quicker and more strategically the process is conducted. The right team of experts needs to be assembled at the earliest possible stage. Being able to gain immediate access to any additional expertise whenever it is required can also be vitally important.
Rahman Ravelli always provides a skilled team of lawyers with vast experience of working in substantial, complex, national and international asset recovery cases. Our asset recovery specialists all work at great speed to help shape robust action and enforcement.
We regularly advise on suspected fraudulent activity where assets have been - or are at risk of being - dissipated. Our specialists are devoted to working for large-scale enterprises and companies in the most challenging cases - cases that often involve investigations in a number of countries and dealing with multiple jurisdictions.
Identifying the assets that have been the subject of a fraud, establishing their present location and devising the appropriate strategy to recover them are the all-important components when it comes to securing assets for recovery.
There can be no delay at all when it comes to:
At Rahman Ravelli, we do this for individuals and corporates around the world. We are able to use tools which are available in both UK courts and foreign jurisdictions to secure the best outcome for our clients.
An asset tracing case that involves an individual leaving one country for another can require legal manoeuvres in more than one country and an ability to coordinate activities across a number of borders. This is essential when bringing an uncooperative individual to the negotiating table or to prevent assets being moved or hidden. We are adept at doing this.
At Rahman Ravelli, we use careful planning, high-quality investigative work and swift use of the law to stop any efforts that may be made to prevent assets being located or recovered.
Our asset tracing specialists are devoted to working for companies and individuals to determine the best way to establish where the assets are and the best legal route to return them to their rightful owner. Our experience in this field and our internationally-recognised legal expertise mean that we provide the most effective approach to asset tracing in each and every such case we take on.
Whether you are an individual wondering if a civil fraud case is the most appropriate option or in-house counsel at a company considering the best way to recoup what has been taken, we provide the best route to regaining what is yours.
Asset tracing is the process of identifying, locating, and establishing ownership of assets that have been misappropriated, fraudulently obtained, or hidden — often through complex multi-jurisdictional corporate and banking structures. It combines forensic accountancy, legal analysis, open-source intelligence, court-ordered disclosure, and international enforcement mechanisms to follow assets from their original source, through a chain of transactions or structures, to their current location. It is frequently used in fraud recovery, insolvency, divorce, and commercial dispute proceedings.
Claimants can use a range of legal tools to trace and recover assets. These include: freezing injunctions to prevent further dissipation; search orders to preserve evidence; Norwich Pharmacal orders to compel third parties (such as banks, accountants, and company registries) to disclose information; Bankers Trust orders against financial institutions; disclosure orders requiring defendants to identify their assets; equitable tracing claims under the law of constructive trust; and, in civil fraud cases, claims for knowing receipt and dishonest assistance.
A Norwich Pharmacal order is a court order compelling a third party that has been innocently mixed up in wrongdoing — typically a bank, financial institution, or professional adviser — to disclose information about the wrongdoer or their assets. Norwich Pharmacal orders are particularly useful in the early stages of an asset tracing exercise where the victim knows that funds have passed through a particular institution but does not know where they went next. English courts are willing to grant such orders against overseas entities in appropriate circumstances.
Complex offshore asset structures — involving chains of companies, trusts, and nominee arrangements across multiple jurisdictions — require a combination of legal and investigative techniques. These include: open-source corporate registry searches; disclosure orders against financial institutions in key jurisdictions; Mutual Legal Assistance requests where criminal proceedings are involved; intelligence gathered through private investigators; registration analysis under transparency regimes such as the UK's Register of Overseas Entities; and the application of equitable tracing principles to follow assets through successive transactions.
Yes, though overseas recovery is complex and depends on the enforcement framework applicable in the relevant jurisdiction. English High Court judgments and freezing orders can be enforced in many countries, particularly those with reciprocal enforcement arrangements with England and Wales. In some cases, it may be necessary to commence separate proceedings in the relevant overseas jurisdiction to enforce an English judgment or to obtain equivalent orders from a local court. The involvement of experienced local counsel in each relevant jurisdiction is usually essential.
Civil asset recovery is pursued by private parties (or, in some cases, by public authorities such as the NCA) in the civil courts to recover misappropriated assets or their traceable proceeds, without requiring a criminal conviction. Criminal confiscation is ordered by the Crown Court following a criminal conviction, under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and is aimed at stripping a convicted defendant of the proceeds of their crime. Both mechanisms can run in parallel and are not mutually exclusive, though they operate under different legal frameworks and standards of proof.
In insolvency proceedings, asset tracing is used by insolvency practitioners to identify and recover assets that have been removed from a company by directors or shareholders prior to insolvency — for example, through fraudulent transfers, transactions at an undervalue, or preferences. Insolvency practitioners have specific statutory powers to challenge such transactions under the Insolvency Act 1986. Asset tracing expertise is essential to establish where diverted assets have gone and to pursue effective recovery for the benefit of creditors.
Effective asset tracing requires an unusual combination of legal skills across multiple disciplines — civil litigation, insolvency law, international enforcement, equitable remedies, and financial regulation — combined with forensic analytical capability and experience of working across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously. Speed is frequently critical, since assets can be moved very rapidly. Specialist asset tracing solicitors have the experience, the network of overseas counsel, and the forensic resources to move quickly and effectively to locate and secure misappropriated assets.
