Syed Rahman explains why a case of his may help many recover assets lost to crypto-related crime

Syed Rahman’s representation of a cryptocurrency exchange that lost assets to hackers may be of huge benefit to others in similar situations.

In the High Court case of LMN v Bitflyer & Ors [2002] EWHC 2954 (Comm), Syed applied to the High Court for Bankers Trust orders to be made against six exchanges based abroad, requiring them to disclose exchange information that could help trace hackers who took crypto assets worth US$10.7 million.

On 1 October 2022, the Civil Procedure Rules extended the “jurisdictional gateways”, which enabled English courts to give permission for claims and applications to be served outside of the jurisdiction of England and Wales. This made it possible for Syed to serve the application on the overseas exchanges.

As a result, the High Court ordered the exchanges to provide the names of the account-holders and a wide range of information about them, including bank account and payment card details, email and residential addresses and phone numbers – information that can be an immense help in tracking down those who have taken cryptoassets and the assets themselves.

The case was the first in which such an application was made to obtain the court’s assistance. It is an important precedent as it sets out the type of information that can be sought via a court order against those outside of the UK.

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Featured at: Fraud Intelligence