About Us

Key Facts

Below you can find some interesting facts about ICC FraudNet

Our members have recovered billions of dollars for victims

Money moves faster than victims can unless they have sophisticated assistance. Typically, victims do not know what to do, or whom they can turn to for help. Law enforcement agencies have scarce resources and are focused on punishing wrongdoers, not recovering assets for victims. As a result, criminal options are limited. This is where our members can help, they have been retained around the world and have recovered billions of dollars for victims that include corporations, individuals, governments and state entities.

Our members are highly ranked by Who’s Who Legal

ICC FraudNet members are leading practitioners in fraud and asset recovery, several of our members have been named “Asset Recovery Lawyer of the year” by Who’s Who Legal.

Membership is Invitation only

Membership is by invitation only, and only experts with a clear track record and significant experience are invited to join.

We have access to cutting edge forensics, investigative, legal and media services

ICC FraudNet is proud to have strategic partners who are globally recognised and highly experienced, in forensics, investigative, legal and media services. Our members regularly work with them as a team to maximise recoveries for victims.

The network is recognised as world leading by Chambers and Partners

The network has been ranked by Chambers and Partners as “A World Leading Asset Recovery Legal Network”.

We operate under ICC Commercial Crime Services

Founded in 2004 under the auspices of ICC Commercial Crime Services (ICC CCS), the anti-crime arm of the Paris based International Chamber of Commerce.

Global Asset Recovery Specialists

Founded in 2004 by several leading asset recovery lawyers in collaboration with ICC Commercial Crime Services, the anti-crime arm of the Paris based International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world business organisation. ICC FraudNet operates from the London office of ICC Commercial Crime Services.

Our mission is to locate and recover assets and proceeds of crime for victims of all types of fraud, including but not limited to corruption, embezzlement, receivership, crypto and Ponzi schemes.

Our members are highly skilled and experienced in managing multi-jurisdictional cases, legal teams and experts; bringing the power of the network to bear on complex cases which results in successful recoveries for victims and debtors.

How We Can Assist

With seamless global transfers of funds, fraudsters can instantaneously steal and hide liquid assets inside financial institutions across the globe. Teams of well-funded, professional criminals are aided and abetted by cyber stealth and bank secrecy laws. Time is of the essence when recovering assets.

Setting up an ad hoc international team of asset recovery professionals in many jurisdictions can be time-consuming, ineffective and costly. Furthermore, fraud victims will find that fraud is a low priority for law enforcement, whose focus is on criminal punishment but not on reparation for the fraud victim.

ICC FraudNet members can assist creditor-victims and estate fiduciaries – trustees, liquidators – with a growing number of litigation finance tools. Creative fee arrangements, including full and blended contingency arrangements and third-party financing may be available to finance investigation and recovery efforts.

Our Approach

An ICC FraudNet’s member will begin by assembling a strategic multidisciplinary transnational team from within the network that includes asset recovery lawyers, investigators and forensic accountants. This team promptly organises a forensic investigation and selects the optimum jurisdiction to commence court proceedings.

The team moves quickly and diligently, using specialised disclosure, gag and seal and investigative orders such as 28 USC 1782 and Anton Piller/Banker’s Trust orders. With their specialised arsenal of civil remedies, the team can force third-party financial institutions hiding assets to covertly disclose critical information, without tipping off targeted fraudsters. Other civil court orders grant the team authority to obtain documents and perform search and seizures to retrieve critical information for the investigation.

In jurisdictions where civil remedies do not exist, the ICC FraudNet team will collaborate with law enforcement to freeze local assets and track assets in other jurisdictions for use in civil or criminal proceedings. After successful investigation, the team freezes the target’s assets across the globe in multiple, simultaneous civil court actions.

The team then use injunctions or freeze orders to prevent fraudsters and their accomplices from selling or transferring assets before they can be liquidated to satisfy victims’ claims. The team also pursues replacement assets and compensation from financial institutions and other professionals who may be held liable for breach of fiduciary and other duties under the law. This can include civil remedies, suing for damages in criminal proceedings or a blend of the two.

Experience

Our members have experience in all fields of fraud recovery, from the simplest one-juridiction case to multi-billion dollar fraud and corruption cases involving multiple jurisdictions.

Asset Tracing and Recovery

Represented a German individual defrauded by a group of Nigerian businessmen acting from Lebanon, Cyprus and New York in an international bank instrument fraud. US$ 800,000 was initially frozen in a bank account in Cyprus. FraudNet members in the British Virgin Islands, where the alleged account holder lived, and Cyprus filed an extraordinary ex-parte application for a Mareva injunction to freeze the account coupled with a Norwich Pharmacal/Bankers Trust Order on document disclosure. The team worked with various governmental agencies, including the Cypriot Anti Money Laundering Unit, to obtain information used in the Cypriot proceedings. A winding up application was filed in the British Virgin Islands to recover monies in Cyprus bank accounts.

Represented a Jersey corporation in an action to trace assets in the Cayman Islands. The case involved the fraudulent disposition of assets and dishonest breaches of trust among a number of individuals and corporate entitles in multiple jurisdictions. A freezing injunction of assets valued at over US$ 80 million and proceedings to trace and recover an additional US$ 10 million through various banking institutions and insurance companies in the Cayman Islands are ongoing. Directions are awaited pursuant to the Cayman Islands Confidential Relationships (Preservation) Law (1995 Revision).

Represented a UK casino to freeze the assets in the name of a fraudster, arrest an aircraft in the name of the fraudster’s alleged alter ego, obtain a series of disclosure and anti-tip off orders and freeze bank accounts in various European jurisdictions.

Represented spouse in tracing proceeds of £2 million fraud against deceased UK businessman who placed business assets offshore, but was defrauded by business colleague.

Worked with the English solicitors and appeared for the successful beneficiaries in the landmark Jersey case on the scope of the constructive trust remedy in that jurisdiction, the principles of tracing and the Pauline action (a decision influential in the development of the law of trusts).

Worked under the direction of FraudNet member and in conjunction with lawyers in several jurisdictions to obtain court orders in the Cook Islands requiring a local trust company to provide secret pre-action discovery in relation to its dealings with a US judgment debtor who had hidden assets in several offshore centers.

Commodities Fraud

Defended associated Canadian oil companies and their Jersey subsidiaries against a multi-million pound claim brought by the Jersey subsidiary of another Canadian oil company for damages and accounting in relation to an Iranian oil transaction.

Criminal Activities

Initiated a criminal complaint on behalf of thousands of shareholders of a publicly owned U.S. company who were the victims of one of the largest “pump and dump” schemes ever investigated by the SEC, involving more than US$ 330 million of fraud proceeds laundered in Switzerland by the managers of the company. The criminal complaint was withdrawn after a settlement was reached, which provided for the payment to the victims of US$ 200 million, which had been frozen in another jurisdiction.

Property Fraud

Intervened in judicial review proceedings brought by a private individual against the attorney general of Jersey regarding a request for mutual legal assistance in a criminal matter involving a massive fraud on certain state entities of the Federal Republic of Brazil.

Banking Fraud

Represented a financial institution incorporated in the Cayman Islands against a former director to trace and recover approximately US$ 50 million dissipated throughout Eastern Europe through fraudulent commercial contracts. Parallel proceedings pursued in the Cayman Islands and in the United Kingdom.

Represented Komercni banka in a US$ 250 million fraud involving BCL Trading GmbH and 30 letters of credit issued by the bank at the request of BCL for purported sales of large quantities of agricultural products from Russia and the Ukraine. The bank believed there were no genuine sales of produce in Russian warehouses, the invoices and warrant lists were a sham and certain individuals acted as BCL’s accomplice in a scheme designed to defraud the bank. Komercni banka won on every count and was awarded the full amount of its claim, which exceeded US$ 100 million. FraudNet members representing an offshore regulator successfully pursued the winding up of 7 linked offshore companies.

Acted for the Depositors Compensation Scheme managers in the regulators scheme for depositor protection arising from the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), a major international bank founded in 1972 that operated in 78 countries, had over 400 branches, claimed assets of US$ 25 billion and became the focus of the world’s worst financial scandal and a “$20-billion-plus heist” (Beaty & Gwynne 1993).

Represented the joint liquidators in a 23-year liquidation arising from a major bank collapse, which included fraud investigations. Developed an innovative scheme to repatriate unclaimed dividends to existing claimants.

Represented defendants Banco Ambrosiano, Parmalat and Cirio implicated in several high-profile financial debacles and delicate investigations concerning allegations of bribery, corporate or financial crimes.

Assisted a financial institution in international and regulatory efforts to combat cyber fraud through the use of copycat and look-alike websites, which resulted in the successful termination of the fraudulent websites.

Represented Liquidator of Barbados bank subsidiary of a Guatemalan bank and the Guatemalan Bank Supervisory Agency in the largest bank failure in Guatemalan history. The case encompassed the filing of the first ever Chapter 15 bankruptcy case in the State of Florida and the tracing and recovery of assets in various jurisdictions including the US, Grand Cayman, Barbados and Guatemala. Over US$ 50 million in assets have been recovered thus far in U.S. bankruptcy court,

Refco bankruptcy and in other accounts located in the U.S.

Complex Commercial Fraud

Acted against a company related to Forum Filatélico that purchased but did not pay for stamps amounting to €3,790,013. Simultaneously to fraud criminal proceedings, a debt claim was filed against this company and as a precautionary measure, assets of the company were seized. The debtor’s bank accounts in Spain were successfully attached, and a search for further assets is ongoing.
Represented a Cypriot company to bring fraud claims in various European and Caribbean jurisdictions relating to the control of a US$ 1 billion telecommunications company.

Represented a Dutch and Swiss client in the main fraud proceedings pending in Spain that involve several million Euro and 100,000 victims.

Represented a number of linked parent and subsidiary companies incorporated in the Cayman Islands and the directors of those companies who were accused of fraudulent dealings and dissipation of company assets valued at over US$ 200 million. The matter spanned a period of eight years and involved allegations of fraudulent share issuance and misappropriation of company assets. Civil and criminal proceedings brought in the U.S. cited dealings in South America, Central America, the U.S. and the Cayman Islands.

Represented victims of a multi-million dollar Italian fraud to bring claims for breach of fiduciary duty against UK solicitors and advise in relation to parallel criminal proceedings in Italy.
Represented Finnish corporations in matters regarding alleged violation of securities legislation by their directors and/or employees.

Represented international stamp traders who provided stamps to a company related to two high profile Spanish entities that defrauded at least 200,000 victims because (i) they did not have all the stamps they had supposedly purchased for their clients; (ii) the value of the stamps was grossly overestimated. The Spanish companies are being investigated by Spanish authorities and have been declared insolvent, with claims exceeding several thousand million Euros and assets of approximately 10 percent of such claims. Both companies have been accused before Spanish courts of fraud, and the Audiencia Nacional is now investigating the case.

Represented the Finnish and Swedish subsidiaries of International Paper in a landmark criminal and civil case (both in terms of precedent and the monetary interest at stake) concerning unlawful disclosure of business secrets by certain individuals and entities.

Insurance Fraud

Represented groups of Colombian and Austrian lenders/investors in US$ 500 million viatical insurance fraud Ponzi scheme class action lawsuit in Miami, and obtained favourable settlement for both groups from funds frozen by the SEC receiver.

Receivership

Assisted the receivers of a liquidation trust to arrest a Cypriot registered vessel purchased with illegal funds within the context of an admiralty action. Requested a declaration that the vessel was subject to a constructive trust for the benefit of the client and further requested the rectification of the ship register to this effect.

Represented a Federal District Court receiver appointed in an SEC civil enforcement action in Texas involving an Internet-based fraudulent investment scheme that purportedly raised over US$ 100 million. Immediate action led to the freezing of accounts holding almost US$ 14 million. Forensic investigative efforts, both domestic and foreign, led to the recovery of additional monies and the freezing of a further US$ 2.7 million in Luxembourg. Recoveries also were obtained from a parallel U.S. government forfeiture proceeding, a proceeding commenced by Liechtenstein authorities, and an account uncovered in Luxembourg. As a result, the claims of over 1,400 victims were paid in full.

Assisted a Nova Scotia firm representing the court appointed receiver of a failed Caribbean bank in successfully preventing the bank from transferring a registered Panamanian vessel in order to avoid payment of mortgage debt.