Fraud & Asset Tracing & Recovery Lawyers

Our Fraud & Asset Tracing lawyers are experts in helping clients to trace and recover assets across international jurisdictions, regardless of where proceedings originate. This extensive international asset tracing experience means they have a developed a deep understanding of the legal and practical challenges that can arise in cross-border asset-recovery cases.

Clients include major financial institutions, multinational corporations, government agencies, state-owned corporations and high net worth individuals who have been defrauded or have received the proceeds of fraud. Our fraud and asset tracing lawyers also advise directors and officers, and other service providers caught in the fallout of fraudulent activities.

Our talented, experienced and solution driven team of asset tracing and recovery lawyers have significant experience litigating in all major offshore markets and resolving highly complex and sophisticated matters. We are committed to delivering the highest possible level of client service, regularly working together across our global locations to provide expert multi-jurisdictional advice on fraud and asset tracing matters.

Our global presence enables us to provide timely and comprehensive legal advice at the times most critical to our clients.

Our expertise includes:

  • Complex financial and banking fraud
  • Bribery and corruption
  • Securities fraud
  • Tax fraud and evasion
  • Fraudulent investment schemes
  • False accounting
  • Money laundering
  • Regulatory investigations
  • Claims over title and stolen assets

Spotlight

BVI Fraud & Asset Tracing

Appleby’s British Virgin Islands (BVI) office offers comprehensive fraud and asset tracing services to clients. The team, which is led by Partner Andrew Willins (Chambers Global Band 1), is experienced in advising on complex multi-jurisdictional fraud investigations, asset tracing and recovery, and obtaining interim relief such as freezing injunctions, Norwich Pharmacal (discovery) orders and the appointment of receivers and provisional liquidators. They assist clients in enforcing judgments and arbitral awards, obtaining injunctive relief in support of foreign proceedings and in the identification and recovery of misappropriated assets, working closely with overseas lawyers, forensic accountants and other professionals.

With extensive knowledge of the BVI legal system, the team provides strategic and effective solutions to clients facing fraud and asset tracing issues.

What is fraud and asset tracing?

Fraud is the intentional deception or misrepresentation that causes harm or loss to another party. Asset tracing is the process of identifying and locating assets that have been misappropriated or hidden as a result of fraud.

How can fraud and asset tracing help victims?

Fraud and asset tracing can help victims by identifying and recovering misappropriated assets through legal means, such as civil actions or criminal prosecutions, and returning them to the rightful owner.

More news
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25 May 2026

Back to Basics- Disputes Series

COMPELLING THE INNOCENT: NORWICH PHARMACAL RELIEF IN THE BVI Norwich Pharmacal relief can be a key, strategic tool to assist litigants with early-stage investigation where a BVI company is involved in “wrongdoing” that is the subject of ongoing or prospective litigation either in the BVI or abroad.  A Norwich Pharmacal disclosure order in the BVI is typically made against the registered agent of a “wrongdoer” BVI company, unbeknownst to the company itself, compelling the registered agent to provide information and documentation on the company’s directors, shareholders, ultimate beneficial owners and/or assets.  It is a flexible remedy but it typically enables an applicant party to obtain disclosure to identify the protagonists controlling the “wrongdoer” BVI company and details of its assets necessary in order to pursue their claim or to enforce and execute a judgment. Most frequently, relief is given in aid of foreign proceedings where it is needed to properly plead out a potential claim, to support eventual enforcement of a foreign judgment and/or to obtain or police an injunction.

Appleby-Website-Arbitration-and-Dispute-Resolution
14 May 2026

Arbitrating shareholders’ disputes and beyond – the Mauritian Supreme Court re-affirms its non-interventionist and pro-arbitration stance

On 08 May 2026, the Mauritian Supreme Court, sitting as the panel of Designated Judges appointed under the International Arbitration Act 2008 (IAA), delivered an important judgment in Intermediate Investment Holdings Ltd v Imevbore & Ors 2026 SCJ 186 (IIHL Case). The Supreme Court declined to award costs sought by the Respondents following the Applicant’s withdrawal of an application for an interim injunction.

The Exception To The Rule: Stricter Test Applies Where Granting An Interlocutory Injunction Would Shut Out Trial
28 Apr 2026

The Interplay Between Supervision Applications and Winding Up on the Just and Equitable Ground: Re Atlas Capital Markets LLC

In its recent judgment in Re Atlas Capital Markets LLC [2026] CIGC (FSD) 19, the Grand Court considered itself bound to make a supervision order pursuant to s.131(b) of the Companies Act, notwithstanding that the company was the subject of a pending just and equitable winding up (J&E) petition when its voluntary liquidation was commenced; and rejected an attack on the joint voluntary liquidators’ (JVLs) independence, which was principally based on a misreading of the JVLs’ evidence and lacked any objective foundation. The authors, who successfully represented the JVLs in obtaining the supervision order, discuss this important judgment further below – which is believed to be the first decision on the interplay between supervision applications and J&E proceedings under the Companies Act – and offer their views on the guidance that shareholders petitioning on the just and equitable ground may derive from it in future cases.  The challenge to the JVLs’ independence was rejected on the well-established principles which Doyle J discussed in Re Global Fidelity Bank [2021] 2 CILR 361, and is not discussed in further detail below.

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27 Apr 2026

Back to Basics - Dispute Series

Winding-Up Petitions in the BVI – A Practical Guide For Creditors Applying to appoint a BVI liquidator is one of the most cost effective and efficient tools available to creditors who want to recover debts or liabilities from BVI companies and is often a go-to strategy where simpler methods of debt collection have failed. Once appointed, a liquidator has a broad range of immediate powers including the ability to take possession and control of all of the company’s assets. In this guide, we highlight the process and the key principles for creditors to consider prior to and during the liquidator appointment process. 

The Exception To The Rule: Stricter Test Applies Where Granting An Interlocutory Injunction Would Shut Out Trial
23 Apr 2026

FamilyMart and Beyond: The Continuing Influence of the Privy Council’s Landmark Decision on Shareholder Litigation

The Privy Council's decision in FamilyMart China Holding Co Ltd v Ting Chuan (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp [2023] UKPC 33 is a landmark ruling that distinguishes the arbitrability of underlying shareholder disputes from the court's exclusive jurisdiction over just and equitable winding-up of a Cayman company.