We take a holistic approach to recovery assignments. We work with our clients to identify assets across the globe , assess their value (from a monetary as well as attention getting/disruptive perspective), outline the ease or challenges associated with bringing legal action to enforce against them that may be due to jurisdictional hurdles or complexities in how the debtor holds the assets and analyse the debtor themself/itself. From this we are able to develop a comprehensive recovery strategy that will look at what legal action can be taken to seize assets and exert pressure on the debtor, but will also consider how to use other tools to recover what is owed to our clients including communications and lobbying.
Our asset tracing investigations are underpinned by open-source data and public record research, coupled with discreet human intelligence, global source networks, forensic intelligence and globally recognised recovery specialists.
When tracing the assets of a debtor, we map out the debtor’s global asset position and obtain intelligence and critical evidence to support local enforcement specialists’ ability to subsequently seize assets.
In addition to providing expert testimony when required, our findings and evidence have been used in courts around the world to successfully seize assets including those located throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Singapore, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, India, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dutch Caribbean, Brazil and Australia.
We are brought in to help clients at various stages of an asset tracing and recovery assignment and to fulfil various asset recovery functions.
To help a claimant secure litigation funding or to help a litigation funder assess an opportunity, we provide an asset assessment and an enforcement assessment.
Prior to purchasing a judgement, an award or other forms of debt, we provide investors with an asset assessment as part of their enforcement due diligence process so that they can understand the timing, cost and resources required to successfully recover the monies owed.
We act as strategic advisors to those who need to enforce a debt or recover a debt, developing holistic recovery strategies, mapping global assets, building a tailored recovery team, and managing the entire enforcement process.
We’ve traced and enforced against:
This includes the assets of individual debtors, corporate debtors, fraudsters, and sovereign debtors in response to commercial judgements, commercial awards, ISDS awards, defaulted loans, defaulted sovereign bonds, large scale fraud, insolvency and the embezzlement of state funds.
We are market leaders in enforcement against states and state-owned entities. Our Founder Ashley Messick led the development of this niche area for the investigations sector and created the Sovereign Debt Advisory practice. The Veleda team has led dozens of global sovereign enforcement investigations and recovered billions in sovereign assets. In addition to identifying state assets and building sovereign recovery strategies that includes the location of sovereign assets, the structures through which government assets are held, the importance of sovereign assets for the government and key decision-makers within the government and how certain enforcement measures will impact the state and support settlement talks, the team regularly provides the underlying intelligence and evidence required to seize state assets.
This includes building alter ego evidence dossiers, evidence to challenge sovereign immunity and argue commercial exception and overcoming various legal hurdles certain jurisdictions pose.
Ashley Messick and Sebastian Neave have helped recover billions in assets belonging to Latin American states, Sub-Saharan African states, Central Asian states, and European states.
Our principles, Ashley Messick and Sebastian Neave, are recognised by Lexology and Chambers for their asset recovery expertise.
We gather, analyse and provide intelligence and forensic evidence in support of litigation and arbitration proceedings globally. The substantive evidence we have provided includes official extracts from corporate registries around the world as well as legal filings, financial and regulatorydisclosures, property records, cadastral records, and official extracts from asset ownership details to include vessel and aircraft registers, and blockchain and digital assets such as cryptocurrencies. Other evidence includes leaked offshore records (such as the underlying documents from the so-called Panama Papers and comparable leaks), and other open-source information regarding financial flows and relevant relationships. We frequently make use of internet archives, metadata, geolocation data, and social media activity to inform and triangulate our findings. In some instances, we have also been required to provide witness statements and/or affidavits to help bring together and contextualise our findings and methodology. Our principles have also provided expert testimony as well as served as witnesses.
A large proportion of our work relates to asset tracing, recovery and enforcement at various points in the dispute lifecycle. We also undertake investigations in support of litigation, arbitration, and other contentious situations, where there is a requirement to gather additional evidence to fill information gaps in the case. This can range from evidence to support a particular line of argument or to disprove or question an adversary’s position to more specific scenarios such as evidence to support a jurisdiction argument. Similarly, we also undertake fraud investigations and internal investigations into financial wrongdoing as well as corporate malfeasance or misconduct. In some situations, we also undertake reputational or integrity due diligence investigations, and investigative work in support of clients facing hostile situations such as a takeover attempt and require assetprotection services.
We operate globally having conducted investigations and provided strategic advisory and dispute consulting support to clients located around the world. A large portion of our work involves disputes, hostile situations or recovery assignments that originated in or involve parties from emerging markets and frontier markets with a particular focus on Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Former Soviet Union and the Middle East.
While a case or counterparty may be located in one of these regions, given a large portion of our work is related to legal disputes, we regularly work across all of the major dispute hubs including New York, Miami, Washington DC, London, Paris, Geneva, Stockholm, Dubai and Abu Dhabi amongst others as well as all of the major offshore jurisdictions.
As our investigations are global and most involve cross-border disputes or multijurisdictional recovery assignments, information, intelligence and evidence is gathered from around the globe. Our investigative team speaks numerous languages, understands how to navigate public record across the globe, and has a global source network to help fill information or evidentiary gaps.
We are truly global in our approach and in our reach.
Our work is often sourced from the litigation and arbitration teams of top international law firms to include Am Law 100, Magic Circle firms, top-ranked disputes boutiques, and range of other firms from across North America, London, Paris, Zurich, Geneva, elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and the Far East. We are also regularly engaged by third-party litigation funders and others in the legal finance space, including hedge funds investing in distressed debt and other special situations firms. Other clients include those in the extractives sectors, including mining companies, oil and gas companies, as well as downstreamcommodities businesses, including multinational trading houses. We also undertake assignments for other corporates, financial institutions, private equity funds, family offices and private clients, often working alongside their external counsel. Lastly, we are on occasion instructed to work with government agencies, ministries, regulators and/or law enforcement bodies, particularly on kleptocracy / embezzlement investigations with the objective of repatriating looted funds.
We provide end-to-end disputes consulting, including pre-litigationintelligence and counterparty profiling, investigative support for law firms, investigations to prove or support certain arguments around jurisdiction, asset dissipation and/or beneficial ownership for enforcement purposes. We also consult on enforcement and recovery strategies and occasionally are required to identify specific witnesses (to include fact witnesses and expert witnesses), as well as bring in relevant forensic accountancy, e-discovery, crypto currency specialists or other experts.
