Asset Tracking & Recovery
In our opinion, crime must not pay!
However, in the past, the growing globalization of the markets and at the same time completely different country-specific legal situations and tax regulations opened the door to a steadily growing number of semi-legal, criminal, tax-criminal and also terrorist circles of persons. Such circumstances regarding the different jurisdictions allowed and still allow these illegal acting circles to use the existing loopholes, by taking advantage of the still prevailing lack of transparency, to hide the illegally acquired assets from the access of the authorities or from the access of the real legal beneficiaries.
This is the reason ARROWS Consulting offers the service of Asset Tracking and Recovery. We are convinced and we hope that with such a service we can help to make the world a little bit more fair.
The Crime
Deliberate economic or entrepreneurial misconduct always has a motive. If someone does something purposefully, then an intention is assumed by law.
Mostly these motives arise from the area of personal enrichment or the obtaining of market advantages for one’s own company, one’s own organisation.
In many cases, which ARROWS has been able to solve for and together with its customers over the last 30 years, this criminal misconduct went hand in hand with other crimes that served either to prepare for the fraud, theft or to cover up that crime.
On the one hand, there is the social misconduct (such as the crime itself – bribe payments, theft, fraud, balance sheet manipulation, tax evasion, bribery …) taking advantage of the exposed position in the company or in society, but on the other hand, there is also the material economic damage caused by illegal activities in the company or in society. The criminal relevance and the resulting penalty must be determined by a court. The reparation of the material damage caused is a completely different matter!
A judge can make a ruling, that the convicted person should settle the damage, he/she can only freeze those assets that are known. With regard to the jurisdiction itself (scope of the applied law) and the ability to investigate outside of this jurisdiction, the hands of the court and the public prosecutor’s office are often tied.
Our experience shows, a large or medium-sized company can quickly, unwittingly fall foul of embezzlement to the tune of up to €100M from employees, managers or even co-owners over a certain period of time for their personal enrichment. And many private or institutional investors can relate their own experiences of investment losses from fraudulent investment schemes. It is often the case, that these lost funds or assets threaten the very existence of the company or the investor. It is therefore of paramount importance to significantly reduce the damage or to compensate for it completely.
To this end, all valuables and financial resources belonging to the person who caused the damage should be given priority in order to reduce the damage.
The Consealment
It can be assumed of course, that criminals who commit such crimes with a high level of criminal energy will also try to evade their „treasures“ as far as possible from the access of the aggrieved parties or even possible reclaims by the state/financial authorities. Well-known methods of concealment are the transfer of illegal funds via offshore companies to offshore accounts, investment with so-called wealth managing companies, investment in real estate (within and outside the respective legal area), covert fund investments but also the in the traditional ways, including the purchase of precious metals and precious or art objects. In our modern times the use of digital currencies (e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum) in digital „purses“ (wallets) are bec. Already at the beginning of the forensic research and investigatiion to prove the crime and the way it was committed, ARROWS will in cooperation with the client collect all necessary and available information, data and evidence that can be used for a possible determination of the whereabouts of stolen valuables or financial means. This data collection also will serve as a basis for parallel or subsequent identification of hidden possessions of the criminal.
After confirmation of the claim to the assets by the client (to avoid legal conflicts) we start with the identification of possible hidden assets of the debtor(s). A part of this procedure is the use of our own AI-software (InsideTrack®). This self-learning software independently searches ALL available online sources and databases (i.e., from a sheer vast pool) for clues to typical behavior patterns, connections to third parties (including companies), direct communication links and personal networks. In the process, the AI makes independent decisions and ultimately provides possible solutions, evaluated with probabilities.
If the assets have been identified (Where is what in the direct or indirect ownership/access of the delinquent?), strategies are developed to recover the illegally acquired assets or to reimburse the economic damage incurred. These strategies correspond to the respective legal circumstances in the locations where the assets are actually held.
Through consistent implementation of these strategies and the tremendous capacity and power Arrows Consulting has across its network in over 110 countries, more than 83% of the assets, values and financial resources that our customers were entitled to have been returned in the last 30 years.
- Our service includes (among further activities):
- Provide missing documents and evidence to confirm the legality of the claims
- Provision of information and their verification regarding the local whereabouts, nature and structure, as well as the volume of assets under the requirement of various jurisdictions
- Presentation of the legal relationship of the debtor to the assets
- Preparation, securing and implementation of extrajudicial negotiations as a possible alternative to judicial provision
- Implementation and monitoring of the recovery procedure