Fraud-Recovering Investor Funds Hidden Offshore
Fraud-Recovering Investor Funds Hidden Offshore
In many investor frauds, stolen money is hidden offshore.Although fraudsters do not think they will be caught, they are cautious enoughto hide their stolen money. In some frauds they invest the stolen money in realestate or other investments. Fraudsters have become very adept at this and therecovery has become more complicated, although not impossible.
A representative of the investor will try to locate thehidden money. He may be a court appointed receiver or trustee, law enforcementofficial, class action attorney or an attorney representing one or moreinvestors. He will hire professionals to help follow the trail of the money.This is complicated by the bank secrecy laws of countries used.
An example from a real investor fraud was a fraudster whostole over $5 million from US investors and transferred it to seven companies.Each company was incorporated in a different country. The companies were ownedby a nominee and were managed by a management company in the Isle of Mann. Oneof the companies owned a farm in Australia, another a compound of houses onMaui and the remaining five had bank accounts in the country of theirincorporation. Additionally, a house in Florida was purchased for thefraudster's brother to live in, which was in a trust not associated with thefraudster's name. When the fraudster needed funds he simply e-mailed themanagement company to wire the funds to him from the company he chose.
The fraudster disappeared and moved around from country tocountry having no property, bank accounts, or credit cards in his name. He livedat the farm in Australia and the compound in Maui from time to time. He wasmarried and his wife accompanied him, but used her maiden name on all of heridentification. Since he did not change his identify, a US law enforcementagency found him through his passport and cooperation agreements with othercountries. They had an open case against him, but did not pursue him forextradition.
Although the investors' funds were traced to the offshorebanks, each country's bank secrecy laws prohibited finding out the accountinformation or whether the funds had been further disbursed. The managementcompany got suspicious and thought the fraudster may be laundering money, acrime in their country. They notified their local constable's office who postedthe information on a worldwide network of law enforcement agencies establishedto identify money laundering. At that point the parallel investigations of theconstable's office, the US law enforcement agency and the investors'representative came together.
The fraudster, after finding out his hidden assets had beendiscovered, voluntarily came back to the US, cooperating with the lawenforcement agency and the investors' representative. All of the cash and thethree pieces of real estate were recovered. After sale of the real estate, therecovered cash was returned to the investors. The fraudster pled guilty tovarious violations of US security fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud laws and ispresently serving his sentence in a US prison.
In this example finding the money and recovering it wereeasy because of a responsible management company in the Isle of Mann. In manyinvestor frauds, the stolen money is never recovered nor are the fraudstersprosecuted. Investors often do not realize their investment loss was a fraud orsimply are too embarrassed to admit it. Investors who have lost all or most oftheir investment should report this to their local regulatory and lawenforcement agencies. These agencies are trying to rid the investment communityof fraud and are the first stop in the recovery of investor funds. visit thiswebsite = https://atriumforensics.com/
