Areas of Practice / Insolvency & Restructuring

Asset Recovery through Insolvency Proceedings

Drawing on the firm's market leading asset-recovery practice, our team has extensive experience in utilising insolvency proceedings as a tool for asset recovery and enforcement, including:

Placing individuals and companies (including foreign companies) into insolvency processes in this jurisdiction, so as to utilise the asset recovery and investigative powers of UK officeholders
Obtaining recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings in this jurisdiction, in order to recover assets and obtain information from UK targets
Obtaining recognition of UK insolvency officeholders in other jurisdictions, as part of complex cross-border insolvency mandates

Our Experts

Simon Colledge Partner

David Johnson Senior Associate

Notable Experience

Advising the victims of a high-profile crypro fraud committed through a Chinese company, in proceedings to wind-up that company in the UK in order to assert a claim against $5 billion of bitcoin previously frozen in this jurisdiction
Advising the Abu Dhabi appointed trustees in bankruptcy of two former ultra-high-net-worth individuals, in relation to the recognition and implementation of a multi-billion-dollar restructuring plan across several jurisdictions
Advising investors in a high-profile Ponzi scheme in respect of the winding up of a foreign company in this jurisdiction in order to recover their losses; subsequently advising the liquidators with respect to fraudulent trading claims of £400m against banks
Advising the UK-appointed trustees in bankruptcy of a former ultra-high-net-worth individual in a cross-border asset recovery mandate, involving challenges to offshore trust structures, obtaining Chapter 15 recognition in the USA, and ancillary US bankruptcy proceedings against the individual's son
Advising the UK-appointed liquidators of a company implicated in a c.£60m fraud, in a complex cross-border asset recovery mandate involving: (i) claims against 14 defendants located across 7 jurisdictions; (ii) freezing injunctions in the UK and Hong Kong; (iii) cross-border recognition of the Liquidators' appointment in the USA, Hong Kong, and Singapore; and (iv) enforcing judgments against parties and assets located across various jurisdictions