Asset Recovery

Holland & Knight's Asset Recovery Team is one of the most recognized and active teams practicing in the United States in the asset recovery space. 

Our team is comprised of experienced lawyers and professionals dedicated to recovering or defending assets for office holders (i.e., liquidators, trustees, receivers, etc.), as well as large judgment and award creditors, lenders, investors, and other direct and indirect victims of financial fraud or malfeasance. 

We have developed and maintain a cadre of legal, financial, accounting and investigatory professionals who have recovered and/or defended billions of dollars in connection with: 

• claims of breach of fiduciary duty and fraud
• enforcement of judgments, orders and arbitral awards
• clawback and fraudulent conveyance claims
• contentious insolvencies and restructurings
• international and cross-border insolvencies
• sovereign asset recovery and asset defense
• cybercrime, identity theft, forgeries and financial account compromise
• Ponzi schemes
• fraudulent overvaluations
• public/private corruption investigations
• tangible and intangible asset restraints, seizures and subsequent dispositions/liquidations

Each asset recovery matter comes with its own set of specific circumstances. Our attorneys take the time to listen, learn and understand the particular details of each client's case, providing all of the personalized service, strengths and in-depth knowledge of a boutique law firm – but with the added resources of an international law firm committed to growth and with access to more than 1,500 of its own attorneys and thousands of correspondent counsel with whom we have worked for decades.

Our fee arrangements range from hourly to bespoke alternative fee structures. Where appropriate, we have worked on a quasi-contingent or contingent fee basis, often in conjunction with litigation funders approved by clients, and across a wide range of cases and matters. 

We supervise and guide global recovery efforts and are recognized as an industry leader in obtaining successful judicial recognitions of foreign office-holders' rights – including remedies under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Our lawyers liaise, cooperate and negotiate routinely with the U.S. government, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), foreign governments, and foreign and domestic financial institutions on behalf of asset recovery clients.

Representative Engagements

• Obtained recognition of the Cayman Islands liquidation of a high-profile hedge fund whose management is the subject of criminal and SEC investigation, and worked with stakeholders and governmental agency to obtain a "no objection" result, including the first known SEC Receivership order that carved out the Cayman Islands liquidation and Chapter 15 proceedings; secured the order on behalf of Chapter 15 appointed Cayman Islands-based liquidators of a collapsed investment fund alleged to have committed fraud in managing billions in assets that directed fund's offshore accounting firm to produce documents necessary to liquidators' asset recovery investigation
• Represented the Cayman Islands-based liquidators of a collapsed investment fund against former managers and stakeholders alleged to have committed fraud and breach of fiduciary duty with damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars
• Obtained first known Chapter 15 recognition of an insolvency proceeding in Norway, and represented the trustee in a $40 million clawback and unjust enrichment litigation, as well as in hundreds of millions of dollars in tort claims against two household private equity fund names and affiliated entities; obtained favorable published decision establishing precedent on statute of limitations applicable to foreign liquidators and application of the bankruptcy safe harbor to international securities transactions
• Obtained intermediary bank records showing worldwide conspiracy for use in Luxembourg criminal proceedings, one of the first cases of its kind
• Represented Middle Eastern affiliate of a medical technology company in connection with the multijurisdictional enforcement of guarantees and awards in excess of $85 million
• Served as lead counsel in multimillion-dollar contractual and breach of fiduciary duty dispute; served as lead U.S. counsel to the Cayman Islands-based liquidators of six Cayman Islands and U.S. funds in respect of significant U.S. litigation and related matters
• Represented the trustee of the first Cayman Islands individual bankrupt debtor in connection with a purported $115 million U.S. territory tax liability; obtained contested recognition pursuant to Chapter 15 and settled tax claim for less than 3 percent of purported value
• Represented Hong Kong-based investment fund in recognizing and enforcing $35 million judgment and attaching and seizing intangible property to satisfy the judgment in full, obtaining the first New York substituted garnishment order after defendants' affiliate/garnishee refused to allow the Sheriff's Office into its New York City headquarters
• Represented receivers of shipping company undergoing rehabilitation in South Korea and obtained Chapter 15 recognition, litigating numerous issues
• Represented shipping company in enforcement of a United Kingdom award and judgment resulting from the breach of a charter party
• Represented government-appointed receiver in recovering assets looted from pension funds by fraudulent transfer scheme, obtained novel sealed discovery order
• Represented United Kingdom trust in worldwide enforcement proceedings of judgment in excess of $20 million
• Represented in matrimonial proceedings the former spouse of a high-profile, later-incarcerated political provocateur, author and filmmaker in asset recovery effort to force disclosure of the contents of foreign bank accounts
• Represented Bermudian entity and made major recovery in respect of wire transfers fraudulently sent to a criminal enterprise proximate to a "Phishing" scheme where the chief executive's email address and wire transfer template was compromised
• Representing Guernsey trust company and securing records for use in contemplated proceedings in Guernsey involving a worldwide scheme to create fraudulent financial institutions and then divert loan proceeds into hidden European accounts
• Obtained Chapter 15 recognition for Cayman Islands liquidators of hedge fund allegedly bankrupted through insider transactions
• Obtained Chapter 15 recognition for Cayman liquidation of a telecommunications company based in Africa that had allegedly made fraudulent investments
• Represented Brazilian pension fund in recognizing and enforcing approximately $80 million judgment; conducted worldwide asset discovery of entities and individuals associated with judgment debtors
• Engaged in global asset investigation to prove that a husband lied in his asset disclosure in high-value divorce proceedings in Hong Kong. Obtain evidence resulting in substantial settlement
• Representing $98 million creditor of collapsed Cayman Islands bank in recovering assets sequestered by the failed bank
• Representing Cayman Islands liquidators in investment fund wind-down involving fraud by fund insiders perpetuated in offshore arbitration proceedings
• Served as counsel to the Cayman Islands trustee in the defense of a $125 million multijurisdictional judgment enforcement litigation against high-profile individuals in the related Chapter 15 proceeding; provided defense and Chapter 15 counsel to the administrator of a Bahraini bank in connection with substantial fraud and an eight-figure attachment litigation
• Represented shipping and trading company, piercing the corporate veil in a bench trial and successful appeal
• Obtaining Rule B attachment over a foreign vessel as security for foreign arbitration dispute in the United Kingdom
• Represented shipping companies in recognition and enforcement of arbitration awards and resulting judgments
• Served as lead counsel to 95 percent of the United States creditors in connection with the foreign insolvency of a Korean shipping entity and in multimillion-dollar Chapter 15 trial
• Represented defendant in multimillion-dollar wrongful death action that resulted in defendant's exoneration
• Served as counsel to a British Virgin Islands liquidator in connection with the investigation and prosecution of an $80 million fraudulent and undervalue transfer litigation against affiliate companies, resulting in significant asset seizures, recoveries and a final settlement
• Serve as lead U.S. counsel to a commodities fund in respect to an $8 million trading dispute subject to New York arbitration
• Serve as lead defense counsel to multiple funds in respect to clawback claims arising from high-profile leveraged buyout fraudulent transfer litigation involving a major newspaper and media company, obtaining favorable settlements
• Serve as counsel to the largest investor in U.S. litigation arising from an Argentine investment fraud
• Obtained Chapter 15 recognition for British Virgin Islands liquidators of oil trading business; obtained directed verdict after leading an investigation to prove defendant's affidavit in support of jurisdictional discovery was misleading and false
• Obtained Chapter 15 recognition for Danish liquidator and, in a related action, a $9 million recovery and vacatur of attachment order on grounds of international comity
• Obtained Chapter 15 recognition for Brazilian liquidator overseeing foreign proceedings involving a restaurant conglomerate whose insiders allegedly misappropriated and siphoned company assets
• Obtained Chapter 15 recognition as foreign main proceeding
• Representing finance corporation in enforcement of a $90 million-plus judgment against defendants located in the Middle East
• Representing fund in enforcing multimillion-dollar loan and security agreements that were procured by fraudulent representations and alleged forgeries; obtained preliminary injunction that resulted in favorable settlement
• Representing court-appointed receiver in connection with a sprawling Ponzi scheme perpetrated by defendants
• Representing Greek bank in obtaining recognition and enforcing a portfolio of multiple judgments entered against multiple defendants in Greece
• Obtained first known recognition and enforcement of a pre-judgment worldwide asset freeze injunction, known as a Mareva injunction
• Successfully represented the creditor to obtain over $20 million in judgments, then commenced proceedings to enforce and collect on those judgments
• Retained post-judgment to represent client that had adverse money judgment entered against it; successfully obtained reversal of the judgment entered against the client, obtained a money judgment in the client's favor and are actively pursuing enforcement of that judgment
• Represented spouse in $200 million asset recovery operation in relation to Russian national; obtained satisfaction of judgment