When Assets Go Offshore, We Put It Into The Too Difficult Box

If fraud or misconduct is discovered, it can have debilitating effects on a company; on its profits, consumer confidence, increased costs including legal costs, and in severe cases its reputation and the cutting of its workforce. In severe cases of fraud the company will often be insolvent as a result. In cases where a company discovers that the perpetrators have used offshore corporate vehicles to conceal their proceeds of fraud a common belief is that with bank secrecy and there being little public information available, there are few options to investigate the fraud and recover the assets.

A common or first approach taken by many will be to file a criminal complaint against the company in their country; seeking to rely on the criminal justice system to investigate the fraud and recover the proceeds. However, the reality is that when investigations touch upon offshore jurisdictions, it is often placed into the "too difficult box" with enthusiasm from law