Fraud And Cryptocurrency – Recent Developments

We are now starting to see a variety of cryptocurrency related frauds appearing before the English Court. Following the decision in AA v Persons Unknown [2019] EWHC 3556 (Comm) (where an insurer was granted a proprietary injunction as part of its strategy to recover a ransomware payment which had been negotiated and paid in Bitcoin) the English Court has dealt with several cases relating to cryptocurrency. Two of those cases are mentioned in this blog.

Firstly, it is noteworthy that disputes involving cryptoassets require specialist legal assistance. Not only do they require the deploying of specialist third party blockchain tracers, they are almost always multi-jurisdictional. This presents operational challenges which need to be developed and carefully considered as part of the asset recovery strategy. For example, the governing law and jurisdiction of the claim may be unclear, or alternatively interim and final orders may need to be recognised and enforced