CRYPTO ASSET RECOVERY - Crypto Legal

We have extensive experience in helping victims of cryptocurrency theft.

Crypto Legal is a CTCE-certified company (Cryptocurrency Tracing Certified Examiner) with vast experience working with exchanges and crypto wallets in theft cases. These are the most common reasons why users get hacked:

Investment Scams
Giving away a private key or seed phrase
Malicious smart contracts
Bitcoin-Stealing Malware
Fake Crypto Wallets
Theft by Hacking
Crypto Phishing
SIM Swapping

BACKGROUND

Victims of crypto fraud do have a chance of recovery as transactions can be traced even where the perpetrators of the fraud are unknown.

The blockchain is pseudonymous and not anonymous. All transactions are recorded on the blockchain including wallet addresses making it possible to trace the movement of crypto and identify wallets which have received stolen crypto assets.

Following the Legal Statement on Cryptoassets and Smart Contracts of 2019, the English courts have been willing to treat crypto assets as property and grant injunctions (including worldwide freezing orders) to recover stolen crypto. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have also been held to fall within this category.

ASSET RECOVERY CHALLENGES

If the identity of the potential defendant is not known, the person unknown jurisdiction in the UK and many other common law jurisdictions (the equivalent in the US is the John/Jane Doe jurisdiction) enables claimants to seek interim relief against defined categories of persons unknown such as owners of the wallets that received the stolen funds.

Orders can be obtained to enable the discovery of the identity of the fraudster. The English courts have stepped in by granting Norwich Pharmacal Orders (NPOs) and Bankers Trust Orders (BTOs) against third parties (e.g. crypto exchanges) to obtain disclosure of information to identify unknown wallet holders who have received stolen funds.

In particular, a new civil procedure gateway was introduced in CPR PD 6B Para 3.1(25) on 1 October 2022 which facilitates a more cost-efficient process to enable information orders to be obtained against parties outside of the jurisdiction seeking disclosure of (a) the identity of a defendant; and (b) what has become of the claimant’s property, without having to first issue costly court proceedings.

OUR CLIENTS

We represent a wide variety of clients in crypto asset recovery cases, including personal investors and companies.

Due to the overwhelming demand for our services, we only work on cases involving financial loss of £10,000 or more.

All our services are available based on a legal retainer model. When we onboard you as a new client, we charge an initial retainer, which is almost always sufficient for a successful resolution of the case. In addition to a retainer, we may charge a percentage contingency fee on funds recovered.

CONCLUSION

While Cryptocurrencies are, with few exceptions, decentralized, almost all virtual currencies are traceable. Cryptocurrencies are kept in digital accounts referred to as wallets. Each time Cryptocurrency is moved from one wallet to another it is recorded in the Blockchain.

If you have already lost Cryptocurrency, then schedule a complimentary consultation to see if your case qualifies for one of our Cryptocurrency Tracing and Recovery services.

Our Process

1. Forensic Analysis

A forensic analysis of your loss is conducted, and an Expert Witness Report is prepared. We trace, locate and flag the stolen assets.

Our forensic team elaborates a crypto tracing report and analyzes the transactions to uncover valuable information related to the case. We look at the behavioural patterns, origination, and current location or status of the cryptocurrency in question, identify parties involved, indicators of fraud, dark market interactions, money laundering, and more to provide actionable insights and information.

Once the forensic analysis is ready, you must report the crime to your local law enforcement and the IC3 as soon as possible.

2. Legal Action

Once we received the law enforcement reports, our lawyers will prepare the legal paperwork to freeze and seize back your lost/stolen digital assets. Either law enforcement or the competent court will rely on the Expert Witness Report to grant the Freezing Order.

Our legal team will request an NPO (Norwich Pharmacal Order) or BTO (Bankers Trust Order) order against any third party involved in the case (e.g. Metamask) to obtain disclosure of information and identify unknown wallet holders who have received the stolen funds, in order to freeze the assets and retrieve them, even if they have been converted to FIAT currencies and withdrawn to any international bank account.

Expert Guidance

Our consultants are adept at finding the right balance of presenting complex technical findings about the emerging cryptocurrency subject matter and articulating the information for non-technical audiences. We present our forensic reports and opinions in an easy-to-understand, yet impactful manner.

Data Protection

Data security is always an important part of our business. We are entrusted with highly sensitive information which needs for effective data security. We focus on ensuring our clients maximise data value, while addressing global data privacy requirements and proactively reducing security risk to protect clients when their future is on the line.

We Take Care

We understand that making a cryptocurrency fraud compensation claim can be stressful, especially while you are dealing with the emotional impact of being the victim of a crime. That’s why we make sure you always know what’s happening with your case and remove the jargon from the process to keep things as simple and stress-free as possible.