The City of London Police has opened a civil asset recovery program in partnership with legal firm Gowling WLG, following a successful pilot in which assets were recovered on behalf of an elderly victim of a £2 million cryptocurrency fraud.
The partnership will be focused on coordinating retrieval efforts between police and other stakeholders, including victims and their legal representatives.
Its recovery program will operate in cases where a criminal prosecution is not possible, providing victims of fraud—including crypto-related fraud—with the chance to claim some restitution.
“After a successful pilot, we are pleased to be working on this initiative with City of London Police to investigate and support victims to recoup monies lost to such frauds,” said Gowling Director Bríd Holden in a press release.
At a time when crypto scams cost $9.9 billion globally in 2024 alone, Holden also said that Gowling hopes its collaboration with City of London Police will “change the landscape and encourage more victims to report fraud, raising awareness generally.”
London Police are also aiming for a similar result, with Detective Chief Inspector Craig Mullish reporting in the same release that, in the case of fraud, “it’s the money or assets that are lost that can have a lasting effect on victims.”
Yet the police force’s research shows that even civil asset recovery can help authorities in combating organized crime groups and protecting the UK against fraud and other crime.
And even in the context of crypto-related fraud, instances of asset recovery have become more common in recent months.
Only a week ago, UK police working in conjunction with law firms were able to recover over £520,000 (about $670,000) in crypto that had been defrauded from an 80-year-old man.
In this particular case, the police made use of an update to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 that gave it the power to freeze stolen digital assets.
This new power may clear the ground for more partnerships between British police and legal firms, which have not always proven capable of retrieving stolen cryptocurrencies without assistance from more experienced organizations.
For example, last September saw the filing in the UK of a case against Wealth Recovery Solicitors, which a victim of a £635,000 crypto fraud (about $818,000) accused of negligence, after it failed to recover stolen funds.
Wealth Recovery Solicitors allegedly lacked the expertise to trace the defrauded crypto and manage the litigation needed to retrieve it, with the firm applying for a global freezing order against Blockchain.com—simply because details of the Bitcoin address with the stolen BTC could be viewed on Blockchain.com’s website.
The case against Wealth Recovery Solicitors is being handled by Ashley Fairbrother of Edmonds Marshall McMahon, which participated in the recent retrieval of £520,000 in crypto.
Speaking to Decrypt, Fairbrother said that he welcomes the “important partnership” between City of London Police and private legal firms, which he regards as a significant step in addressing the “endemic fraud problem” nations such as the UK currently face.
“It is only through this type of initiative and collaborative efforts that we can hope to tackle the increasing scale of fraud,” he said, “and it is precisely these arrangements that we now need to focus on and create between every police force, and specialist private sector law firms, to tackle the complex and rapidly evolving cryptocurrency frauds this country is facing.”
Fairbrother also acknowledges that the government has “laid the foundation” for such initiatives by adding Section 303Z51 to the Proceeds of Crime Act, but adds that it’s crucial that police forces take the initiative to establish partnerships.
“By doing so, we give this country a fighting chance in the battle against fraud,” he added, “ensuring that victims are not left to bear the financial burden alone, and helping us dismantle the criminal networks behind these crimes, by taking away their stolen digital assets.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
