Matrix Intelligence were engaged to conduct sovereign asset tracing against the government of an Eastern European country for assets held outside the EU, but including the UK.
The brief was to focus on assets owned by the state that were used for commercial purposes, including state-owned enterprises that could be proven to have a very high degree of state control over the entity.
In addition to tangible commercial assets (ships, planes, real estate etc.), we also searched for receivables owed to the government, i.e. interest/principal payments on sovereign bonds, bank accounts used for commercial purposes and judgments/awards owed to the state.
Through OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) and closed source enquiries, we were able to quickly identify full or partial state ownership of more than two hundred companies. We broke these down by asset class, percentage of ownership, jurisdiction and likelihood of enforceability.
Outcome
This enabled us to produce a short list of target entities which we believed merited further investigation. We shared our findings with the client to confirm that they agreed with our methodology before delving further into those assets.
Having done so, we were able to provide our client with actionable intelligence to pursue asset recovery; including the valuation and ownership certificate for a U.S. based property.
Having conducted extensive multi-jurisdictional and cross border complex investigations, Matrix Intelligence are experts at assisting law firms in Asset Tracing and Recovery.
Working with Matrix Intelligence
At Matrix we understand the difference between intelligence and evidence required for use in a Court of Law and have extensive knowledge of the legal system, enforcement regimes and cultural practices within those jurisdictions most commonly associated with hidden assets.
