United Kingdom police teams up with law firm for asset recovery program following fraud seizure

United Kingdom police have teamed up with a law firm for an asset recovery program following the success of a seizure. According to reports, the City of London Police has kick-started a civil asset recovery program in partnership with law firm Gowling WLG. The partnership was established after a successful pilot where both parties successfully recovered £2 million pounds for an elderly victim of cryptocurrency fraud.

The partnership will focus on coordinating efforts between the United Kingdom police and other stakeholders, including victims and their legal counsel to retrieve stolen assets. The recovery program will operate in areas where perpetrators of criminal offenses in the crypto industry cannot be prosecuted, providing victims of fraud, including the ones related to digital assets, with the opportunity to claim some restitution.

United Kingdom police partners with Gowling WLG to help fraud victims

In a press release, Brid Holden, a Director at Gowling WLG mentioned that the firm was pleased to be working with the United Kingdom police in the program. “After a successful pilot, we are pleased to be working on this initiative with the City of London Police to investigate and support victims to recoup monies lost to such frauds,” he said. Holden also mentioned that he hopes that the initiative will be able to help more victims report fraud and raise awareness.

According to a Chainalysis report, the entire crypto industry lost about $9.9 billion to scammers in 2024, with the figure expected to be more than that by the end of the year. He hopes that the collaboration between Gowling and the City of London Police will change the landscape and limit funds lost to bad actors. While some loss may be out of their hands, the partnership will see to it that both parties provide the needed help to victims.

The United Kingdom police are also aiming for the same result, with Detective Chief Inspector Craig Mullish mentioning that in the case of fraud, “it’s the money or assets that are lost that can have a lasting effect on victims.” Still, research carried out by the United Kingdom police showed that civil asset recovery can also help authorities in combating organized crime while protecting the United Kingdom against fraud and other types of criminal activities.

UK police accelerate recovery of crypto-related fraud

In the cases of crypto frauds, the United Kingdom police has done a lot of recovery over the last few months. A peculiar case happened a week ago, where the UK police teamed up with law firms to recover about $670,000 that had been defrauded from an 80-year-old man. The police used an update to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, freezing the stolen digital assets.

However, this new power will clear the ground for more partnerships between the United Kingdom police and legal firms, which have not always proven to be capable of retrieving stolen digital assets, to work without the assistance of more experienced firms. For example, a case in the UK last September was filed against Wealth Recovery Solicitors, where a victim of $818,000 crypto fraud accused the firm of negligence after it failed to recover stolen funds.

In that case, Wealth Recovery Solicitors allegedly lacked the expertise to trace the stolen assets and manage the litigation required to retrieve them, with the firm applying for a global freeze order against blockchain.com, because details of the BTC address with the stolen assets could be viewed on the platform’s address. The case against Wealth Recovery Solicitors is being handled by Ashley Fairbrother of Edmonds Marshall McMahon, who was a partner in a recent £520,000 worth of digital asset retrieval.

Discussing the partnership between the City of London Police and legal firms, Fairbrother mentioned that it is a step in the right direction. “It is only through this type of initiative and collaborative efforts that we can hope to tackle the increasing scale of fraud,” he said. He also added that these sorts of relationships should be forged everywhere. “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,” he added.

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