Identifying perpetrators of cryptoassets fraud using a Norwich Pharmacal order of the English court

Digital footprints are impervious to the desire of threat actors to maintain pseudonymity in their online activities. Victims of cyber fraud can leverage this evidence by deploying a versatile suite of tools under English law, designed to assist in discovering the facts necessary to trace the identity of their perpetrators - and in turn, to recovering misappropriated assets. The Norwich Pharmacal order A Norwich Pharmacal order (NPO) is a form of disclosure order of the English court which requires a person who is mixed up in wrongdoing to disclose certain documents and/or information to the applicant....

July 7, 2021 · 7 min

Bankers Trust orders: an important tool in cases involving cryptocurrency fraud

The prevalence of financial crime is increasing at an exponential rate both in the UK and internationally. Bankers Trust orders are a type of injunctive remedy of the English court which require a financial institution to provide information and documents in respect of a customer who has perpetrated a fraud. This interim remedy of the court provides a potential means to ascertain the identity of perpetrators of fraud in cases involving the misappropriation of cryptocurrency through cryptocurrency exchanges....

May 5, 2021 · 7 min

Injunctive relief granted by the English courts in a cryptocurrency fraud case involving the use of clipboard hijacker malware

In (1) Lubin Betancourt Reyes (2) Custodial Management Solutions Limited v (1) Persons Unknown x 3 (2) Tether Holdings Limited (3) Binance Holdings Ltd - June 2021, the English courts granted injunctive relief as an initial step to the recovery of stolen digital assets. Mr Reyes' legal team sought injunctive relief of the courts in London, including orders for disclosure against cryptocurrency exchange Binance, in similar circumstances to the prior case of Ion Science v Persons Unknown (21 December 2020)....

July 4, 2021 · 4 min

Ion Science Ltd and Duncan Johns v Persons Unknown, Binance Holdings Limited and Payward Limited – unreported, 21 December 2020

In Ion Science Ltd and Duncan Johns, the applicants sought interim remedies in respect to the misappropriation by ‘persons unknown’ of 64.35 Bitcoin (converted from approximately 577,002 GBP). The director of Ion Science Ltd, Mr Duncan Johns, claimed that a fictitious Swiss company known as Neo Capital induced him to transfer the misappropriated Bitcoin on the basis he would receive profits of at least 15 million GBP, through the purchase of initial coin offerings (ICOs) of cryptocurrencies known as Uvexo and Oileum....

April 29, 2021 · 4 min