Miami

OffshoreAlert today announced the agenda for our in-person conference on intelligence, investigations, and recovery in Miami Beach on April 23-25, 2023. Among the speakers are the British Virgin Islands-based liquidators of Three Arrows Capital, Christopher Farmer and Russell Crumpler, both of Teneo.

Leading investigators and funders of high-value international finance will take your questions and discuss emerging and dominant issues in litigation funding, including cases, legal rulings, returns, the role of investigators, and what they look for when deciding what cases to fund. Speakers: David Kerstein, Managing Director, Validity Finance; Jonathan Sablone, MD, Global Director of Originations, Delta Capital; Ken Epstein, Investment Manager & Legal Counsel, Omni Bridgeway; and Kyle Roche, Partner, Roche Freedman.

Given the rise of cryptocurrencies, this session will analyze money, what gives it value, and contemplate what it will look like in the future, including what role, if any, crypto will play. Speaker: Bob Seeman, Managing Partner, CyberCurb

This video will look at Non-Fungible Tokens, how they work, what you need to know, and legal issues associated with them. Speakers: Alex Shea, Director, Risk, Regulatory & Compliance, Guidehouse; Joe McGill, Global Investigations, TRM Labs; and Olta Andoni, Deputy General Counsel, Ava Labs.

Leading international fraud and value recovery attorneys will take your questions and discuss emerging and dominant issues that impact your ability to be successful and effective. Speakers: Aidan Larkin, Chief Executive Officer, Asset Reality; Jonathan Tickner, Partner, Peters & Peters; Polly Sprenger, Partner, Addleshaw Goddard; and Tatiana Markel, Partner, BakerHostetler.

Leading international fraud and value recovery attorneys will take your questions and discuss emerging and dominant issues that impact your ability to be successful and effective. Speakers: Adam Crane, Partner, Baker & Partners; Alex Jay, Partner, Stewarts; Edward H. Davis, Jr., Founding Shareholder, Sequor Law; and Maureen Ward, Partner, Bennett Jones.

This video will look at efforts around the world to regulate crypto, what's in the pipeline, and what effect it's likely to have on the industry. Speakers: Ari Redbord, Head of Legal & Government Affairs, TRM Labs; Kathy Kraninger, VP, Regulatory Affairs, Solidus Labs; and Lee Reiners, Executive Director, Global Financial Markets Center, Duke University School of Law.

Our panelists will explore using the civil Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO") to recover damages for serious frauds, including treble damages and attorney's fees and costs. While civil RICO's remedies are powerful, pitfalls abound for the unwary litigator, including heightened pleading standards and securities transaction bars. Obtaining RICO personal jurisdiction over defendants both in and outside the United States will also be discussed. Speakers: Daniel Treuden, Founding Member, Bernhoft Law Firm; Joshua Bruckerhoff, Partner, Reid Collins & Tsai; and Robert Bernhoft, Founding Partner, Bernhoft Law Firm.

This video looks at Tether and NEXO, two ongoing questionable schemes in the crypto industry that collectively involve hundreds of billions of dollars. Speakers: Edward Normand, Partner, Roche Freedman; Eric Rosen, Partner, Roche Freedman; and Kyle Roche, Partner, Roche Freedman.

Jules Kroll, the founder of the modern corporate investigations industry, discusses the evolution of the industry over the course of his 50-year career with his son and business partner, Jeremy Kroll. In the conversation, Jules explores how he evolved his investigation and asset tracing techniques and strategies throughout his career to follow the money all the way back to its rightful owner. He dives into the importance of adapting these techniques and strategies to meet today’s challenges, including sanctions against Russia, the anonymity of cryptocurrency, and the increasing complexity of financial crimes. Recorded on April 26, 2022, at OffshoreAlert Miami 2022. 

A discussion of the watershed SEC/Offshore Liquidators compromise in the liquidation of Cayman Islands-domiciled Income Collecting 1-3 Months T-Bills Mutual Fund and what it means for future insolvencies. Speakers: Guy Dilliway-Parry, Partner, Pirestleys; Igal Wizman, Partner, EY Bahamas; and Warren Gluck, Partner, Holland & Knight.

In this video, lawyers who have brought lawsuits around the world to recover cryptocurrency from exchanges and other entities will discuss their experiences and offer tips to avoid problems and be effective. Speakers: Amanda Tuminelli, Lawyer, Kobre & Kim; Dani Haston, Head of Global Asset Management, Chainalysis; Daniel Coyle, Counsel, Sequor Law; and Syed Rahman, Partner, Rahman Ravelli.

Members of the opaque community of intelligence gatherers discuss the risks of their profession in this video. Speakers: Christopher Steele, Director & Joint Founder, Orbis Business Intelligence; Michael Ronickher, Partner, Constantine Cannon; and Andrew Wordsworth, Partner, Raedas.

Having identified who stole the crypto, this video will show you how to recover it and who can be held legally liable, not just the thieves but those who laundered it and provided other services, including crypto exchanges. Speakers: Aidan Larkin, Chief Executive Officer, Asset Reality; Amanda Wick, Senior Investigative Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives; Carmel King, Director, Grant Thornton; and Jean-Michel Verelst, Director, Belgium's Asset Recovery and Asset Management Office.

This video is a how-to guide to liquidating and recovering assets across borders involving both onshore and offshore jurisdictions. Speakers: Hannah van Roessel, Director, Senior Legal Counsel, Omni Bridgeway; Ilan Cohen, Intelligence Analyst, Itur Financial Intelligence; James Pomeroy, Director, Grant Thornton; and Martin Kenney, Managing Partner, Martin Kenney & Co.

This session will show you how to investigate who stole the crypto, where it went, whether it was converted into fiat currency, and who has the proceeds now. Speakers: Benedict Hamilton, Managing Director, Forensic Investigations and Intelligence, Kroll; Beth Bisbee, US Head of Investigations, Chainalysis; Hakob Stepanyan, Manager - Forensic Investigation & Litigation Services, BDO USA; and Monika Laird, Threat Finance Lead, TRM Labs.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led to a surge in financial sanctions against Russian Oligarchs, banks, and other entities. The hunt is now on to identify beneficiaries, trace and freeze assets, including private jets and superyachts. Learn databases and tools that will help you know who you're dealing with and locate assets that they don't want you to know about. Presented by Ellen Hewitt, Senior Director, FTI Consulting; Nigel Nicholson, CEO, GreyList Trace; Roman Anin, Investigative Reporter, IStories; and Will Fitzgibbon, Investigative Reporter, ICIJ.

This video looks at a zero-click smartphone spyware tool known as 'Pegasus'. Speakers Mark Seibel of the Washinton Post and Stephanie Kirchgaessner of The Guardian discuss how Pegasus worked and provide specific examples of what it was used for.

Opening Remarks for OffshoreAlert Miami, our signature in-person conference on intelligence, investigations, and recovery that took place on April 24-26, 2022.

The world’s leading intelligence-gatherers, investigators, and asset recovery attorneys will gather this month to learn, network, and do business at OffshoreAlert’s conference-by-the-ocean in sunny Miami Beach. There will be 17 sessions on topics such as Russia, crypto, offshore, litigation funding, and an array of other subjects, while speakers include industry giants such as Jules Kroll, who pioneered the modern corporate investigations industry.

A prominent Russian investigative journalist whose Moscow home was raided last year by the country's Federal Security Service will speak at next month's OffshoreAlert Miami conference.

'Zero-click' spyware that was used to hack mobile phones to spy on more than 50,000 people, including lawyers, businesspeople, politicians, and journalists, will be analyzed at next month's OffshoreAlert Miami conference.

Jules Kroll, who pioneered the modern corporate investigations industry, will be the keynote speaker at next month's OffshoreAlert Conference in Miami. The 18th OffshoreAlert Miami conference will take place at the luxury, oceanside Ritz-Carlton, South Beach hotel in Miami Beach, Florida on April 24-26, 2022.

Due to unprecedented demand, the host hotel for next month's OffshoreAlert Conference in Miami Beach is almost full for the nights of our event so, if you plan to attend but haven't yet booked, you need to act now.

The recent "compromise" agreement between the USA's SEC and the liquidators of a Cayman Islands fraudulent mutual fund will be analyzed at this year's OffshoreAlert Miami conference that will take place at the luxury, oceanside Ritz-Carlton, South Beach hotel in Miami Beach, Florida on April 24-26, 2022.

The world's leading experts in crypto investigations, recovery, litigation, and regulation will present sessions at OffshoreAlert's in-person conference in Miami in April. Speakers include those from Chainalysis, TRM Labs, Ava Labs, and members of the Crypto Fraud and Asset Recovery network.

OffshoreAlert today announced the agenda for our in-person conference on intelligence, investigations, and recovery in Miami Beach on April 24-26. The burgeoning crypto industry dominates this year's agenda, with nine of the event's 16 sessions devoted to it.

The following statement was released today by OffshoreAlert, through its editor, David Marchant, founder and owner of OffshoreAlert, located in Miami, FL, in response to questions about our future in-person conferences...

Even boxing promoters would be envious of the hype surrounding blockchain technology. Blockchain will revolutionize the way business is conducted, end corruption in elections, let you know where the food you ate came from, and, generally, re-shape the world order. Or so the marketing goes. Virtually all offshore jurisdictions are attempting to become the go-to jurisdiction for FinTech start-ups and some, like Bermuda, have gone all-in. In this session, we will tell you why almost everything you read about blockchain is wrong and explain what the technology can potentially be used for and what it can't.

Our panel will discuss how to go about obtaining litigation funding, the criteria that must be met, the types of claims that litigation funders are interested in, and how litigation funding is structured.

Boiler rooms are international fraud schemes that operate with near impunity while defrauding investors around the world of hundreds of millions of dollars each year. In this presentation, experts in both federal law enforcement and private investigations will share their unique perspectives on combating the issue. In the first part of the session, a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent will discuss how federal agents locate, gather evidence, and prosecute overseas boiler rooms, as well as share examples of successful cases. The Agent will also discuss how the modern day investigation requires a strong working relationship with the private banking industry as well as cooperation between multiple foreign governmental entities. In the second part of the session, a private investigator and internationally recognized expert in the field of boiler rooms will discuss how the Philippines and other parts of SE Asia are hotbeds of criminality, places where expatriate investment fraudsters operate boiler rooms as they set about swindling foreigners living in the world's major countries, many of whom are pensioners. In addition, the investigator will discuss who is responsible, pay-offs to police, judges, and others in authority, assaults, murders, and other related issues. The investigator will also show you how to use alternative methods to recover assets, thereby avoiding long and costly litigation in jurisdictions with poor judicial systems.

London-based financier Bill Browder has positioned himself as an anti-corruption crusader who will stop at nothing to avenge the death of his former tax accountant, Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian prison in 2009. Browder claims Magnitsky was tortured and murdered by corrupt Russian prison guards because he blew the whistle on a $230 million tax fraud committed against the state using companies that were stolen from Browder. He has been the driving force behind new laws in the USA and other countries that are aimed at Russians and others who are involved in corrupt activity. Critics of Browder, however, have accused him of being a fantasist, pointing out what they claim are inconsistencies and inaccuracies in his Magnitsky story, his tax fraud conviction in Russia, and his pre-Magnitsky history of business dealings they claim are questionable. In this session, we will attempt to determine fact vs. fiction.

This session will look at how different jurisdictions are regulating or seeking to regulate cryptocurrencies, including Initial Coin Offerings, and analyze legal rulings so far in this fledgling industry.

Obtaining a judgment in a British Commonwealth jurisdiction, whether in the United Kingdom or one of its offshore territories, is no easy feat. The sad truth is that wining the case might have been the easy part. Enforcing a judgment when there are few or no assets in the jurisdiction issuing the writ can involve complex cross-border litigation. Execution of a judgment is even more difficult when assets, or individuals subject to the judgment, are in the United States, where a web of federal and fifty different state laws can stymie even the most tenacious judgment-holder. This session will explore the process and methods to enforce foreign judgments in the U.S., and impart practical tips to do so quickly and efficiently. It will also show how U.S.-based agencies can reach offshore activity.

This session will look at emerging key issues and latest developments affecting the litigation funding industry.

If the western media is to be believed, Russia is an out-of-control country that poses a realistic threat to global stability, whether by the poisoning of dissidents, computer hacking, corruption on a grand scale or other means.This session will go beyond the hype and propaganda and seek to determine fact vs. fiction.

Several years after major US criminal and regulatory agencies adopted whistleblower rewards programs, this session will analyze how they are performing and how much money has been paid out.It will include looking at the increasing number of rewards applications being submitted on behalf of offshore whistleblowers.

Leading international fraud and value recovery attorneys will take your questions and discuss emerging and dominant issues that impact your ability to be successful and effective. This session is intended to be informal and interactive and represents an opportunity for you to have your questions answered by experts who have 'been there, seen it, done it'.

Leading international fraud and value recovery attorneys will take your questions and discuss emerging and dominant issues that impact your ability to be successful and effective. This session is intended to be informal and interactive and represents

In this session, whistleblowers' attorney Steve Kohn will discuss how his client, Howard Wilkinson, blew the whistle on his former employer, Denmark-based Danske Bank, which has been implicated in a €200 billion Russian money laundering scandal and is now being criminally investigated in the UK, US, France, and Estonia. Steve will discuss opportunities for whistleblowers to become multi-millionaires by exposing wrongdoing in global financial institutions and other types of companies, both in the United States and overseas.

Before he retired in 2015, Sen. Carl Levin was the scourge of the offshore world, regularly overseeing investigations into financial malfeasance. In this session, Sen. Levin's chief counsel for many of those investigations, Elise Bean, will open the lid on their financial investigations, which ultimately led to ground-breaking legislation such as The PATRIOT Act and FATCA.

This session will look at examples of corruption, theft, judicial abuse, and the detention of foreign businesspeople conducting business in Dubai and other cities in the Arabian Gulf region.

Chief Don Fort, of IRS Criminal Investigation, will tell you why the world is getting smaller for tax criminals. With the formation of the new and innovative Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement last year, the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands have found ways to share information, work joint investigations, and move towards criminal proceedings in dozens of cases. Criminals and enablers of tax crimes alike should be on notice that their days are limited.

This session will explore judicial initiatives in the area of cross-border judicial communication and cooperation, a topic that has been thrust into the spotlight due to recent developments in the 'Liberia v. ACE' asset recovery/litigation funding case at federal court in the United States.

This session will look at binary options fraud, which has become a global phenomenon, particularly in Israel, where many of the perpetrators are based.

This session will look at current and future initiatives in the IRS's ongoing efforts to identify and collect taxes from U.S. taxpayers with undeclared offshore accounts and financial arrangements, as well as the efforts undertaken to prosecute and penalize those that assist such taxpayers.

This session will look at an investment fraud perpetrated by a British former bankrupt double-glazing salesman whose group raised more than £400 million from 6,000 mainly British pension investors by selling the dream of properties in St. Vincent & The Grenadines, Barbados and St. Lucia.

This session will look at the causes, including systemic corruption, of Brazil's financial crisis and discuss how the country's situation can be improved.

Learn how to conduct efficient pre-investment due-diligence and how to determine if the debtors and guarantors have assets that can be recovered without incurring more cost than it's worth.

After a thorough review of 15 years of SEC enforcement actions, Professor Urska Velikonja found that the widely-circulated statistics were invalid, and the metrics deeply flawed, with the SEC double and triple counting many of its enforcement actions and overstating fines.