Trevor Street

One arm of an asset recovery group that is registered in Bermuda and Ireland has gone into liquidation as a defensive measure in a bitter legal battle in North America for control of the assets of a convicted criminal. Interclaim Recovery Ltd., of Ireland, applied for voluntary liquidation on November 7, 2001 after a Canadian judge ordered it to pay CDN$2.2 million (US$1.37 million) in legal costs to the crook, Blair Down, and his associates.

Debt recovery firm Interclaim (Bermuda) Limited made international headlines recently after a series of daring legal manoeuvres in several countries against the type of heartless criminals who have become accustomed to getting away with their crimes.The company, which operates from Dublin, Ireland, has successfully frozen in the region of US$200 million of assets linked with Blair Down, a Canadian businessman who created his wealth by ripping off the elderly.