The assets at stake in transnational litigation, insolvencies and divorce can be difficult to untangle and sometimes even more challenging to locate. Whether by happenstance or design, and it is often design, funds may be secreted away in foreign jurisdictions, complex webs of companies and in difficult to trace assets. This is one reason why large amounts of cash are invested in real estate in New York, London and other financial hubs. The difficulty of locating the ownership of really estate is only compounded by the networks of shell companies that often own luxury investment properties.
The tracing of assets is a skill Gordon Platt honed in years as investigative producer at ABC News. Overlapping and intersecting paper and digital trails can be hard to dissect. And that’s often why they’re created. Over the last year we have assembled a network of attorneys and investigators in over 20 countries. They provide the language, business and culture expertise required to track and trace assets. It is often essential to have someone on the ground in overseas jurisdictions, especially in situations in which many records are still not put on line.