International Asset Tracing and Investigation
Foreign governments, respected financial institutions, and liquidators depend on Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss to recover assets that have been fraudulently or wrongfully obtained and transferred internationally. Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss lawyers are at the forefront of developments in the investigation of money laundering, sanctions-busting and terror finance and in advising clients how to protect themselves in a complex, globalized environment.
We put our cutting-edge know-how and deep experience in international asset-tracing and recovery, gained over years of successfully serving both public and private institutions to work in countering, global financial misdealing.
Our techniques and remedies for constructing effective worldwide strategies to locate, seize and obtain misapplied assets have returned hundreds of millions of dollars to our sovereign and corporate clients.
We work through U.S. and foreign courts to obtain injunctions and other orders to effectively locate, freeze and repatriate assets to their rightful owners. We also work closely with top attorneys in jurisdictions where assets are frequently hidden, attorneys whom we can set to work on your behalf to ensure a strong local legal presence and acumen where and when you need it most.
In the News
Global Investigations Review has ranked LBKM as one of the world’s leading firms for cross-border investigations.
November 15, 2024Adam Kaufmann is featured by The International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators as "Fellow of the Month." In this Q&A, Adam discusses a figure who inspires him, recommends best practices in a crisis situation, and gives advice to future litigators.
September 13, 2024Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss made its debut this year in Chambers’ annual Latin America Guide, ranking as a leading international firm in the Corporate Crime & Investigations practice area.
LBKM is the only boutique firm to be so ranked.
August 2024The International Academy of Financial Crime Litigators has welcomed Adam Kaufmann as a new Fellow.
July 30, 2024Cristián Francos was quoted in an article discussing the frameworks used in many Western countries to provide compensation to overseas victims of economic crime.
IBA Global Insight, July 23, 2024Eric Lewis, A. Katherine Toomey, Adam Kaufmann, and John Moscow were recognized for their market-leading expertise in the tracing and recovery of lost, misappropriated or stolen assets.
July 2024LBKM is once again ranked as a leading firm worldwide for Asset Tracing & Recovery in the 2024 edition of Chambers and Partners Litigation Support. Chambers noted the firm’s “particularly strong networks in Latin America, the Middle East and the UK,” and clients described the firm as “extremely responsive and on the ball.”
June 2024Who's Who Legal (WWL) has again recognized Cristián Francos as a global leader in the field of investigations. WWL highlights lawyers at the forefront of the investigations field, spanning white-collar crime, corporate compliance and regulatory enforcement.
April 2024On Tuesday, La Dolce Vita laid out a detailed argument supporting its request to seize the paintings, saying New York-based Christie's records confirm that Zhang was the successful bidder for the artworks and that Christie's considered Zhang the "true client," and not Apex.
While La Dolce Vita noted that Christie's wrote a "to whom it may concern" letter in January 2015 to "confirm" that Zhang's shell company had "paid in full for their purchases and is the owner" of the artworks, it also said that Apex failed to take possession of the paintings because "Christie's was not fooled" and refused to deliver them.
Law360, March 14, 2024An arm of the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners is trying to seize two paintings, including one by Andy Warhol, to satisfy $142 million in arbitral awards that it claims the Chinese restaurateur Zhang Lan has sought to avoid by concealing her assets.
Law360, July 24, 2023Chambers Litigation Support 2023, a guide to leading litigation professionals, has again ranked Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss in its Global-Wide Asset Tracing & Recovery category.
July 2023Cristián Francos, partner at Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss and head of the firm’s Latin America practice, has again been recognized by Who's Who Legal as a global leader in the field of investigations.
April 2023Aisha Bembry, managing partner of LBKM's Washington office, was featured in Law.com's "How I Made It" series.
Law.com, November 8, 2022According to U.S. authorities, the U.S.-based activities of “blue dollar peso exchangers” are illegal, and those exchangers that maintain U.S. bank accounts are subject to asset forfeiture and criminal prosecution. The recent U.S. forfeiture case brought by U.S. authorities in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Partners Capital Investment (“PCI”) illustrates intense interest by U.S. authorities in the “blue dollar peso exchange,” and additional U.S. actions should be expected.
October 27, 2022Solomon Shinerock joins LBKM from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, where he worked in the Major Economic Crimes Bureau. Before that, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of New York.
Law360, October 13, 2022A senior prosecutor who played a key role in New York’s investigations into former President Donald Trump has moved into private practice.
Solomon Shinerock, who left the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Sept. 30, joined litigation boutique Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss on Tuesday as a partner.
New York Law Journal, October 12, 2022Who's Who Legal has recognized four Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss lawyers as leading asset recovery practitioners in its 2022 guide.
August 2022Chambers Litigation Support 2022, a guide to leading litigation professionals, has ranked Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss in its Global-Wide Asset Tracing & Recovery category.
July 1, 2022The United States Supreme Court concluded in ZF Automotive US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd. that federal district courts cannot order discovery for use in a private foreign arbitration via 18 U.S.C. § 1782—a statute that permits litigants to seek discovery in federal court for “use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal.” The unanimous decision narrows a useful discovery tool by prohibiting parties in or contemplating private, foreign arbitration from obtaining discovery through federal courts for use in that arbitration.
June 14, 2022Cristián Francos has again been recognized as a global leader in the field of investigations by Who’s Who Legal in its Investigations: 2022 guide.
May 31, 2022Arthur Middlemiss and Cristián Francos secured the return of all funds seized by the U.S. Department of Justice from U.S. accounts maintained by two broker-dealers based in Uruguay and New Zealand, respectively, both of which operated in Argentina.
April 18, 2022Waleed Nassar, a lawyer who worked on Egypt’s asset recovery efforts, said foreign banks regularly built personal relationships with wealthy customers in Egypt, who could then move money out of the country in a way that might have otherwise raised red flags. “You and I can’t go to a bank right now and get away with some of the most basic things that are atypical protocol-wise, but these guys can,” he said. “But for [the banks’] conduct, a lot of the money would have never have been able to be transferred outside of Egypt in the first place.”
OCCRP.org, February 21, 2022Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss PLLC is pleased to announce that John Moscow has been named to the 2021 New York Super Lawyers list. Each year, no more than five percent of the lawyers in each state are selected to receive this honor. In addition, A. Mackenna White has been named to the 2021 New York Rising Stars list. Each year, no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in the state are selected to receive this honor.
September 30, 2021Who's Who Legal recognized four Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss lawyers as leading asset recovery practitioners for 2021.
August 2021For "any kind of foreign litigation or arbitration ... that involves transactions in U.S. dollars, there's at least a possibility that there's going to be information in the U.S. and that tends to be attractive," said Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss PLLC partner A. Katherine Toomey.
Law360, March 25, 2021Cristián Francos been recognized as a Global Leader in Who’s Who Legal: Investigations 2021. Who’s Who Legal is one of the world’s leading directories of legal practitioners.
January 2021Two Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss professionals have been recognized as Global Leaders in Who’s Who Legal: Asset Recovery 2020. Who’s Who Legal is one of the world’s leading directories of legal practitioners.
October 2020Four Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss professionals have been recognized as Global Leaders in Who’s Who Legal: Asset Recovery 2019. Who’s Who Legal is one of the world’s leading directories of legal practitioners.
October 2019John Moscow spoke to Law360 regarding the investigation of Tyco International by the Manhattan district attorney's office under Robert Morgenthau.
July 24, 2019“The new government of Tamaulipas is committed to taking all measures to stamp out corruption and return the proceeds of corruption to the people from whom they have been stolen,” Kaufmann said in a press release. “There are many ways that the United States courts can be used in a proactive way to trace and seize ill-gotten assets.”
The Brownsville Herald, April 26, 2019The Appellate Division, First Department, recently affirmed the dismissal of various claims brought by New Greenwich Litigation Trustee, successor to the claims of two feeder funds in the Bernard Madoff affair, against various third-party fund administrators, accountants and auditors.
New York Law Journal, November 16, 2016- Swiss banks froze Mubarak's assets hours after his removal. 5 years and a corruption conviction later, the money still hasn’t moved.Mada Masr, February 11, 2016
- EE.UU. investiga a varias entidades de Caracas sospechosas de romper el cercoFebruary 10, 2013
- October 4, 2012
- The recoupment of illicit funds pilfered from the country through the decades of Mubarak led corruptionDaily News Egypt, July 19, 2012
- The Deal Pipeline, February 22, 2012
- The lawyer behind a $1 billion cross-border suit against Goldman Sachs following the sub-prime mortgage crisis praises the merits of bringing major commercial cases in the United States.February 3, 2012
- Saudi Firms Continue Multi-Billion Dollar Global Legal BattleMiddle East Economic Survey, October 31, 2011
- Huffington Post, October 28, 2011
- Saudi Arabia’s most high profile legal battle indicates just how dangerous the world’s capital markets remain a decade after Sept. 11, 2001.Trends Magazine, September 11, 2011
- The National, March 13, 2011
- The Washington Post, February 13, 2011
- One of the US's top fraud investigators is warning that America's policing of money laundering is wide open to abuse.BBC News, September 28, 2010
- CNBC airtime 2:45 PM ET, September 28, 2010
- The Lawyer, May 18, 2009
Publications, Presentations & Events
Adam Kaufmann will join experts from the US, UK, Europe, Latin America, and Asia to debate and discuss the growth of disputes in key offshore jurisdictions.
Grand Cayman, March 24, 2025- FIRE Summer School: The Next Generation of Asset Recovery Practitioners
Adam Kaufmann will be speaking at a panel on private prosecutions after the Post Office Horizon scandal at the FIRE "Summer School" asset recovery event in Cambridge.
Adam will discuss victims' remedies in the US: 28 U.S.C. § 1782, TRO’s, and whistleblower actions.
Downing College, Cambridge, UK, August 29, 2024 - Fraud Litigation, Contentious Insolvency & Enforcement
In this panel at the 2024 Asset Recovery Americas Conference, partner Chiara Spector-Naranjo and fellow panelists will discuss what avenues are available to victims or insolvency practitioners where a defendant has no assets, be it an offshore shell company that has been asset stripped, or a fraudster whose assets have already been seized or confiscated.
Washington, DC, June 27, 2024 LBKM is proud to sponsor this year's CenterForce Driving Diversity in Law & Leadership Summit in Washington, DC, where Managing Partner Aisha Bembry will be a panelist at a session titled "Shattering Glass Ceilings: The Unwritten Playbook for Career Success Beyond Hard Work."
Washington, DC, June 12, 2024- IBA Arbitration and Criminal Law Conference
Cristian Francos will moderate a panel at the inaugural IBA Arbitration and Criminal Law Conference.
São Paulo, Brazil, January 31, 2024 - Miami, January 23, 2024
- Grand Cayman, March 13, 2023
One source commented, “I can’t think of an improvement to its practice. We’ve worked with several leading international law firms and in our experience when it comes to complex, high-stakes issues Lewis Baach provides unmatched value.”
June 2021In a decision issued on Feb. 5, the U.K. Supreme Court quashed a notice pursuant to Section 2(3) of the 1987 Criminal Justice Act, that sought to require a U.S. corporation, KBR Inc., to produce documents located in the U.S. The decision has important consequences for cross-border discovery and investigations, as the U.S. and the U.K. appear to be taking divergent approaches.
Law360, February 17, 2021The U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia recently denied a petition to recognize and enforce an international arbitration award against a government-owned airline on jurisdictional grounds. The decision in UAB Skyroad Leasing Inc. v. OJSC Tajik Air, 20-cv-0763 (D.D.C. Jan. 26, 2021) illustrates the hurdles to enforcing an arbitral award against a foreign state-owned enterprise, even when that enterprise is engaged in pure commercial activities and controlled by the state.
January 29, 2021There is a popular misconception that asset forfeiture is limited to the luxury cars, private jets and speedboats of drug dealers, but many well-meaning businesses and individuals are finding themselves with their assets seized under statutes that provide U.S. authorities extremely broad powers. And these seizures often occur without any warning to, or even accusation against, the owner of the assets. Once seized it can take years to obtain recovery of perfectly legal assets. In these uncertain times, as many well-meaning people seek the relative safety of the U.S. banking system, individuals and companies in many countries may innocently use money-transfer systems that exponentially increase the risk of having their assets seized. Why does this happen and how can it be avoided?
May 11, 2020In these tough times, when clients are looking to protect assets and increase revenue, it is more important than ever to ensure that their arbitral awards are collectible. A truly successful outcome requires the ability to enforce and monetize the award that was won in the arbitration. When faced with a recalcitrant award debtor, it is imperative to think strategically and work closely with counsel and experts to enforce and identify recoverable assets.
April 2, 2020- The OffshoreAlert Conference Latin America
Adam Kaufmann moderated a panel at the inaugural OffshoreAlert Conference Latin America. The panel presented the Brazilian perspective on corruption enforcement, international cooperation, and asset recovery from both the prosecution and defense perspectives.
São Paulo, Brazil, September 16, 2019 Eric Lewis focuses on three key areas: (1) the widening of the net from sanctioned individuals to their families; (2) the application of the evasion provisions to foreign persons; (3) the bringing of new classes within existing sanctions.
The New York Law Journal, December 8, 2017- August 24, 2012
- Annual Review - Financier WorldwideApril 2012
- March 15, 2012
- September 28, 2010