Multi-jurisdictional fraud is designed to exploit the practical and legal difficulties of cross-border fraud investigation. The perpetrators operate across national borders specifically to take advantage of the limitations of any single jurisdiction’s law enforcement, the gaps between regulatory regimes, and the practical obstacles facing private parties seeking to gather evidence and enforce judgments internationally. Investigating and recovering from multi-jurisdictional fraud requires a response that matches the scope of the fraud itself.
Common Multi-Jurisdictional Fraud Structures
Offshore corporate structures: the fraud is operated through a chain of companies in multiple jurisdictions, each providing an additional layer of separation between the perpetrator and their proceeds.
International payment routing: funds are moved through accounts in multiple jurisdictions to obscure the origin and destination of the proceeds, taking advantage of the differing AML frameworks and enforcement reach of each country in the chain.
Jurisdiction arbitrage: the perpetrator locates the operational elements of the fraud in jurisdictions where enforcement is weakest, while targeting victims in jurisdictions where they are most accessible and most likely to pay.
The Investigation Response
Multi-jurisdictional fraud investigation requires simultaneous activity in all relevant jurisdictions: gathering evidence of the fraud’s operation in each country where it is active, tracing the movement of funds across the international banking system, and identifying the assets available for recovery in each jurisdiction where the perpetrator has placed them.
Bond Rees coordinates multi-jurisdictional fraud investigations through our partner network, providing a single point of coordination for the UK-based client and their legal team while managing the parallel investigation activities in each relevant country. Our findings are consolidated into a single investigation report that maps the full structure of the fraud across all relevant jurisdictions.
Investigating fraud across multiple jurisdictions? Contact Bond Rees for expert coordinated investigation.
