The ability to identify and locate assets or individuals overseas is a prerequisite for a wide range of legal and commercial actions: enforcing a UK judgment against a foreign-connected defendant, recovering assets transferred to an overseas jurisdiction, serving legal proceedings on an individual who has left the UK, or locating a witness whose evidence is needed in UK proceedings. Professional international asset tracing investigation is the capability that makes these actions achievable.
Locating Individuals Abroad
Tracing an individual who has left the UK requires a different approach from domestic people tracing, because the UK data sources on which domestic tracing depends do not follow the individual overseas. The investigation shifts to open source intelligence — social media, professional networks, published content — and to direct investigation in the destination country through our partner network, accessing local corporate registries, property records, and intelligence sources that establish a current address.
Overseas Asset Investigation
Assets held overseas may include property registered in a foreign land registry, corporate interests in companies incorporated in a foreign jurisdiction, bank accounts held with foreign financial institutions, and moveable assets such as yachts, aircraft, or art held in a foreign country. Each category requires jurisdiction-specific investigation through the records and intelligence sources available in the relevant country, with findings consolidated into a coordinated asset picture.
Legal Process and Enforcement
Locating assets and individuals is the investigative step; legal process and enforcement are the next steps that the intelligence enables. Bond Rees works alongside international legal teams to ensure that the location and asset intelligence we produce is in a form that supports the specific legal process being pursued in the relevant jurisdiction, whether that is a Hague Convention service of process, a foreign court enforcement action, or a mutual legal assistance request.
Need to locate assets or individuals overseas? Contact Bond Rees for expert international investigation.
