We go after crooks.
Most of our work in this area is offensive, not defensive. Someone has taken money that belongs to our client, and our job is to find it, freeze it, and get it back. Where the conduct warrants it we go further than a civil claim: we have traced assets across multiple jurisdictions, supported criminal prosecutions, and secured the arrest and imprisonment of a defendant overseas.
We also defend people who have been wrongly accused. That is separate work, for a different kind of client, and it is set out further down this page.
Secure a Fraud & Asset Recovery Assessment
Pursuing Fraud and Recovering Assets
Most Fraudsters Are Individuals
There is a tendency in this field to describe every fraud as an elaborate offshore structure. In our experience most crooks are individuals. Someone with access and opportunity who took money, and then moved it somewhere they hoped nobody would look.
That matters, because it changes where you look and how quickly you have to move. Individuals dissipate funds faster than structures do, and they leave a more traceable trail while doing it.
An Evidence-Based Approach
We front-end load. Before proceedings are issued we want the transaction history reconstructed, the movement of funds mapped, and the people involved identified. This is where results come from. A tracing claim built on a properly assembled documentary record is a different proposition from one built on suspicion.
We work with forensic accountants and computer forensics as a matter of course, and we bring them in early rather than late.
The Remedies Available
The Royal Court of Jersey has a strong set of tools, and we can apply for them where the evidence supports it.
- Freezing relief, including ex parte applications where there is a genuine risk of dissipation, and the customary law remedy of arrêt entre mains served on a party holding assets.
- Disclosure orders against banks, trust companies and other third parties holding records relevant to the movement of funds.
- Search orders where there is a real risk that evidence will be destroyed.
- Proprietary and tracing claims, including constructive trust and dishonest assistance claims against those who assisted.
These are serious applications carrying serious obligations, including a duty of full and frank disclosure. We advise against them where the evidence does not support them.
Beyond the Civil Courts
A civil judgment is not always the end of it. We have worked with authorities in other jurisdictions where the conduct justified a criminal response, and we have supported prosecutions that resulted in custodial sentences. Not every case warrants that, and it is not always available. Where it is, it can change the arithmetic entirely for a defendant who was counting on outspending you.
Defending People Who Have Been Wrongly Accused
This is different work, and we want to be clear about it.
We act for people who have been caught up in something they did not do. Investigations of this kind are frequently long, invasive and disproportionate, and the people on the receiving end are often ordinary individuals rather than institutions.
We do not hold ourselves out as a firm that gets guilty people off. If you are looking for that, we are not the right firm.
What We Can Do
- Challenge the evidential foundation of an investigation, and identify what the authorities have not actually established.
- Apply to vary or discharge a saisie judiciaire where the restraint is disproportionate or captures untainted property.
- Co-ordinate a response where an investigation spans several jurisdictions at once, which is where cases of this kind most often go wrong for the person under investigation.
- Manage the disclosure process so that what is produced is accurate, complete and properly framed.
We are candid about outcomes. Not every defence succeeds, and some succeed only in part. We would rather tell you that at the outset.
Why Clients Instruct Sinels
We operate completely free of institutional conflicts of interest. We hold no standing retainers with the banks, trust companies or public authorities who frequently sit on the other side of these matters, so we are free to act against them.
We are not only for corporate victims and the very wealthy. A great deal of our work is for people who have simply been disadvantaged by the dishonesty of others, and the questions they face are the same: where has the money gone, can it be recovered, and what will it cost to find out.
We will tell you at the outset if a claim does not work, or if the likely recovery does not justify the cost of pursuing it.
Speak to Our Fraud and Asset Recovery Team
Or Call Us: +44 (0)1534 620500
Frequently Asked Questions About Corporate & Financial Crime
How quickly do I need to act if I think money has been taken?
Immediately. Funds move, records are deleted and accounts are closed. The first forty-eight hours frequently determine whether recovery is realistic.
Preserve everything you have, avoid alerting the person concerned before you have taken advice, and get a view on whether freezing relief is available. Jersey’s ordinary prescription period is three years, but the practical deadline is usually far shorter than the legal one.
What is a saisie judiciaire under Jersey law, and can it be challenged?
A saisie judiciaire is a restraint order applied for ex parte by the Attorney General under the Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Law 1999. Once registered in the Royal Court it freezes specified realisable property, preserving it against a possible future confiscation order.
It can be challenged. We can apply to the Royal Court to vary or discharge such an order where there are procedural flaws, where the restraint is disproportionate, where the evidential foundation is inadequate, or where the order has captured untainted property. Applications of this kind are frequently about restoring enough liquidity for a business or a household to continue functioning while the substantive matter is resolved.
Can assets be traced once they have left Jersey?
Frequently, yes. Cross-border tracing is routine work, and the Royal Court can make disclosure orders against parties within the jurisdiction that reveal where funds went next.
What determines success is rarely the number of jurisdictions involved. It is how quickly the trail is picked up and how well the documentary record is assembled at the outset.
Can a corporate entity in Jersey enter a Deferred Prosecution Agreement?
Yes. Under the Criminal Justice (Deferred Prosecution Agreements) (Jersey) Law 2023, a corporate entity facing potential prosecution for economic crime can negotiate a DPA with the Attorney General.
A DPA suspends criminal proceedings for a defined period provided the company meets strict conditions, which typically include financial penalties, compliance reform and continued co-operation with the investigation.
What is Jersey’s corporate “failure to prevent money laundering” offence?
Under Article 35A of the Proceeds of Crime (Jersey) Law 1999, a financial services business commits a strict liability offence where an associated person, such as an employee, agent, subsidiary or service provider, engages in money laundering.
This bypasses the traditional identification doctrine, so the Crown does not need to prove that senior management knew. The statutory defence is for the business to show that it maintained and applied adequate prevention procedures in practice as well as on paper.
