The Long Road travelled in recovering Money in a Forex Fraud can be Well Worth the Journey

Realising you have been the target of a financial scam can be very upsetting, not only from an economic point of view but also on a personal and emotional level. Unfortunately, nowadays being scammed is very common.  The Office of National Statistics latest information records that fraud has increased by 17%. The opportunities for financial scams are amplified due to the wide access to different sources of information lacking in any filters and controls, combined with the range of types of investments advertised across the internet.   

The fraudulent brokers are not likely to be regulated properly and novice investors often do not have the technical capacity to detect potential frauds, together this represents ‘fertile soil’ for criminals to build their fortune at the expense of their unknowing victims. As a result, in the majority of the cases, people suffer real emotional traumas that can dramatically affect the victims, rendering them suspicious and faithless in the regulatory systems.  

Attempts to obtain compensation for the losses suffered, almost inevitably, is a long and difficult process without necessarily any guarantee to success. However, it would be wrong to say that it is always a lost cause and there are many strategies that do result in reimbursement. The lawyers in Giambrone’s banking and financial fraud team have had a number of impressive successes. Our lawyers take it as a personal mission to attempt to obtain justice for their clients, providing legal assistance that goes beyond economic reward.   Keeping in mind the ultimate goal, which is to compensate the client for the losses suffered, the lawyer must leverage all their legal skills.

Based on years of experience Giambrone has developed a system which starts with gathering comprehensive information from our clients about their experience. Our lawyers deal with defrauded clients from every part of the globe and in order to accelerate the process initially we ask for a comprehensive statement including a chronology of the events prior to their discovery of the fraud. This is crucial to the whole process as the breaches in the law frequently occur in the manner that the victim was approached and dealt with at very the beginning. Obviously any documentation is also of great importance; as well as the method of payment, credit cards, debit cards or wire transfers, which can be vital to the likelihood of obtaining the return of lost funds. As much information on the recipients of the funds, as well as details of bank accounts and the beneficiaries where the funds were deposited, is key information.

Once all information available has been provided to our lawyers they can then undertake a due diligence exercise to establish culpability and ascertain the potential for restoration of the lost funds.  This can be a long undertaking as the fraudsters will obviously be making every effort to cover their tracks and hide, often through an exceptionally serpentine route of companies set up in off-shore havens in countries that do not have robust regulators.  We constantly check foreign regulatory authorities’ registers and also look out for any relevant public announcements on the target company including revocations of licence or warnings to the public.

 We navigate through the bogus identities and sham companies in the hope that we can plot a course to the criminals who are the real owners of the multitude of companies, which often happens because the fraudsters become over-confident. Once we have established the relevant entity or individual responsible we can then start the legal process to recovery, using every legal mechanism available to obtain a settlement from entering into “without prejudice” settlement discussions to contacting the intermediaries such as the recipient bank and triggering chargeback procedures, if possible, as well as checking whether there is a claim for breaches of domestic and international Anti Money Laundering regulations.

If you would like to know more about how you can recover funds lost to a Forex fraud please click here.