What recovery actually looks like
Amounts lost, amounts recovered, and how long it took — including the cases that recovered nothing. A page of successes with no failures would not tell you anything useful.
The $250,000 property investment scheme
- Recovered
- $212,500
- Of original loss
- 85%
- Time to recovery
- 4 weeks
The situation
A retired couple in their sixties were introduced to a property investment platform through a social media advertisement. Over eleven months they transferred $250,000 in fourteen separate payments, initially through bank transfers and later, at the platform's insistence, in cryptocurrency. Withdrawals were possible at first, in small amounts, which built confidence. When they requested a full withdrawal, the platform demanded an advance “tax clearance payment” of $40,000.
What the trace found
The fund flow map showed the transfers had been routed through three intermediary accounts in two jurisdictions before consolidating into a single account held by a company registered eleven months before the first deposit. The cryptocurrency transfers had been converted to a stablecoin and had not yet been cashed out.
What made it difficult
- Fourteen separate transactions spread over nearly a year, well outside standard recall windows
- Two jurisdictions, each requiring a different legal route
- The platform's operators had already begun dissolving the corporate structure
What we did
We issued same-day freezing requests on the cryptocurrency holdings, which were still on-chain and identifiable. In parallel, we engaged local counsel in the second jurisdiction and filed a civil claim against the registered company and its named directors.
The outcome
$212,500 recovered — 85% of the original investment — over four weeks. The remaining 15% had already been withdrawn and spent by the operators. The civil claim remains active against the directors personally.
Three more, at a glance
Drained wallet recovered before conversion
An entire Bitcoin holding was drained in a single transaction from a compromised wallet.
Funds were traced on-chain and frozen at the exchange before they could be converted.
- Recovered
- —
- Of loss
- 91%
- Took
- 3 weeks
Eighteen months of transfers, one mule network
$75,000 sent over eighteen months to a person who did not exist. The client had stopped reporting it to anyone.
Receiving mule accounts identified and pursued, and the network reported to two national fraud centres.
- Recovered
- $52,500
- Of loss
- 70%
- Took
- 4 weeks
Four hours late, nine days to recover
$180,000 wired to a fraudulent supplier account, discovered four hours after transfer.
Same-day recall request to both banks succeeded while funds were still newly settled.
- Recovered
- $180,000
- Of loss
- 100%
- Took
- 9 days
Before and after
The same four cases, reduced to what changed.
A retired couple transferred $250,000 in fourteen payments over eleven months. Small withdrawals were allowed at first, which built confidence. A full withdrawal triggered a demand for an advance “tax clearance payment” of $40,000.
We froze the cryptocurrency holdings, which were still on-chain and identifiable, while local counsel filed against the registered company and its directors.
- 85%
- recovered
- 4 weeks
- duration
An entire Bitcoin holding was drained in a single transaction from a compromised wallet.
Funds were traced on-chain and frozen at the exchange before they could be converted.
- 91%
- recovered
- 3 weeks
- duration
$75,000 sent over eighteen months to a person who did not exist. The client had stopped reporting it to anyone.
Receiving mule accounts identified and pursued, and the network reported to two national fraud centres.
- 70%
- recovered
- 4 weeks
- duration
$180,000 wired to a fraudulent supplier account, discovered four hours after transfer.
Same-day recall request to both banks succeeded while funds were still newly settled.
- 100%
- recovered
- 9 days
- duration
Cases that recovered nothing
We publish these too. A case study page containing only successes is a marketing document, not evidence.
Around one in twenty cases we accept recovers nothing at all, and a considerably larger share recovers only part of the original loss. The reasons are consistent: funds already converted to cash and spent, jurisdictions that will not cooperate, or a corporate structure that was dissolved before we were instructed.
In those cases there is nothing for the client to account for, but they do receive the forensic findings, and those frequently have a use we did not anticipate: supporting a tax deduction for the loss, a claim against a professional adviser, or a case brought later by a regulator.
What we cannot do is manufacture a recovery that the evidence does not support. If that is the answer your case gets, it will be the answer in your written assessment, not after months of work.
Every one of these started with the same free assessment
A written answer on whether recovery is realistic, within one week, with no obligation to continue.