GPS acts for clients in asset recovery matters, including the enforcement of local and foreign judgments and the recognition and enforcement of domestic and international arbitral awards. Representations often involve coordination with co-counsel and other professionals across jurisdictions to devise and project manage case strategies with a particular focus on investigating, identifying, tracing, and recovering assets. 

Our team includes solicitor advocates with higher rights of audience who can simultaneously advise clients and appear before the Hong Kong courts. This allows us to provide streamlined and agile representation to obtain urgent judicial relief in critical situations where assets are at high risk of dissipation or removal from the jurisdiction of Hong Kong.

We devise and implement commercial and customised strategies with the paramount objective of maximising recovery cost-effectively and expediently.

Our strategies include:

• acting with urgency to identify, trace and freeze assets via litigation techniques that include Norwich Pharmacal orders, Bankers Trust orders and other third-party discovery procedures, Mareva injunctions/freezing orders and the appointment of receivers or provisional liquidators
• working with local and foreign forensic and private investigators to formulate debtor and known associate profiles to identify enforceable asset targets or to create settlement leverage pressure points
• the conversion of foreign judgments and arbitral awards into orders or judgments of the Hong Kong court through reciprocal recognition regimes or through common law
• co-operation with local and foreign law enforcement and regulatory authorities that include the use of MLAT and other cross border treaties
• the use of creative non-litigation techniques to create settlement leverage
• implement insolvency and bankruptcy scenarios to take advantage of additional investigative and recovery tools

A selection of representations by our team include:

• representing clients in the enforcement of judgments and arbitral awards against local and multi-national companies, sovereign states, state-owned enterprises, and high net worth individuals
• providing support to insolvent administrations involving complex cross border fraud
• acting for companies and individuals who have been the victims of cybercrime, such as business email compromise frauds (or CEO frauds), crypto fraud and identity theft, phishing, and other internet scams
• representation in matters involving investment and finance fraud including Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, foreign currency scams, boiler room fraud, and market manipulation fraud
• acting for companies in matters involving internal fraud and the misappropriation of assets
• supporting clients that have been victims of diversion of business and/or theft of confidential information and trade secrets

We recognise that the allocation of resources to an asset recovery project is an essential consideration for clients. Where appropriate, and subject to local laws, practices and regulations, GPS works with clients to explore how projects can be funded through alternative fee arrangements or external funding (such as litigation funding).

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