Conference programme

The Youth Asset Recovery Club is a branch of the Asset Recovery Committee targeting the next generation of asset recovery professionals. While the Asset Recovery Committee is open to members of all ages and at any stage of their career, the Youth Asset Recovery Club is aimed at giving a voice to the younger generation, allowing them to hone their skills in a targeted manner and providing them with a platform to network, as the future leaders in the field. The Youth Asset Recovery Club is actively involved in the events organised by the Asset Recovery Committee, both by contributing to content (e.g. attendance on conference panels) and also by arranging sub-events for the next generation of asset recovery professionals.

The criteria for joining the Youth Asset Recovery Club are the following:

• Membership of the IBA and the Asset Recovery Committee
• Professional experience of 15 years or less

If you are interested in joining, please contact Théo Reljic at treljic@svz.fr

Representative of the General Council of Spanish Lawyers (Consejo General de la Abogacía Española, CGAE), the governing body that represents, coordinates, and supervises the activities of all Bar Associations in Spain. It serves as the main institution that ensures the proper practice of the legal profession, defending lawyers' rights and interests, promoting ethical standards, and safeguarding the independence of the legal profession. The Council also acts as the official voice of the legal community before public authorities, contributing to the development of regulations affecting the legal sector and the protection of citizens' rights.

Asset recovery practitioners know all too well that debtors are constantly coming up with new escape routes to flee from or resist asset recovery strategies. This panel will discuss common (and uncommon) defences that are typically raised and how they can be tackled and conquered by creditors. Panellists will consider, for example:

• the use (or misuse) of restructuring plans;
• what creative strategies might be deployed to enforce judgments/awards against difficult debtors;
• issues around establishing ownership;
• surpassing the challenges of piercing the corporate veil and alter ego arguments; and
• defeating third-party interference.

This panel will discuss and explore:

• how to trace, arrest and enforce against vessels and cargo;
• the legal nature of vessels and cargo as movable property;
• issues around establishing ownership;
• dealing with pledges and mortgages; and
• the relevance of international conventions in the asset recovery process.

This session will discuss the traceability and recoverability of diamonds, the mechanisms that are currently available as well as new ideas to assist in recovering missing physical assets, including the innovative use of blockchain technology and the tokenisation of legal rights to missing diamonds (and other missing physical assets) into non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Panellists will consider issues and challenges specific to the diamond industry, including relevant international regulations and sanctions.

Richard Aronowitz is Global Head of Restitution at Christie’s and a member of the UK government's Advisory Group on Spoliation Matters. He began his career in the art world as a furniture porter at Bonhams in 1993, then joined Sotheby’s as an Impressionist and Modern art specialist in 1997, before leaving to become Director of the Ben Uri Gallery in 2003. He re-joined Sotheby’s as European Head of Restitution in 2006, then Christie’s in March 2022 as Global Head of Restitution.

Richard is the author of the novels Five Amber Beads; It’s Just the Beating of my Heart; An American Decade; and Night Comes Down (forthcoming from Guernica Editions in 2025), as well as a book of poetry: Life Lessons . Richard will speak about his personal experiences leading to his role as a 1933–1945 provenance and restitution expert and share some of the challenges and highlights of his work.

This panel session will explore an important and sometimes controversial subject involving:

• The identification of a law firm, accounting practice or other professional firm engaged by an alleged fraudster or recalcitrant debtor for the purpose of building and maintaining an ‘asset protection’ plan (qua an asset concealment fortress).
• A look at what tools are available to an asset recovery team in English common law based jurisdictions to target such firms for accelerated forms of secret/ex parte disclosure of documents. The “mini” Anton Piller (or stand and deliver) order will be considered together with the sealed and gagged disclosure order against a solicitors’ firm (such as in Republic of Haiti and others v Jean-Clause Duvalier and others).
• What remedies are available under the civil law tradition to achieve a similar aim?
• The issue of legal privilege/professional secrecy will be considered. Does privilege protect against the disclosure of documents showing assets or property of a defendant?
• Pursuing solicitors for the balance of a loss (solicitors in the firing line).

Asset recovery practitioners are, at the end of the day, firm proponents of obtaining redress for victims of fraud and corruption. However, the cost of pursuing a multi-jurisdictional or even domestic asset recovery strategy is often prohibitive, especially in the context of smaller value claims. This session invites panellists to propose practical solutions to assist victims or debtors in smaller scale cases to achieve the justice that they deserve.

In May 2024, the UK Supreme Court considered, in Invest Bank v El-Husseiny, whether the Court of Appeal reached the right decision in finding that where a debtor causes a company that he owns and controls to transfer assets in an attempt to frustrate enforcement action, those transfers can be challenged as transactions at an undervalue under section 423 of the UK Insolvency Act (which the UK courts have confirmed may have extraterritorial effect). This panel will discuss:

• the use of section 423 as a helpful cross-border fraud fighting tool;
• other countries’ approaches to transactions at undervalue; and
• other means to getting around separate legal personality arguments behind which fraudsters all too often hide.

The recent waves of sanctions have had wide-reaching implications on client representation and dispute resolution – such as arbitration – generally. How has enforcement been impacted? Panellists discuss how practitioners are dealing with this in practice.

Asset recovery is a multi-disciplinary practice area, which often raises discussion around the merits of a civil versus criminal asset recovery strategy, and the inter-play between those alternative (or parallel) routes to recovering assets. How do regulatory regimes fit into the asset recovery equation? How can victims or debtors leverage regulatory processes to obtain redress? What rights and standing do victims have and what restitution is available?