What’s New: Global Heatseeker System * Litigation Support
I-OnAsia provides asset tracing services to corporations, law firms, and family offices. Since the Pandemic, we have seen a rise in asset trace cases. Fraud is frequently discovered during periods of economic downturn. The pandemic has also exacerbated disputes between business partners. Individuals have also taken opportunities to move their assets during the recent shutdowns.
Capabilities Introduction
I-OnAsia Limited is a full-service global investigations and security consultancy. Founded as a private company in Hong Kong in 2001, I-OnAsia’s core area of expertise includes the provision of investigative services to law firms and their clients, such as asset searches. I-OnAsia has conducted over 17,000 assignments. A significant percentage of these assignments has been investigations seeking answer questions such as:
- Does a company still exist?
- What are a company’s assets?
- Does an individual have any money hidden in offshore accounts?
Litigation Support Asset Traces
I-OnAsia specializes in asset traces at the instruction of corporate counsel, external legal advisors, lawyers, barristers and solicitors. Many of these cases involve cross border disputes and litigation. I-OnAsia is recognized by Chambers for our expertise in Litigation Support.
Our Modern Approach
Over the past 20 years, white collar crime has evolved. Global financial networks, tax havens, fraud approaches, money laundering networks have all changed. The Panama Papers disrupted key corporate secretarial networks. Countries in Asia have taken significant steps to crack down on money laundering. The Dark Web and Bitcoin have emerged. In response, asset tracing approaches have evolved to meet the challenges of the times. A key recent shift in our approach is leverage new technologies.
I-OnAsia’s new tech tools include our Global Heatseeker system, which now make it possible to look for links and connections to assets on a global scale more quickly and inexpensively than was ever possible. Where a decade ago, an asset search would need to start limited to searches in one or two countries, we now perform global scans to identify links first. (We discussed recent investments by our team in a public announcement here.)
“Investigation agencies must evolve with the times and invest in technologies which assist in overcoming some of these global challenges in the modern digital world. I-OnAsia has done just this, recognizing that the art of success is to work smarter, and not necessarily harder.”
Technology is the greatest aid to I-OnAsia’s asset tracing investigations today. Our team works with speed to search for an individual’s global footprint. This is now incredibly quick, and overcomes previous obstacles such as when databases are taken off line.
Digital Assets Update
The way in which fraudsters and money launderers go about their work has certainly evolved, and very much reflects the change in how society, lives, works, and does business globally. The use of digital currencies is evolving. They are now used in many business and personal transactions, from buying cars and investing in start-ups, digital currencies are becoming more and more accepted across many different sectors.
If an investigator today undertaking an asset tracing function solely focuses their time on locating purely bricks and mortar (property, cars), then they are likely to miss a considerable amount of valuable information.
I-OnAsia has extensive experience chasing BTC and other digital assets. It has been our experience that in some cases the efforts are fruitful. But, frankly, in some cases there are difficulties in achieving a positive result either due to the nature and timeframe of the original transaction(s) or other limitations.
I-OnAsia’s Cyber Sleuth team examines the original transactions and uses available data to search for leads to other assets, using purpose-built systems and databases to search for clues, and to assess the likelihood of success in achieving a client’s true objective. I-OnAsia’s Global Heatseeker team uses modules that link digital wallets and transaction information to real-world people and assets.
Popular Traditional Searches
I-OnAsia asset searches may include (jurisdiction depending):
- Real Property
- Credit Inquiries
- Bank Assets
- Companies
- Equities
- Vehicles
- Sea Vessel
- Aircraft
- Cargo
- Pension
- Life Insurance
Countries Coverage
I-OnAsia provides asset searches in:
- United States
- Greater China (Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland, Taiwan)
- United Kingdom
- Japan
- India
- Canada
- South Korea
- Russia
- Australia
- Switzerland
- Indonesia
- Thailand
- Vietnam
- Malaysia
- Singapore
- Puerto Rico & Caribbean
- Other areas upon request.
Track Record
I-OnAsia’s team has located and assisted clients in recovering over US$5 billion in assets over the past twenty years. Work has included:
- Assisted an Asian anti-corruption team locate approximately US$1.5 billion in assets siphoned out of a country.
- Assisted Asian state owned financial institution and a multilateral identify and recover over US$2 billion in assets corruptly expropriated.
- Assisted an American company identify over US$1 billion in assets held by a counterparty in a regional dispute.
- Assisted a global financial institution identify over US$1 billion in assets held by a prominent individual with interests in critical infrastructure.
