Asset Recovery and Judgment Enforcement

Overview

Friedman Kaplan’s cross-disciplinary asset recovery and judgment enforcement team represents judgment creditors, arbitration award holders, fraud victims, third-party garnishees, investment funds, investors in distressed assets, and other clients across a full range of high-stakes matters. Our team is comprised of lawyers with strong backgrounds in complex commercial and bankruptcy-related litigation, as well as former federal prosecutors. We are therefore adept at navigating matters involving full-scale litigation, government enforcement components, intensive motion practice, complicated discovery, fact hearings, and other dynamic situations.

Our lawyers work strategically to locate assets and craft creative legal solutions to recover them, helping our clients translate their hard-fought litigation victories into tangible recoveries. Our experience in this area also includes litigating complex fraudulent conveyance, alter ego, and related actions. We also routinely work with our clients before a judgment is entered to come up with an effective enforcement plan that can be deployed rapidly once a judgment is obtained, and we counsel investors contemplating positions in which the enforceability of a judgment or likelihood of recovery is a key factor.

Our representations involve both domestic and cross-border recovery and enforcement matters, leveraging our extensive network of local counsel across the globe. Our firm has handled some of the most cutting-edge foreign sovereign enforcement proceedings, including one resulting in the recovery of approximately $1.3 billion from the Republic of Argentina.

Today’s asset recovery work also often involves digital currencies. Our team includes attorneys with significant experience in this area, including those who have investigated and prosecuted financial crimes relating to cryptocurrency. We have helped recover stolen client funds that were subsequently converted to Bitcoin, and advised clients navigating crypto wallet freezes and seizures.

Friedman Kaplan’s focused practice and smaller size mean we can pursue enforcement actions that larger firms – due to conflicts or other business considerations – often cannot. Because our firm is able to offer creative fee structures and solutions for clients, our cases vary in size from six-figure to multibillion-dollar disputes. 

Selected Experience

• Over the course of nearly a decade, we represented two hedge funds pursuing claims against the Republic of Argentina to recover on defaulted bonds. Our clients finalized a settlement with the Republic in which they recovered approximately $1.3 billion. The litigation involved novel issues of judgment enforcement, creditor, and contract law, and their intersection with the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. 
• We represented a subsidiary of a Japanese multinational conglomerate in connection with an unauthorized transfer of over $150 million from an account of an overseas subsidiary. Our work included an internal cyber investigation into the theft of the funds (which were converted to Bitcoin), coordination of engagement with law enforcement in connection with criminal investigations in the United States and Japan, and the successful recovery through civil forfeiture proceedings of several million dollars more than the company’s original loss due to the well-timed interlocutory sale of the seized Bitcoin.

• We represented an energy company in U.S. proceedings to enforce an eight-figure judgment against a foreign sovereign in Asia and one of its instrumentalities. The client obtained a successful outcome, resolving an over two-decades’ long, multi-continent dispute.
• We represented an international bank in the New York courts defending against the petitioner’s efforts seeking a post-judgment turnover of assets held in an account at the bank. This matter involved novel issues of judgment enforcement law and resulted in a landmark decision by the New York State Court of Appeals.
• We represented a financial services firm in successfully enforcing a judgment issued by a New York state court, ultimately obtaining the full satisfaction of the judgment.
• We represented a company and individual clients in money laundering investigations and the related seizure and freezes of cryptocurrency assets by government authorities.
• We represented a medical services consulting firm in successfully enforcing a judgment issued by a New York state court.
• We represented an Icelandic bank in successfully domesticating in the U.S. a judgment obtained in an Icelandic court against the bank’s former CEO.
• We advised an investment management firm with a position in a company holding an over $1 billion judgment against Venezuela in connection with judgment enforcement proceedings.  
• We represented a bank in a contested turnover proceeding seeking to execute on funds held in a customer account at the bank. We filed litigation papers that paved the way for a resolution allowing the bank to maintain its security interest in the account at issue.
• We represent a major funder of small businesses in numerous pre- and post-judgment enforcement matters. 
• We represented an investment advisory firm and family office, as conflicts counsel for an AmLaw 50 law firm, in obtaining a TRO and seeking prejudgment attachment with respect to $10 million in proceeds held in a custodial account at a major financial institution.