FRANCE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Samuel Sauphanor, Alexandra Szekely, Timothée de Saint Viance and Benoit Barré, Le 16 Law
Given the speed at which assets can be hid - den, rapid and strategic action is critical. Tracing allows legal and investigative teams to identify the location of stolen funds, freeze them before they are dissipated, collect evidence and initi - ate recovery proceedings. Delays can cause the money trail to go cold, making recovery almost impossible. This complex task faces several hurdles: legal, practical and jurisdictional barriers, such as banking secrecy laws, the use of anonymised payment systems like cryptocurrency and opaque offshore registries.
As such, successful asset tracing increasingly depends on: • specialised law firms experienced in cross- border litigation and enforcement with a net - work of local counsel able to assist swiftly; • forensic accountants and investigators to fol - low the money trail; and • legal co-operation mechanisms such as MLATs, foreign disclosure orders and global freezing injunctions.
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