Finding the asset is the easy part. Proving who controls it is the work.
Most asset searches produce a list. A list is not a recovery. FFIATS establishes who holds an asset of record, who actually controls it, whether that control can be evidenced to a court’s satisfaction, and whether the jurisdiction it sits in will let you reach it — before you spend a penny on enforcement.
Who performs the work
Certified Fraud Examiner (ACFE) — Mem. 1106637
Association of British Investigators — F2288
ICO registered data controller — UK GDPR
Tier-1 banking career — 29 years
Reading for the SQE — In progress
Attachability, not visibility. An asset you can see but cannot evidence, reach or realise has no value to your client.
A great deal of what is sold as asset tracing is database aggregation. It produces a document that looks impressive and does very little, because it answers the wrong question. It tells you what a name is associated with. It does not tell you what a judgment can bite on.
We work the other way round. Every asset we report is assessed against four tests: can ownership or control be evidenced; is the holding jurisdiction one where an English order can realistically be enforced or recognised; what sits ahead of you in charges, security and competing creditors; and is the net recovery proportionate to the cost of pursuing it.
Assets that fail those tests still appear in our reporting — flagged, graded and explained — so that you and your client can make the decision on the evidence rather than on optimism.
If you already hold a report built the other way, we will review it without charge.
What defeats an asset trace
Concealment is easier than discovery, and a determined debtor has usually had months of notice. These are the obstacles we meet, and what we do about each of them.
Obstacle
Nominee and proxy holding
Property, shares and vehicles registered to a spouse, adult child, elderly parent, employee, driver or long-standing associate. The register is accurate and entirely misleading.
How we get past it
Obstacle
Trusts, foundations and settlements
Legal title genuinely sits elsewhere. Discretionary structures, letters of wishes, protectors and sham-trust arguments turn a factual question into a legal one.
How we get past it
Obstacle
Corporate layering across jurisdictions
Three companies where one would do, in three registries with three different disclosure standards, with a nominee director service sitting on top of all of them.
How we get past it
Obstacle
Opaque and non-public registries
Jurisdictions with no public register of members, no accessible land register, paper-only filing, or beneficial-ownership access restricted following recent litigation across the EU and the Crown Dependencies.
How we get past it
Obstacle
Dissipation ahead of proceedings
Transfers at undervalue, sudden refinancing, new charges in favour of connected parties, and company assets moved to a phoenix entity in the weeks before a claim is issued.
How we get past it
Obstacle
Banking opacity
There is no public register of bank accounts anywhere in the UK, and there never has been. Anyone promising you an account balance from an open-source search is describing an offence.
How we get past it
Obstacle
Cash, bearer and unregistered value
Bullion, watches, art, jewellery, plant, stock, classic vehicles and cash. High value, no register, trivially portable.
How we get past it
Obstacle
Crypto and off-exchange transfer
Wallets, bridges, mixers, privacy coins, stablecoin settlement and peer-to-peer transfer sitting outside every conventional register.
How we get past it
Obstacle
Prior charges and competing creditors
The asset exists, is provably his, and is already fully encumbered — or three other creditors are further ahead than you are.
How we get past it
Obstacle
Immunity, recognition and enforceability
Sovereign or state-linked counterparties, assets sitting in jurisdictions that will not recognise an English judgment, and structures deliberately sited to be unenforceable.
How we get past it
Obstacle
Cost, limitation and proportionality
The most common reason a trace fails is that it was open-ended. Budget is exhausted mapping assets that were never going to be reachable inside the limitation period.
How we get past it
Obstacle
Unlawful shortcuts by others
Blagging, pretexting and unlawfully obtained banking data are still offered in this market. Evidence obtained that way contaminates a case, exposes the client, and can end a solicitor’s career alongside the investigator’s.
How we get past it
The deliverable
The Schedule of Assets
Every FFIATS trace resolves into one document your counsel can work from — not a narrative report with a list appended, but a schedule in which each line is graded, priced, jurisdictionally assessed and tied to a specific next legal step. Tap a line to see the evidential basis behind it.
Evidential basis
Official copies of the register and title plan; historic title history showing transfer within four months of the letter before claim; completion funded from an account in the subject's sole name per disclosed statements.
Encumbrances
First legal charge to a high-street lender, balance estimated from the original advance and term. No second charge registered.
Attachability
Strong. Domestic jurisdiction, registered title, and a transfer chronology that supports a s.423 or s.37 argument on the timing.
Next step
Restriction or unilateral notice pending determination; instruct on setting aside the transfer.
Evidential basis
UK subsidiary filings and PSC statements identify the BVI parent; parent's beneficial ownership evidenced by consistent signatory, correspondence address and filing-agent linkage across three filings.
Encumbrances
Debenture in favour of a connected lender registered eleven days after the claim form was issued. Priority and consideration both open to challenge.
Attachability
Moderate. The UK operating entity is reachable; the offshore holding layer will require a disclosure order or local counsel.
Next step
Charging order over the UK shareholding; Norwich Pharmacal against the filing agent for parent ownership records.
Evidential basis
Institution identified from a payment reference in disclosed correspondence and from the account details on two supplier invoices. Relationship, not balance — no lawful open-source route exists to an account balance.
Encumbrances
Unknown pending disclosure.
Attachability
Good, if disclosure is obtained. Jersey courts routinely assist with English proceedings and third-party debt orders.
Next step
Bankers Trust or third-party disclosure application, supported by our statement identifying the institution and the basis for it.
Evidential basis
Flag-state registration record and IMO entry; berth confirmed by AIS history and marina records; SPV directorship traces to the subject's long-standing accountant.
Encumbrances
Registered mortgage recorded against the vessel; outstanding balance to be confirmed with the flag registry.
Attachability
Strong where the vessel is berthed. Arrest is available in most Mediterranean ports and is time-sensitive to her movements.
Next step
Movement monitoring; instruct Spanish maritime counsel on arrest in anticipation of the next port call.
Evidential basis
Official copies for each title; LLP agreement and accounts filed at Companies House; rent receipts evidenced through the managing agent's published portfolio.
Encumbrances
Three BTL mortgages at approximately 72% LTV in aggregate. Equity is real but modest against enforcement cost.
Attachability
Strong but low-yield. Better used as leverage in settlement than as a primary enforcement target.
Next step
Interim charging order over the LLP interest; include in the schedule for negotiation.
Evidential basis
Outbound transfers from a disclosed bank account to a regulated exchange; on-chain clustering by our specialist partner attributes two deposit addresses to that account. Present holdings are inferred, not established.
Encumbrances
None identified. Realisation risk is dissipation speed, not security.
Attachability
Contingent on speed. Assets held at a regulated exchange are reachable; self-custodied assets generally are not.
Next step
Consider a without-notice freezing order and disclosure against the exchange before the subject is on notice.
Evidential basis
Specified-items cover referenced in a disclosed schedule; four pieces visible and datable across social-media imagery, with metadata and capture provenance preserved to our continuity log.
Encumbrances
None identified. Highly portable and easily sold privately.
Attachability
Weak in practice. Realistic only via a writ of control with reliable location intelligence, or as a disclosure point in cross-examination.
Next step
Raise in the questionnaire; retain for credibility purposes if the schedule of assets is understated.
Evidential basis
Filed abridged accounts across three years show a consistently overdrawn director's loan account with no repayment pattern.
Encumbrances
None. It is a debt owed to the company, not an asset held by it.
Attachability
Strong in an insolvency context, and frequently the most overlooked line on any schedule.
Next step
Flag to the officeholder for recovery, and to counsel as evidence of extraction.
Specimen schedule. Composite illustration drawn from typologies rather than any single matter; all figures, jurisdictions and identifiers are notional. No client information appears on this page.
The searches we run
Set out in full, because you are entitled to know what you are buying. Not every search is run on every matter — scope follows the target profile, the jurisdictions in play and your budget. Anything requiring a court order is identified as such rather than quietly attempted.
Corporate & beneficial ownership
Registry · Open source · Paid data
- Companies House: appointments, filing history, charges, mortgages and dissolved-company archive
- PSC register and relevant legal entity chains to the ultimate natural person
- Register of Overseas Entities and associated title restrictions
- Companies Registry Northern Ireland and Scottish partnership records
- Crown Dependency and offshore registries — Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, BVI, Cayman, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, UAE free zones
- EEA and international registries via local agents where public access is restricted
- Filing-agent, registered-office and nominee-service clustering
- Common director, secretary and signatory analysis across entity sets
- Disqualified directors register and insolvency history
- Group structure, subsidiary and joint-venture mapping
Land & real property
Registry · Documentary
- HM Land Registry official copies, title plans and title register history
- Index of Proprietors' Names application, where the statutory grounds are met
- Registers of Scotland and Land & Property Services Northern Ireland
- Charges, restrictions, notices, cautions and priority position
- Historic transfer and refinancing chronology against the litigation timeline
- Leasehold, freehold reversion and ground-rent interests
- Overseas land registries via local agents and counsel
- Planning, licensing and business-rates records evidencing occupation and control
- Agricultural, development and unregistered land enquiries
Financial & banking indicators
Documentary inference · Legal process
- Institution identification from payment references, invoices, filings and disclosed material
- Registered charges, debentures and security interests as evidence of lending relationships
- Filed accounts analysis: director's loan accounts, related-party transactions, unexplained movements
- Forensic review of disclosed bank statements and ledgers for dissipation and connected-party flows
- Fund-flow reconstruction and transaction chronology across entities and jurisdictions
- Pension, insurance, investment and policy indicators from documentary sources
- Evidence packaged to support Norwich Pharmacal, Bankers Trust and third-party disclosure applications
- Lifestyle-to-declared-means reconciliation
High-value movables
Registry · Physical · Imagery
- UK Ship Register, IMO, Equasis, classification societies and flag-state records
- AIS movement history and marina, berth and yard records
- CAA G-INFO, FAA registry, aircraft mortgage registers and fractional-ownership programmes
- Vehicle records, finance and HPI-type interests, and personalised registration marks
- Art, antiquities and collectables: auction results, dealer records, provenance and loan registers
- Bloodstock, plant, machinery and stock-in-trade
- Insurance schedules and valuation trails evidencing specified items
- Import, export and shipping documentation
Courts, insolvency & enforcement
Public record · Court file
- Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines; Scottish Register of Inhibitions
- Individual Insolvency Register, bankruptcy and IVA records, and corporate insolvency filings
- The Gazette: appointments, notices, striking-off and insolvency proceedings
- Court records and file inspection, CE-File, BAILII and published judgments
- Foreign litigation and enforcement history in relevant jurisdictions
- Competing creditor, priority and equity-position analysis
- Probate, grants and estate records
- Land charges, bankruptcy restrictions and enforcement notices
- Recognition and reciprocal-enforcement assessment with local counsel
Digital, OSINT & cryptoassets
Open source · Forensic capture
- Structured OSINT across social platforms, forums, marketplaces and archived material
- Imagery and video analysis with metadata, geolocation and chronolocation assessment
- Domain, hosting, WHOIS history, SSL and infrastructure attribution
- Email, telephone and username enumeration across breach and open datasets
- Business, employment and professional-profile analysis
- On-chain tracing through specialist partners; wallet clustering and exchange attribution
- VASP, off-ramp and stablecoin settlement identification
- Dark web and marketplace monitoring where relevant to the matter
- Forensic capture with hashing and a continuity log for every item retained
Human & physical enquiries
Lawful enquiry · Field
- Discreet enquiries with lawful, identified sources in the relevant sector or locality
- Address occupancy verification and residency confirmation
- Site attendance to establish trading status, stock, plant and scale of operation
- Covert surveillance where proportionate, lawful and necessary to prove control or occupation
- Witness identification, tracing and statement-taking
- Process-serving support and confirmation of service address
- Overseas enquiries through vetted local investigators operating to local law
Monitoring & triggers
Ongoing · Retained
- Companies House filing and appointment alerts
- Land Registry title and charge change monitoring
- Vessel and aircraft movement tracking
- Gazette, insolvency and litigation triggers
- Wallet activity monitoring for identified addresses
- Marketing and disposal signals: listings, auctions and advertisements
- Periodic re-run of the schedule against a defined trigger list
Senior-led, and it stays that way
In this market the person who takes your call is rarely the person who runs the search. At FFIATS the instruction, the analysis and the report are the same person’s work, and that person signs it.
John Salerno
Director & Principal Investigator
- Certified Fraud Examiner, ACFE 1106637
- Association of British Investigators F2288
- ICO registered data controller UK GDPR
- Tier-1 banking career 29 years
- Reading for the SQE In progress
- FFIATS Ltd 09987378
Twenty-nine years inside the institutions we now investigate
Deutsche Bank, UBS, Credit Suisse, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Lloyds Banking Group. That background is not decoration on a biography — it is why we read a set of filed accounts, a payment reference or a corporate structure differently from an investigator who has only ever seen banking from the outside. We know how funds move, what a legitimate structure looks like, and which anomalies are worth an afternoon.
Fraud examination discipline, applied to tracing
The CFE methodology brings predication, hypothesis testing and documented evidence handling to work that is too often conducted as an unstructured hunt. We record what we searched, what we found, what we did not find, and what remains untested — because an opponent’s expert will ask, and because a schedule with a gap you have declared is worth more than one with a gap you have not.
OSINT as a discipline, not a database subscription
Open-source work carried out properly means structured collection, source grading, corroboration, and forensic capture with hashing and continuity so that what is found can still be exhibited months later. Screenshots pasted into a Word document are not evidence. We build the record on the assumption it will be challenged.
Where we bring in others
We are candid about the edges of our own capability. On-chain analytics, offshore counsel, forensic accounting expert evidence, overseas field enquiries and process serving are delivered through named partners we have worked with before, coordinated by us so that you hold one relationship rather than six.
Four stages, and you can stop at any of them
Open-ended asset tracing is how budgets disappear. Each stage has a fixed scope, a defined output and a decision point at the end of it. We will tell you when the next stage is not worth commissioning.
STAGE 01
Recoverability scan
A rapid, proportionate assessment before anyone commits to litigation. Known-facts review, target and connected-party map, jurisdictional flags and first-pass asset indicators.
Output
STAGE 02
Schedule of assets
The full trace. Ownership and control mapping, registry work across every relevant jurisdiction, encumbrance and priority analysis, and grading of every line.
Output
STAGE 03
Evidential investigation
Converting intelligence into something a court can use. Fund-flow reconstruction, witness and source work, forensic capture, and material prepared for freezing, disclosure or set-aside applications.
Output
STAGE 04
Monitoring
Enforcement is a timing problem as much as an information problem. Registry, litigation, vessel, property and wallet triggers, reported on a defined cycle.
Output
What each client actually needs
The trace is the same discipline. The question it has to answer is not.
Commercial litigators
Whether the claim is worth issuing, and whether there will be anything to enforce against at the end of it. Evidence for interim relief and for enforcement after judgment.
Family solicitors
Concealment and understatement in financial remedy proceedings. Lifestyle-to-means analysis, corporate and trust interests, and precise, evidenced questionnaire leads — obtained lawfully, with the implied undertaking and the position on self-help fully respected.
Insolvency officeholders
Antecedent transactions, overdrawn loan accounts, connected-party dealings and the realistic recovery pool where the books and records are incomplete.
Litigation funders
Underwriting the enforcement risk, not just the merits. An independent recoverability position before capital is committed, and monitoring across the life of the case.
Banks, lenders & credit funds
Guarantor and borrower asset positions, collateral verification, and the sequencing question of where to enforce first.
Fraud victims & private clients
Whether recovery is realistically possible before more money is spent chasing it. A straight answer, given early, even when it is not the one hoped for.
How we work, and what we will not do
You are putting your professional judgement behind whatever we hand you. These commitments are why that is safe.
Intelligence is not evidence
The two are separated throughout our reporting and never conflated. Every finding carries a source grade so you know precisely what you can exhibit and what still needs a further step.
Continuity and capture
Material is captured forensically, hashed, timestamped and logged. Continuity records are maintained so that an exhibit produced today can still be authenticated in eighteen months.
Lawful means only
No blagging, no pretexting, no unlawfully obtained banking or telecoms data. Where the only lawful route to information is a court order, we say so and help you obtain it.
Data protection
ICO registered, with a documented lawful basis for processing, defined retention, and DPIA where the work warrants it. Your client’s data and the subject’s are both handled properly.
Court-aware reporting
Reports are written on the assumption they may be disclosed, put to a witness, or become the subject of an application. Assumptions and limitations are stated on the face of the document.
Proportionality, in writing
Where the likely net recovery does not justify the next stage, we record that recommendation and give you something to show the client.
Already commissioned a trace? We will tell you, without charge, whether it stands up.
Asset tracing is an unregulated market, and a good deal of what is sold as a report is a database search with a covering letter. If you hold a trace, background report or schedule of assets you are not confident in — ours or another provider’s — send it to us. We will review it against our own evidential standard and tell you plainly whether we believe further work would locate more, or properly confirm ownership and control of what has already been found.
Nobody should have to gamble a second fee on the strength of the first report.
What the review covers
- What was actually searched, and what was assumed, skipped or left out of scope
- Whether ownership is evidenced, or only association with a name
- Whether control — not just registered title — has been tested at all
- Gaps by jurisdiction, asset class or connected entity
- Whether the conclusions would hold up to disclosure and cross-examination
If the original work is sound and we do not believe we can add value, we will say so — there is no charge either way.
Before you instruct
No, and nobody can do so lawfully from open sources. There is no public register of bank accounts in the United Kingdom. What we can do is identify the institutions a subject banks with from documentary indicators, evidence the relationship to a standard that supports a disclosure application, and then work with the material the court compels. Any provider who quotes you a price for an account balance is describing an offence, and evidence obtained that way will damage your case and expose your client.
A recoverability scan is usually days rather than weeks. A full schedule of assets on a domestic subject with a modest corporate footprint typically takes two to four weeks. Cross-border work is governed by registry response times and local agents, and can run considerably longer. We give an indicative timetable at the point of instruction and tell you promptly if it changes.
Full name, date of birth, all known addresses and any former names for the subject; the nature and value of the claim; the procedural stage; any disclosure already given; the jurisdictions you believe are relevant; and confirmation of who is instructing and in what capacity. If disclosure has been given, the statements and filings you already hold are usually the most productive starting point we have.
Reports are prepared on the assumption of disclosure and challenge, with sources graded, methods recorded and limitations stated openly. Witness statements are provided where required, and material is captured and logged so that it can be authenticated later. Where a finding is inference rather than evidence, the report says so.
Regularly, and with particular care. Financial remedy work carries constraints that commercial tracing does not: the implied undertaking, the position on self-help following the Imerman line of authority, and the risk of an otherwise strong case being undermined by how material was obtained. We work within those limits and produce evidenced questionnaire leads rather than material that cannot be used.
Staged and quoted in advance. The recoverability scan is a fixed fee. Later stages are scoped against what the scan finds, with a written estimate and a cap agreed before work starts. We would rather turn down a stage than run up a bill on assets that were never going to be reachable.
Yes. Most of our work comes from solicitors, counsel, officeholders and funders, but we accept direct instructions from companies and private clients. Where a matter needs legal advice rather than investigation, we will say so and, if it helps, suggest where to get it.
Yes. Send us the report and we will assess it against our own evidential standard, at no charge, and tell you honestly whether we believe further work would locate additional assets or properly confirm ownership and control of what has already been identified. If the original work is sound, we will say that too.
Tell us the target and the claim. We will tell you whether it is worth pursuing.
An initial scoping conversation is free and without obligation. If we do not think a trace will produce anything you can enforce against, we will say so on that call rather than sell you a stage one.
john@ffiats.com
Direct
+44 7939 626357
Office
Have to hand, if you can
- Subject's full name, date of birth and known addresses
- Any corporate entities you already associate with them
- The value of the claim and the procedural stage
- Disclosure given to date, and where you think it is incomplete
- Jurisdictions you believe are in play
- Your deadline, and your budget ceiling
Need Help Tracing Hidden or Missing Assets?
FFIATS Ltd · Company no. 09987378 · Romney Marsh Business Hub, Mountfield Rd, New Romney, Kent TN28 8LH
ACFE · ABI F2288 · ICO registered
