Insights

Crime bosses, kleptocrats and narcotraffickers have increasingly turned to the fine arts market to launder their illicit funds. How can law-abiding high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and stakeholders in the art market protect themselves and the industry? Kobre & Kim’s Robin Rathmell, who focuses on representing international private clients, discusses in an FTI Consulting podcast, “Fraud Eats Strategy,” with Scott Moritz.

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In the fourth episode of Kobre & Kim and Family Wealth Report’s “Wealth Talk” series on cross-border litigation scenarios facing high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) around the world,  Kobre & Kim’s Evelyn Sheehan sat down with Robin Rathmell to discuss how clients in Latin America and around the world are increasingly within the extending reach of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

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Kobre & Kim successfully persuaded a U.S. federal judge to dismiss a spoofing charge against a former Merrill Lynch trader on October 16, Reuters reported, a decision that may affect how prosecutors decide to charge violations of the anti-spoofing statute in the future.

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In the third episode of our “Wealth Talk” series on cross-border litigation scenarios facing high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) around the world, created by Kobre & Kim’s International Private Client (IPC) team and Family Wealth Report, Kobre & Kim’s Sean Buckley and Robin Rathmell sat down to discuss how clients with operations linked to Venezuela and other sanctioned countries should handle risks from U.S. sanctions.

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Latin America’s recent economic boom has led many to proclaim it “inevitable” that Brazil becomes a center of international disputes. Kobre & Kim’s São Paulo-based lawyers Gabriela Ruiz, Scott Nielson and Carolina Leung explain in a chapter for Lexology’s “Enforcement of Foreign Judgments 2021” the ins-and-outs of gaining recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Brazil.

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On October 6, 2020, the European Union removed the Cayman Islands from its tax blacklist, the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax transparency purposes. While being on the list in and of itself had no major consequences for the Cayman Islands, the legislative and regulatory reforms brought in by the Government have made it easier to trace assets within the offshore center, Kobre & Kim’s Jalil Asif KC explained.

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A typical instance of bribery occurs when an officer of a company bribes an official or politician. But who is the victim here – the company, whose assets were misappropriated, or the state, whose official abused his power? In English common law jurisdictions, the answer decides who receives any recovered assets, as Kobre & Kim’s Andrew Stafford KC and Evelyn Sheehan wrote in an analysis for International Comparative Legal Guides’ “Business Crime 2021.”

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Due to the global nature of fraud, and with rises in cases during the pandemic, it is important to stay abreast with developments in asset tracing tools around the world. Nine Kobre & Kim lawyers contributed three chapters on the ins-and-outs and latest trends of asset tracing in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong and South Korea in the newest edition of The Asset Tracing and Recovery Review.

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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has enforced the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) at a record pace last year, building on a trend of the agency extending their reach extraterritorially, particularly over jurisdictions in Latin America. Kobre & Kim’s Evelyn Sheehan and Jason Short explain the DOJ’s expanding reach and provide some advice for private client professionals to navigate this landscape in an article for the Anti-Corruption Report.

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In the second episode of our “Wealth Talk” series on litigation scenarios facing high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) around the world, created by Kobre & Kim’s International Private Client (IPC) team and Wealth Briefing, Kobre & Kim’s John Han sat down with Robin Rathmell to discuss risks to HNWIs and their wealth professionals as they shift assets out of Hong Kong.

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“The coronavirus pandemic has created a legal minefield for companies,” opens the Wall Street Journal in a recent article exploring vulnerabilities such as remote working, complex government regulations and travel restrictions. Kobre & Kim’s Scott Hulsey, who specializes in complex government investigations and was a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice and Chief Compliance Officer at General Electric, sat down with the Journal to discuss the ins and outs of investigations work in an almost fully remote world.

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The ownership over TikTok is just the latest geopolitical fight between the U.S. and China, and a recently announced deal between TikTok and Oracle is now shrouded in uncertainty. Kobre & Kim’s Wade Weems, a Shanghai-based former U.S. Department of Justice National Security Division prosecutor, offers his thoughts on the deal in Politico.

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As the case of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou demonstrates, Chinese high-net-worth individuals can easily become targets of U.S. criminal charges and U.S. civil and regulatory penalties based on alleged economic crimes, even if they never step foot on U.S. soil. Kobre & Kim’s Wade Weems, Chang Liu and Nan Wang walk through the risks and offer some mitigation strategies in an article in China Banking News.

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Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. has settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) after a years-long investigation into Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations in China. Kobre & Kim’s Wade Weems, a Shanghai-based former DOJ prosecutor, analyzed the settlement with the Anti-Corruption Report.

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China’s enactment of the Hong Kong national security law, as well as the U.S. response, have caused many Hong Kong-based ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) and family offices to consider moving assets out of the region. Kobre & Kim’s John Han, Evelyn Sheehan and Wade Weems analyzed the relevant risks and offered some advice in an article for Law.com International.

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