Vol 15 (2018) - Issue 3

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Tracing Assets in Asia Pacific: A Comparative Analysis of the Availability of Norwich Pharmacal Orders in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore

1. Introduction
While fraud alone is not often cited as the prominent cause of company failure, it is a common element for some of the largest international financial debacles and in other cases, has been used to disguise the true nature of the underlying issues faced by the business.
With the rapid growth of international finance and investment fuelled by innovation in the world of Fintech, it is increasingly common to see the swift diversion of assets derived from fraudulent activities or other wrongful acts to various offshore or more exotic jurisdictions, putting them largely out of reach. For those responsible, concealing assets in multiple jurisdictions seems to be the straight-forward answer to avoiding personal liability and for the enjoyment of the fruits of the wrongful conduct. For insolvency practitioners, the changing transactional landscape inevitably adds another layer of complexity to the factual matrix and potentially limits the options available. In fact, investigations have never been more complex and time-restrained – the clock is ticking as assets ‘metamorphose’ into various different forms, in a diverse range of locations, making it more and more difficult to connect the dots. That said, even the most careful of wrongdoers leaves digital footprints along the way, which may ultimately contain the missing links to track them down.