After the island of Jamaica became one of the first countries in the world to issue cryptocurrency tokens as legal tender, Asset Reality was appointed as the country’s asset manager by the Jamaican authorities. The island’s law enforcement agencies are also one of the first international jurisdictions to use our new Asset Recovery Management System (ARMS) Platform. Our SaaS-based ARMS platform has allowed Jamaican police officers, public prosecutors and investigating judges to track and audit their portfolio of seized assets alongside the wide variety of resolution tools needed to investigate crypto-related crimes on the island. Thanks to this appointment, several members of the Asset Reality team were invited back to the island of Jamaica for a conference organised by the Financial Investigations Division, Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. The two-day event at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel focused on widening the use of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) through collaboratio...

  Asset Reality is delighted to announce a new partnership with Metamask, the world’s largest digital wallet provider. This partnership represents an industry-first approach to improving digital asset recovery around the world. Metamask is a non-custodial software that run’s on the user’s device, similar to a web browser. In January, they exceeded over 30 million monthly active users, making them the most popular Web3 wallet and browser globally. Just like a physical wallet in somebody’s back pocket, Metamask doesn’t have any access to users’ funds so the most important member of the security team is the user themselves.  Over the last few years, economic activity on web3 has grown exponentially. While this growth has attracted a number of highly innovative applications that will help redefine the future of financial services and the creator economy, it has also drawn the attention of online scammers and thieves. Due to the high number of users on the platform, Metamask is a c...

Asset Reality is proud to announce a new collaboration designed to help victims of crypto-related fraud overcome the unnecessary barriers they face within the justice system. Together with Grant Thornton UK LLP, Outer Temple Chambers, Rahman Ravelli and Sandton Capital, we have established a triage system to assess claims at the outset. A team of experts trained in investigation techniques and corporate intelligence will then examine the claims for merit and further legal assessment.  Successful claims will be assessed and financed on a portfolio basis by Sandton Capital. They’ve dedicated £50m towards crypto-related litigation cases and their new portfolio facilities will allow them to finance multiple claims at once that would otherwise not have been possible. Though crypto-related crime reached an all-time high last year, with fraudulent addresses receiving over $14 billion during 2021, cases brought before the courts are still shockingly low. This is largely because the majorit...

Asset Reality is pleased to announce that we’re expanding our network of FCA registered digital custodians through our new strategic partnership with Solidi, a leading crypto asset exchange and custody provider based in the UK. Solidi’s platform uses a secure cold storage system and multiple layers of security to fully safeguard any of the digital assets under their protection. Their cold storage vault has been operating flawlessly for over 7 years without incident, during which they’ve guarded hundreds of millions of crypto assets. This collaboration, and those with our other strategic digital custodians like Digivault, will help law enforcement and asset recovery practitioners to properly recover, store and manage stolen virtual assets like cryptocurrency, NFTs or other virtual investments.  Our bespoke platform is the world’s first end-to-end solution that covers the whole life cycle of seized assets. Handling the entire process in one place saves investigators time, reduces ris...

  As digital asset trading gains more prevalence in society, it presents a unique new challenge for law enforcement agencies, asset recovery practitioners and regulatory bodies in both the public and private sector. We’ve been appointed by the Belgian authorities to provide comprehensive management services for seized crypto assets. We’ll be working closely with law enforcement agencies, public prosecutors and investigating judges across Belgium to improve their asset management capabilities and mitigate risk. Alongside one of our digital custodian partners, Digivault, our team of experienced crypto practitioners will be using our bespoke platform to provide recovery, storage and management services for seized digital assets like cryptocurrency, NFTS and other virtual investments. The platform was custom-built to provide the world’s first end-to-end solution for investigating, recovering, managing and selling these complex assets.  It will allow investigators to save time, red...

  Asset Reality is proud to announce that we’ve been appointed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to conduct a series of international technical assessments as a part of their Global Program for Combating Illicit Financial Flows project. This project is researching how the connectivity between international financial systems promotes both economic growth and gives rise to illicit financial flows. The project focuses on collaborative efforts between participating countries to create working systems at regional, national and international levels. Recently, our Co-Founder & CEO Aidan Larkin moderated several sessions for GIZ’s Asset Management Forum.  At these sessions, the panelists discussed the international standards of solid asset management and disposal, the legal framework, set-up and operational processes of an asset management office, and the disposal of assets with a particular focus on the social re-use cases. In line with our miss...

  Earlier this week, a federal district court in San Diego ordered more than $17 million dollars in restitution to be distributed amongst the victims of the infamous Bitconnect investment scheme.  Approximately 800 victims from more than 40 countries around the world will be awarded compensation for their losses in the most significant single recovery of cryptocurrency for victims to date. The Bitconnect Pyramid Believed to be the largest cryptocurrency fraud ever criminally charged, the Bitconnect Ponzi scheme defrauded thousands of investors out of $3.4 billion dollars in total. The platform’s director and promoter, Glenn Arcaro pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on Sept 16th 2021. As a part of his plea deal, he admitted the intent to exploit their investor's interest in cryptocurrency by fraudulently marketing Bitconnect’s initial coin offering (ICO) and digital currency exchange as a lucrative investment with guaranteed returns through the use of social medi...