Raedas have 30+ years’ experience conducting complex investigations across Russia and the CIS with a long track-record in supporting clients in the region. Led by co-founder Andrew Wordsworth and supported by a team of fluent Russian speakers, the team have been engaged in many of the last decade’s most prominent disputes connected to the Former Soviet Union.
Working with an ever-expanding network of well-placed sources in the region, we are experts at gathering evidence to be submitted in foreign courts.
Our success in the region is grounded in our detailed and nuanced insights into the inner workings of the states of the Former Soviet Union. Many of the disputes we support originate to some extent in these states, and we regularly incorporate on-the-ground research in these jurisdictions into our investigations. This regular contact feeds our investigative capabilities, and we use this to drive our clients’ investigative and legal strategy.
“Raedas are one of the best” says one lawyer “Andrew is excellent for Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan matters ”- Chambers UK, Litigation Support: Business Intelligence & Investigations.
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
Engaged to gather evidence of a suspected expropriation of a company’s assets in a Caucasus country by the state. Our mandate included investigating expert witnesses and converting our findings into admissible evidence that could be used to discredit those witnesses and their testimonies. We identified a series of inaccuracies and omissions in their testimonies drawn from public record enquiries and human intelligence gathered from source enquiries on the ground in the country. Using sophisticated investigative tools, we evidenced links between government officials and opposition groups hostile to our client’s assets.
Engaged by a Russian bank to identify assets belonging to a Russian debtor. We quickly discovered that the debtor, previously resident in Russia, had since fled to the UK and subsequently Malta, using various structures to protect his assets along the way. With our knowledge of the typical asset protection strategies employed by Russian businesses both inside and outside Russia, we focused our public record research and human source enquiries on Cyprus, the BVI and Panama alongside the UK and Malta. In doing so, we were able to identify unencumbered assets beneficially owned by the debtor above and beyond the value of the debt.
Engaged by UK lawyers looking to enforce a multi-million-dollar arbitral award against a Eurasian conglomerate with close ties to senior members of the government. We were instructed to identify assets owned by the company outside of the specific region and in enforcement-friendly jurisdictions. We worked with the client to develop a veil-piercing strategy arguing that assets owned by the company’s UBOs should be considered attachable for the purposes of enforcing the award.
Engaged to conduct a reverse due diligence exercise on a former country official facing politically motivated corruption allegations. We conducted discreet source enquiries with senior government officials inside the central Asian country and Russia surrounding the official’s departure from government and the embezzlement charges against him.
Bought on to investigate an illicit scheme at a major European bank that had resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for a group of investors from Russia and the CIS. We were tasked with mapping out figures at the bank who were likely involved in the scheme and to identify failings in the bank’s internal compliance and control procedures that would demonstrate the bank’s liability for the losses. We discovered multiple instances of wrongdoing and negligence on behalf of senior managers at the bank and identified a whistle-blower with a dossier of evidence on the scheme and the bank’s complicity in it.
Working for a litigation funder on behalf of a Russian commercial entity, we were engaged to conduct an initial assessment of a Russian debtor’s asset position outside Russia to ascertain the viability of pursuing the debtor in court. Having successfully identified unencumbered, enforceable assets, we supported the client in making Norwich Pharmacal Order requests and ultimately provided the client with the documentary evidence required to freeze and subsequently seize the assets.
