Case studies

Illicit Online Marketplace

An FRA Director led an investigation into a nefarious online marketplace, applying complex data analysis resulting in the arrest of numerous cybercriminals selling illicit goods and services.

Challenge

An FRA Director, while a Special Agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), led an investigation into a nefarious online marketplace. The marketplace utilized multiple vendors to acquire and sell the illicit goods and services that were sold and had a customer base that spanned the globe.

Action

The FRA Director identified conversations between the marketplace administrator and vendors in unstructured data sets. Analysis of these conversations revealed when and how the administrator was paying the vendors in bitcoin, as well as identifiers for the administrator’s cryptocurrency wallet addresses. The FRA Director then conducted blockchain analysis on the administrator’s wallet addresses and identified outbound payments that aligned with the conversations between the administrator and vendors, revealing the wallet addresses for the vendors.

Result

By combining the unstructured data sets, open-source intelligence, and blockchain analysis, the FRA Director followed the flow of funds from cryptocurrency to fiat currency to the true identifiers of the vendors. This led to the arrest of numerous cyber criminals selling illicit goods and services online.

Related contacts

Meredith Fitzpatrick

Director, Cryptocurrency Investigations

,

Washington DC

Related expertise

Data & Technology

eDiscovery, eDisclosure and Digital Forensics

Forensic Data Analytics

Forensic Accounting

Forensic Technology

view more Case studies

Explore our work

RTX Resolves Corruption Allegations

FRA supported RTX and counsel in FCPA related fine calculations.

Gunvor SA

The Geneva-based independent commodities trading house has agreed to pay more than $660mn to resolve corruption investigations by Swiss and US authorities. Gunvor engaged two teams of FRA experts to test and evaluate its compliance program, and to support the fine calculation as part of negotiations with the DOJ.

Revolution Beauty

FRA performed a targeted investigation of the highlighted concerns and reported its findings to the newly appointed investigation Committee.

SAP

SAP enters settlement with US and South African authorities.

Entain

FRA supports Entain's £585 million groundbreaking settlement with Crown Prosecution Service.

Pro Bono Anti-Fraud Training for the IFRC

Members of our forensic accounting and data analytics teams delivered quarterly virtual training sessions for staff in relevant roles across the 192 National Societies of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

ABB

In December 2022, the Switzerland-based multinational technology company reached a “full and final settlement” of $327 million with several national authorities. A multi-disciplinary, international team of FRA specialists supported the company through their cooperation with the authorities over more than three years, from investigation to settlement to compliance remediation.

Petrofac

FRA was engaged by Petrofac and its external counsel to support the company’s plea discussions with the SFO, which had been investigating the company for several years in relation to bribery allegations contrary to the UK Bribery Act.

Airbus

FRA advised Airbus and its counsel from the early stages in designing a robust and forensically based approach to the investigation, customising a data governance strategy alongside compliance risk assessment and remediation support, as well as the eventual fine calculation.

NFT Marketplace Controls

As Head of Regulatory Affairs at a well-known gaming company, an FRA partner led the development of AML and Fraud controls to protect the company's Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Marketplace.

High Court Claim related to Oil & Gas Services Company

Our client was defending a multi-billion dollar High Court claim in relation to alleged breaches of a long-term logistics contract. FRA was engaged to provide expert witness support and evidence in relation to the calculation of potential damages associated with loss of profits.

International Arbitration Related to Commodity Trading

FRA was approached by the plaintiff in a $1.5bn claim in an international commercial arbitration to provide expert reports and witness testimony that proved in the arbitration finding for the plaintiff.

APT Group Cryptocurrency Money Laundering

Reacting to cyber attacks by an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group on critical US infrastructure, an FRA Director conducted thorough and sophisticated cryptocurrency asset tracing to identify and disrupt the group's activities.

European Bank

A European bank approached FRA to perform an initial evaluation of its exposure related to customers allegedly involved in money laundering activities. This was of concern to the client given the potential regulatory, financial and reputational implications for the bank.

Nordic Telecommunications Company

FRA was instructed by Telia Company (market cap: over $17 billion) and its counsel in the UK, US, the Nordics and Holland to provide forensic accounting and eDiscovery consulting services in the investigation of the Scandinavian telecoms company.

Cryptocurrency Terrorism Financing

An FRA expert provided critical support to the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, in connection with a multi-agency task force uncovering cryptocurrency terrorist financing. Their efforts led to the most significant US seizure of cryptocurrency to date.

Expert Witness to the Quebec Superior Court

FRA provided pro-bono support to a Canadian individual who brought a case to the Quebec Superior Court to challenge the Canadian Criminal Code law that allows police officers to make traffic stops without suspecting any offence being committed.

Cryptocurrency Exchange Collapse Due to Fraud

FRA was retained by external Counsel to represent multiple clients under investigation by the Southern District of New York (SDNY) in connection with the downfall of a prominent cryptocurrency exchange.

Responding to a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR)

FRA supported a client's response to an ex-employee's Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) with a limited time period to respond. FRA applied a DSAR solution to gain a holistic view of more than 900,000 documents, eliminate redundancies; redact confidential information, and deliver a complete and structured response.

International Not-for-Profit Organization

FRA was approached to provide pro bono support to a not-for-profit organization that had identified potential anomalies in its accounting and banking records.

Middle-East Telecommunications Company

FRA was retained to support one of the world’s largest mobile telecommunications companies in an internal investigation which required an eDiscovery review in the context of alleged compliance violations.

Multinational Oil and Gas Extraction Company

FRA was retained by counsel to assist a client performing a due diligence exercise in connection with purchasing an oil and gas producer in West Africa.

Cryptocurrency Exchange FCC Review

FRA assisted a major cryptocurrency organization to address the financial crime regulator's concerns about their Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) and Sanctions compliance.

International Event and Talent Management Company

An employee of an international talent agency left the company and took with them several high-profile clients to a direct competitor.

Cryptocurrency Exchange Collusion

When a new cryptocurrency experienced sudden delisting from multiple exchanges, their Counsel urgently engaged an FRA partner to help investigate potential antitrust or collusive behavior.

Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce plc, the UK-based manufacturer and distributor of power systems for the aerospace, defense, marine and energy sectors, was under investigation by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Brazilian authorities in relation to an alleged long-running scheme to bribe government

Bank Leumi

FRA was engaged to support the monitorship of an Israeli bank and its subsidiaries, who between 2000 and 2011 were found to have wilfully assisted US clients in opening and maintaining undeclared accounts in a foreign country, and concealing offshore assets and income from authorities.

Sanctions and the Russia-Ukraine War

An FRA expert was responsible for monitoring and investigating cryptocurrency sanctions exposure originating from the Russia-Ukraine war to protect customers from sanctions violations.

Multinational Insurance Firm

FRA was retained by a major European-headquartered insurer (market cap: over $60 billion) involved in a legal dispute with a US client. The US-based litigation required a potentially wide-ranging and costly eDiscovery exercise.

Multinational Transport Engineering Company

FRA was retained by US counsel to Alstom (market cap: over $10 billion) to assist with defending a US securities class action suit. The case involved allegations around export credit financing of a division that Alstom had sold to a third party.

Class-action Lawsuit challenging Solitary Confinement in US Prisons

FRA was approached by our client, White & Case, to provide pro bono support to the ACLU in their federal class-action lawsuit seeking to end solitary confinement in two Virginia prisons.

Holocaust Restitution Claims Administration

FRA was retained separately by Swiss and German authorities to build claims administration systems for hundreds of thousands of holocaust survivors, facilitating the disbursement of hundreds of millions of dollars over five years. These were among firm's first engagements after our founding at the turn of the century.

UN Oil for Food Program

As part of a UN investigation into possible corruption in the Iraqi Oil-for-Food program, FRA carried out a forensic accounting review and eDiscovery exercise.

Technip

Following the imposition of a monitor in a joint resolution by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Technip retained FRA to review the company’s anti-bribery measures and export control compliance program, provide forensic accounting and eDiscovery services and train the client’s internal audit staff to autonomously conduct future internal reviews.

Related Experts