DO YOUR RESEARCH. BE INFORMED. BE LOGICAL.BE RATIONAL.ACT FAST.
CRYPTO RECOVERY - BEWARE OPTIMISTIC LAWYERS who don't understand digital assets or the extent of organised cryptocurrency crime.
Law enforcement will do everything they can to recover the QUANTITY OF THE DIGITAL ASSET, not the value of the digital asset at the time of loss.
If you think the courts are a hedge fund, through which you can retrospectively stake a claim to gain compensation at a past high valuation, think again.
When we go after cryptocurrency recovery, we are registering the quantity of loss of an asset, not a past valuation of an unstable, volatile digital asset.
Police can only seek to return what is stolen.
You can not convert your anger to value.
If the case is not contested by the criminal, the lawyer might get lucky. But in most modern cases the criminals are well funded, incredibly well organised and will brazenly and aggressively defend their new found wealth.
Crypto criminals are smart, they are organised and they will kick your arse six ways to Sunday. You won't see them coming.
I have a growing number of "mule" or "accessory to the fact" cases where the criminal has cunningly crafted a financial narrative and forensic trail that positions the victim as being the criminal.
In a growing number of cases, criminals have managed to involve the victims in criminal activities, and victims are going to jail.
True story.
In many cases, the same crew that stole the cryptocurrency, then pose as a hacking outfit that extorts the victim two more times. Once with an up front hacking fee, then again to release fake funds that are never seen.
The worst thing that you can have is an 'optimistic' lawyer, who thinks they can leverage the better nature of the criminal to return the asset.
"The criminal might give it back."
Wow, what a cool world that lawyer lives in.
A real world delusional perspective peddled by an Australian lawyer to someone who has lost their life savings.
If you make a case for reclaiming the dollar value of the cryptocurrency at the time of loss, that isn't going to work.
Imagine you lost 10 bars of gold.
You register the loss of ten bars of gold.
That would be $8.8 million at todays price.
Then let's say gold goes down to $66k per 1kg bar by the time of your court action.
You are claiming a specific quantity of the lost gold, and not asking the defendant, or the court, to hedge the valuation.
If the price of gold has gone down, you wear the differential.
As with crypto.
Police can recover the item, they can't recover the price.
A lawyer can afford blind optimism, because they get paid by the hour. Lawyers can string the client along, then can blame the court.
DO YOUR RESEARCH
BECOME INFORMED.
BECOME LOGICAL.
BE RATIONAL.
ACT FAST.
The longer you give the criminal, the more complexity they can add to the trail. Don't wait to come to an investigator months down the track, contact the investigator IMMEDIATELY.