Angela Barkhouse
Managing Director
Angela Barkhouse
Managing Director
Cross-border Asset Recovery
- M: +1 (345) 326 1790
- E: angela.barkhouse@quantuma.com
Complex situations spanning multiple jurisdictions require a thorough understanding of all the legal, commercial, and other challenges involved, to determine the best outcome. They also require in-depth experience, local knowledge, and technical precision. And that’s what we provide.
Our team of professionals operate seamlessly across borders, advising on a comprehensive set of advisory services including:
The team are based throughout the UK and in offshore financial centres, including the Cayman Islands, Mauritius, and Cyprus.
Our global teams
Working globally, we recognise the importance of language skills. As well as English, members of our team speak French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Romanian, Cantonese, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Hindi, and Igbo, and regularly assist with translations and negotiations.
An appointment over a group of companies that are subject to significant UK litigation in relation to a dispute as to ownership, to realise group subsidiary assets. We managed the sale of a European retail packaging business to a UK FTSE 100 organisation, primarily based in Germany and France.
Our team has managed a number of formal insolvency appointments on development properties and commercial property with trading businesses, and one involving creditors of over €4 billion with simultaneous complex litigation for the recovery of funds in three different jurisdictions.
We have received a number of appointments with respect to liquidation, receivership and bankruptcy. These include: complex multi-jurisdictional liquidation and bankruptcy proceedings; a fraud and forensic investigation; receivership of Orphanides Plc, Cyrpus’ largest supermarket chain; receivership of FBME Limited, a Cypriot Bank where an in-depth investigation of the company’s affairs was undertaken; and a liquidation of a Luxembourg-based holding/finance company for a Greek Telecom operating company, whereby the centre of main interests were relocated to the UK from Luxembourg with claims circa €1.2billion.
In addition, our team has had significant exposure to the US Bankruptcy Code and US assets. We have also provided restructuring advice to a multinational company listed on the New York Stock Exchange leading to formal appointments over various subsidiaries.
The team have been appointed to a number of complex and challenging investigations, including investigating and assisting in the resolution of claims in relation to a significant €70 million 'black hole’ in the accounts of a European-based cash-in-transit business that arose at the time of the Euro changeover. We investigated a claim for shortfalls totalling $40 million in amounts of coffee held in Africa as collateral for a bank loan, and provided expert accountancy advice to the Icelandic Special Prosecutor’s team in the investigation of the collapse of Iceland’s largest bank, Kaupthing h.f.
We also acted for members of a Middle Eastern family to identify the extent to which monies had been misappropriated from family businesses by another family member, and were instructed on behalf of a global distribution company to undertake an investigation of a fraud committed by an employee in Azerbaijan.
We have acted as investigator in a private criminal prosecution which required tracing tens of millions of pounds across various jurisdictions. We investigated VAT carousel fraud and recovered assets in UK, USA, Bulgaria, Spain, Turkey and Taiwan. We also investigated tax schemes sold to US banks to generate tax losses. We provided the US Department of Justice with an expert witness who challenged the legitimacy of the accounting treatments that underpinned the schemes.
We are members of PrimeGlobal, an award-winning association of independent accounting and business advisory firms, comprised of more than 300 highly successful member firms in over 100 countries. Find out more here.