Cryptocurrency & investment fraud
Fake trading platforms, fabricated portfolios, staged withdrawals and long-running investment schemes built to look legitimate until the money is gone.
Digital Asset Fraud & Recovery
Legal clarity after financial fraud.
AUREVA Legal provides focused guidance for people affected by cryptocurrency fraud, investment scams and complex digital-asset schemes. Every matter is reviewed individually, and no outcome can be guaranteed.
Our Focus
A single field of work
AUREVA Legal is an independent international legal brand working on one thing: the aftermath of cryptocurrency, investment and digital-asset fraud. We help people understand what happened, secure what can still be secured, and see which lawful options remain open to them.
Impersonation & recovery scams
Criminals posing as institutions, advisers, exchange staff or investigators — including those who target people a second time with promises of recovery.
Evidence, tracing & reporting
Preserving messages, transaction records and platform data while it still exists, and identifying the reporting channels that apply to the situation.
Context
The scale of digital-asset fraud
What began as isolated scams has become an organised international industry. The figures below come from published reporting by public authorities — they are context for the problem, not a statement about any individual case.
$6.5 Billion
Investment-fraud losses reported to the FBI’s IC3 in 2024
100,000+
People the UN estimates are held in scam compounds in Cambodia alone
Know the pattern
How the scams work
Most matters we see follow one of four patterns. Recognising the pattern early makes it easier to preserve the right evidence and to understand what can be done next.
Long-term investment scams
Months of trust-building before a fabricated platform absorbs everything.
Request review →Impersonation
Criminals borrowing the name of a bank, an exchange, an adviser or an authority.
Request review →Employment & task scams
A job or a “task platform” that quietly turns into a series of deposits.
Request review →Recovery scams
Operators who target people who have already lost money, and take the rest.
Request review →The criminal enterprise
The networks behind the scams
Understanding how these operations are organised explains why the money moves the way it does — and why the response has to be international. The timeline below is drawn from public reporting.
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The beginning
Long-term investment scams (“sha zhu pan”) emerge in China, first targeting users of dating apps. Operators build a relationship before introducing a fraudulent crypto investment.
The migration
As Chinese authorities move against them, the operations relocate to Southeast Asia. Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos become hubs for organised scam syndicates.
Pandemic acceleration
COVID-19 accelerates the pattern. Isolated people turn to online contact, and that becomes fertile ground for relationship-led fraud.
The compounds
Scam compounds proliferate in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Trafficked workers are forced to run scams under threat of violence, some compounds holding thousands of people.
$2.57 billion reported
The FBI reports cryptocurrency investment fraud of $2.57 billion — a 183% increase on 2021. The long-term investment scam becomes the dominant method.
100,000+ trafficked
The UN estimates 100,000–150,000 people are held in Cambodian scam compounds alone. Reported annual losses reach $4 billion, and the issue becomes international news.
$6.5 billion reported
Investment-fraud losses reported to the FBI reach $6.5 billion. Older victims report average losses of about $83,000 each — a 43% increase.
The response
The US Department of Justice seizes $15 billion connected to Prince Group’s Chen Zhi, the largest crypto forfeiture on record. Myanmar raids KK Park, detaining more than 2,000 people.
Wan Kuok-koi
“Broken Tooth”
Former leader of Macau’s 14K Triad. After serving 14 years in prison he expanded into Southeast Asia, and has been publicly linked to compound networks through the Dongmei Group.
Chen Zhi
Prince Group chairman
Chairman of Cambodia’s Prince Holding Group, indicted by the US Department of Justice in connection with forced-labour scam compounds.
The review
How a case review works
A review is an assessment, not a promise. Its purpose is to establish what happened, what can still be documented, and whether there is a realistic lawful route worth pursuing.
You get in touch
Send a short summary through the contact form or by email. Nothing is charged and no relationship is created at this point.
Confidential review
We read the account, ask about dates, platforms, wallet addresses and transfers, and tell you what to preserve immediately.
An honest assessment
You receive a plain-language view of the options that apply, the reporting channels involved, and the limits of each route.
You decide
If there is nothing worth pursuing, we say so. If there is, the scope, the steps and the costs are set out in writing before anything begins.
Possible routes
Legal options that may apply
Depending on the facts, one or more of the routes below may be available. None of them is automatic, none is guaranteed, and several depend on decisions taken by courts or public authorities rather than by us.
Civil claims against the operators
Where the people or entities behind a scheme can be identified and reached.
Request review →Victim remission & compensation
Claims against assets seized in public proceedings, where such a process exists.
Request review →Reporting to the right authority
Identifying the appropriate reporting channels and preparing a usable report.
Request review →Claims against facilitators
Where an intermediary’s own duties may have been breached along the way.
Request review →How we work
Careful, written, and honest about limits
Fraud matters attract people who promise a great deal and deliver nothing. The way we work is designed to be checkable.
- Every matter reviewed individually
- No template answers. What is possible depends on dates, jurisdictions, counterparties and what evidence still exists.
- Scope and costs in writing
- Before any work starts, you receive the scope, the intended steps and the costs in writing.
- No payment in cryptocurrency
- We do not accept cryptocurrency as payment at any stage. If someone claiming to be us asks you to send crypto, it is not us.
AUREVA Legal is a standalone brand working across borders on digital-asset fraud. Company registration and professional-registration details are being finalised and will be published on this site in full — we would rather show nothing than show something you cannot check.
Start a confidential review →We will not promise recovery, quote a success rate, claim a partnership with any police service or government body, or suggest that we can reach frozen funds directly. Those claims are the signature of recovery fraud, and any firm making them should be avoided.
Read the questions we get asked →Questions
Frequently asked
Sometimes, and often not. It depends on where the funds went, how quickly the loss was reported, and whether anything was frozen or seized by an authority. No honest lawyer can guarantee a result — anyone who does is running a recovery scam.
No — not at any stage. If someone claiming to represent AUREVA Legal asks you to send cryptocurrency, it is not us, and you should stop and report it.
Ask for the name of the lawyer who would handle the matter and the register they are admitted to, then look them up in that register directly rather than through a link they send you. Insist on speaking with them, not with a salesperson.
An operation that targets people who have already been defrauded, promising to retrieve their money for an upfront fee. It takes the remainder. Legitimate counsel will never demand cryptocurrency in advance or guarantee a recovery.
Stop all contact with the other side and send nothing further. Preserve every message, screenshot, transaction hash, wallet address and platform record — export it, do not rely on the app keeping it. Then report the loss through the channel that applies where you live, and speak to a lawyer about the options.
The initial review of your situation is free. If we do not believe there is a realistic route, we will tell you that rather than open a file. Any work beyond the review is quoted in writing first.
This site is published in English and Spanish, and enquiries are accepted in both. Whether a specific matter can be taken on depends on where the parties, the platforms and the assets are — that is one of the first things a review establishes.
Start here
Tell us what happened.
Send a short summary of the situation. You will get a considered answer about what can realistically be attempted — including if the answer is that nothing can.
Request a Case Review
Contact details
Submitting information through this website does not create a lawyer-client relationship.