Seized Asset Management: Why Asset Recovery Needs an Operating System
Asset Reality’s Chief Strategy Officer, Hugo Hoyland, explains how everyone is talking about "seizure" in asset recovery, but most tools don't actually seize anything. Here's why Seized Asset Management needs its own category, and how Asset Reality is building the operating system to support it.
Why Is Everyone Talking About “Seizure”?
There are a few reasons why you might see the term “seizure” get thrown around more and more:
- FATF’s renewed focus on asset recovery (R4 and R38) has made seizure a key performance metric. Countries are under pressure to show results – and fast. That means more tools are being marketed as “seizure tools”, whether or not they actually help seize anything.
- Budget pressures are real. Agencies have invested heavily in analytics and forensics. Now they’re asking: What’s the impact? We've identified assets, but how do we actually recover them?
- Reputation management (whitewashing) also plays a part. It's no secret that some custodians with regulatory baggage are now positioning themselves as seizure-friendly to clean up their image (“ignore our regulatory fines for money laundering – we now help law enforcement custody seized assets”).
What Seizure Really Means
Seizure isn’t just identifying an asset. It’s the legal and practical act of taking control of it – physically or digitally – to prevent dissipation, protect third-party interests, and prepare it for forfeiture or compensation.
But here’s the catch: seizing is just the beginning. If you don’t maintain chain of custody or manage the asset properly, you can’t realise its value or return it to victims or governments. That’s why we coined the term Seized Asset Management – a new category focused on the secure seizure and efficient management of all assets.
Common Misconceptions: “You’re Like X, Right?”
We often get compared to other companies/tools. Here’s why those comparisons don’t hold up:
- Blockchain analytics tools help you identify, trace, attribute, and cluster assets, and some even help you run countless derivation paths to go from seed phrases to public addresses. Great intelligence – but they don’t seize.
- Digital forensics tools extract crypto identifiers and fragments of control from devices for further analysis. Useful, but they don’t transfer control (i.e., seize).
- Custodians may offer storage, but they lack the coverage, speed, or regulatory clarity to effectively support law enforcement. And they certainly won’t prioritise your asset recovery needs above all else.
- Hardware wallets offer self-custody, but lack governance, auditability, and security for scalable operations.
- Custody tech providers require deep integration and ongoing infrastructure management – something even banks struggle with.
- Investment advisers often can’t custody the assets themselves, but they’ve seen the billions being seized and want to “actively manage” those portfolios to get a cut.
- Treasury and reporting tools help track popular assets, but don't have the coverage to support the sheer diversity of seized assets.
- Exchanges and OTC desks are great for liquidations, but we all know there’s months (years often) of hard work before you get there.
What We’ve Learned
After five years supporting law enforcement with their most sensitive seizure needs, one thing is clear: no single solution exists that’s purpose-built for end-to-end asset recovery.
Even the most advanced agencies have had to cobble together multiple tools and capabilities to build a seizure programme, and some are being criticised for not leveraging technology that simply didn't exist yet.
What Makes Asset Reality Different?
Think of the seized asset lifecycle as:
Find → Seize → Store (Custody) → Manage → Sell/Return
We’ve built the first Operating System that supports this entire journey (our Platform). For others, asset recovery is a side business. For us, it’s the mission.
We rely on partners of course (like tradias who ensure the victims our clients support always get the best price!) but we’ve carefully chosen them because they understand the mission. They understand what’s at stake.
The Bottom Line
If you’re evaluating a seized asset management solution, ask one simple question:
“Do you support all assets?”
Because true asset recovery means seizing and managing digital assets alongside cars, boats, planes, art, and more – all in one secure environment.
From boats to bitcoin, Monets to meme coins, and private jets to privacy coins, we’ve got you covered.
✅ Want to learn more or collaborate? Let’s talk.
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