UK law enforcement is failing to use the tools at its disposal, argue Ashley Fairbrother & Rhys Evans
In the last decade, Tether’s ‘burn‑and‑remint’ mechanism has quietly become one of the most powerful asset recovery tools available to law enforcement agencies worldwide. By freezing illicit USDT, burning the tainted tokens and reminting clean equivalents to an authorised government wallet, Tether has enabled the rapid preservation and repatriation of millions in stolen cryptoassets in fraud, romance scams, hacking and money-laundering investigations (see ‘Burn-and-remint: a new tool in cryptoasset recovery?’ 175 NLJ 8099, pp17-18).
US law enforcement agencies now deploy this tool with speed, confidence and technical precision. The UK, however, does not.
This article sets out how, in collaboration with US authorities, Edmonds Marshall McMahon (EMM) secured the first successful burn‑and‑remint recovery into the hands of a UK-represented victim, and how this was achieved without any assistance, regrettably, from UK law enforcement, despite clear statutory powers introduced by Parliament expressly to enable such interventions.
The consequence is stark: tens, possibly hundreds, of millions of pounds
