Overview
Cross-border fraud connected to Latin America frequently runs through the United States. Stolen funds move through U.S. bank accounts, perpetrators acquire U.S. real estate and assets, and victims in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and across the region find that the most effective path to recovery runs through a U.S. court. Fridman Fels & Soto represents those victims, and defends parties accused of fraud, in U.S. federal court and in arbitration.
The firm's edge in this work is the combination of trial-grade litigation and genuine cross-border capability. The partners are former federal prosecutors who know how to reconstruct a scheme, trace money, and present complex financial evidence to a U.S. fact-finder, and they conduct the work in Spanish and Portuguese without interpreters, in coordination with leading local counsel across the region. That means the U.S. case is built on a firsthand understanding of what happened abroad.
The firm has recovered for Argentine fraud victims through civil RICO claims and Section 1782 discovery, including obtaining discovery from U.S. banks to support criminal proceedings in Argentina, and has pursued a defrauded inheritance across multiple forums simultaneously. It has also represented Latin American companies as plaintiffs in cross-border commercial fraud disputes. The toolkit spans civil RICO, fraud and fiduciary-duty claims, FINRA and AAA arbitration, asset tracing, and emergency relief.
Our Approach
We start by finding the money. Asset tracing through corporate and banking structures drives everything else: which jurisdictions are in play, which claims are available, and whether to involve law enforcement. Where assets have passed through U.S. accounts, an early, targeted Section 1782 petition for bank records is often the fastest way to lock down the evidence before an account is emptied.
We select the forum and the claims to fit the fraud. Civil RICO offers treble damages and reaches patterns of wire fraud and money laundering common in these schemes. FINRA and AAA arbitration are the right forums where the loss runs through financial institutions or advisers. We frequently pursue more than one forum at once, as in a matter recovering a defrauded inheritance across FINRA, AAA, and Miami civil litigation simultaneously.
We coordinate with the foreign side. Many of these frauds are also under criminal investigation abroad, and the U.S. civil case and the foreign criminal proceeding can reinforce each other. We work with local counsel in the source country so the two tracks are aligned rather than working at cross purposes.
