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Fraudulent platforms
The platform vanished along with your money. Our job is to find the proceedings against the operators and file your claim in time
Promises of steady returns, a "personal adviser" pushing you to deposit more, a website that one day simply stops loading — behind that façade sits a call centre. Many such networks are already the subject of criminal proceedings or of investigations by the supervisory authorities that the victims are simply unaware of. We do not promise to recover everything: the goal is to bring you into the proceedings in good time as an injured person and civil party, and to obtain what is realistically recoverable. The outcome cannot be guaranteed: a lawyer owes an obligation of means, not of result.
Call centresCivil partyInsolvency proceedingsProp trading
Milan Bar AssociationSpecialist lawyer in banking and financial markets lawPractice before CONSOB, the FCA, and CySECNetwork of correspondent lawyers in Germany, the UK, and CyprusBanking and financial markets law committeeItalian National Bar CouncilAdvisor to consumer associations in MilanThird-party litigation fundingProfessional liability insurance: cover up to €10 million
Areas of work
Where exactly we help
The route to recovering your money depends on who is pursuing those responsible: the supervisory authorities, the Public Prosecutor's Office, or the officer appointed in the insolvency proceedings opened against them. These are the most common scenarios.
Fraudulent trading platforms run through call centres
Cases against networks of bogus trading brands: assembling evidence of advertising that trades on the image of well-known public figures and of the pressure applied by so-called "dedicated advisers", identifying the criminal proceedings already pending against the people behind the platform, and assisting you in joining those proceedings as a civil party.
Joining the criminal proceedings as a civil party
In Italy there is no automatic procedure that shares confiscated assets out among the victims: the route to compensation runs through joining, as a civil party, the criminal proceedings against those responsible. Where the evidence does not allow the whole loss to be quantified, the court issues a general finding of liability and refers the parties to the civil judge; on the civil party's application it may, however, award an immediately enforceable interim payment for the part of the loss already proven (artt. 539 and 540 c.p.p.).
Insolvency proceedings against the person responsible
When there is a conviction but no money: we pursue your claim in the insolvency proceedings opened against the director or the beneficial owner of the scheme, so that you share in the distribution alongside the other creditors. The deadlines in those proceedings run on their own timetable and do not coincide with those of the criminal case.
Frozen payouts at prop-trading firms
A prop-trading firm enters this practice area when investigations by the supervisory authorities reveal signs of a fraudulent scheme in its business model and payouts to traders are frozen. We document the confirmed balance of your account and pursue the claim through to the resumption of payouts or the matter moving into insolvency proceedings.
How we work
How a typical case unfolds
Whether it is a criminal case or insolvency proceedings, we follow the same step-by-step approach.
Locating the proceedings
We establish which Public Prosecutor's Office or which authority — in Italy or abroad — is already investigating the people behind your platform, what stage the proceedings have reached and, crucially, whether any concrete assets have been seized in them.
Checking eligibility and evidence
We assess whether you qualify as an injured person and whether you can join the proceedings as a civil party, and we build the evidential record: proof of payment, correspondence with the "adviser", screenshots of your client area, and the advertising through which you were first approached.
Filing within the deadline
We prepare and file the documents with the Public Prosecutor's Office, the court or the insolvency proceedings. Some deadlines are extremely short: a querela — the victim's own criminal complaint, without which some offences cannot be prosecuted at all — must be lodged within three months of the day you learned of the facts (art. 124 c.p.), and in online fraud that day is usually the day of the first refused or blocked withdrawal, not the day the platform disappears. If that deadline has already run out, the route is not closed: for offences prosecuted of the authorities' own motion, such as money laundering (art. 648-bis c.p.), a denuncia is enough (art. 333 c.p.p.), and anyone who has knowledge of the facts may file one. In insolvency proceedings the deadlines run in any event, even where the notice to creditors required by art. 200 CCII never arrives: anyone who does not appear in the debtor's books has to follow the procedure themselves.
Seeing it through to distribution
Actual recovery almost always comes only after the proceedings have been concluded, and that can take years. We follow the case throughout that time, keep you informed of every material development, and make sure your position is not left out of the distributions. Where the conditions are met, we apply for a protective seizure of the defendant's assets to secure the damages claim (art. 316 c.p.p.): that is possible only after the prosecution has been formally commenced, and only for someone who has already joined as a civil party.
From our practice
Where the money really is after a platform collapses
By the time clients come to us, the money deposited on the platform is usually already gone — so we look for proceedings in which concrete assets of those responsible have already been seized. One foreign case, by now a matter of public record, shows the order of magnitude:
Milton Group · Bamberg Regional Court (Germany)The chief operator of a network of bogus trading brands (Fibonetix, Trade Capital, Nobel Trade, Huludox, Forbslab) was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months' imprisonment. The court ordered the confiscation of more than €3.5 million — against documented losses of at least €27 million and 399 victims in Germany alone. That gap between the losses and the sum confiscated is the answer to why recovery is almost always only partial.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about fraudulent platforms
Almost certainly not. These funds step in only where an authorised firm that belongs to the fund goes into liquidation or another insolvency procedure and the client's claim is recognised in that procedure: an unlicensed fraudulent platform falls under none of them. The route here is a different one — it runs through recognition as an injured person and joining the criminal proceedings against those responsible as a civil party, or taking part in the insolvency proceedings as a creditor.
No. This is the standard next stage of the same scheme: the moment a victim tries to take their money out, invented "taxes", "verification fees" or "withdrawal-release charges" appear. Stop making any payments and preserve all correspondence — it is evidence for the future proceedings.
Nothing. The first 30 minutes are free and are used to realistically assess your situation and your chances.
Usually within 12 hours on business days — faster in urgent cases.
Yes, by phone or video call — an in-person meeting at our Milan office is also possible.
The fee is agreed in writing before any work begins: fees are freely negotiated under Italian law (art. 13(2)-(3), Law 247/2012) and the written estimate itemises charges, expenses and fee separately. On top of the base fee, a palmario may be agreed: an additional amount equal to 10% of the value of the matter, fixed when the engagement is signed and payable only if the outcome is favourable. The amount is therefore known from the outset and does not vary with how much is actually recovered — agreeing a percentage of the value of the matter is expressly permitted (art. 13(3)), whereas agreeing a fee consisting of a share of what is recovered is prohibited (art. 13(4)). State-funded legal aid is also available. Full details are on our fees page.
Yes. Our practice covers clients across Europe: we correspond with CONSOB, Banca d'Italia and IVASS — each within its own remit — as well as with foreign regulators such as CySEC, the FCA and BaFin, whatever country the client lives in, and we bring claims before the Italian courts against foreign brokers where EU consumer-protection law allows it. Where proceedings require representation before the courts of another country, we coordinate with vetted local lawyers.
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