UK SFO returns over £400,000 to 9 victims of a 2001–02 global email advance-fee  fraud, using a groundbreaking civil recovery approach that repays stolen funds directly rather than to the Treasury

UK SFO has announced that it has successfully recovered and will return more than £400,000 to nine individuals defrauded by an international email scam nearly 24 years after the offence, despite no conviction having been secured. It used civil recovery and worked with multiple international partners—such as the Australian Federal Police, Belgian and French authorities, and the FBI—to locate victims and secure consent, representing a significant development in returning proceeds of crime directly to victims rather than to the Treasury…