RFS Expertise & Practice Areas

Settlement Administrations

RFS has administered more than $8 billion settlement funds on behalf of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the United States Department of Justice. These administrations include some of the largest settlements in their history, including the two largest DOJ forfeiture funds ever created. After completion of all current cases, we will have distributed more than $8 billion on behalf of the SEC or DOJ to more than 1.6 million victims of fraud. In every one of these cases, we were responsible for drafting the distribution plan, establishing claim and eligibility criteria, reviewing claims and related damage calculations, establishing documentation requirements and creating processes for notification of determinations and review of appeals or reconsiderations.

RFS has created distribution plans in SEC and DOJ cases ranging from very simple to extremely complex. Our extensive experience lets us tailor plans to accommodate complex damage calculation factors, problems with investor records or other unique factors identified by RFS.

Fund Management and Distribution Services

RFS has executed the distribution of nearly $8.5 billion dollars to fraud victims. We incorporate extensive audit and internal control policies and procedures into the distribution process in all of our cases, including numerous levels of physical and IT security. RFS has systems and procedures in place to handle a distribution of assets to thousands of victims, maintaining real time controls on the status of every check, ACH or other form of payment.
We have also issued payments in our cases to victims in their native currencies, allowing them to avoid significant fees and other charges. We have also been working to develop certain digital payment options beyond the traditional check or ACH payment, which will be useful as the landscape evolves.

Digital Assets and Cryptocurrencies

RFS has developed unique expertise in the digital assets and cryptocurrencies space. We are one of, if not the only, settlement administration firm with expertise in this area.

With the exponential rise of Bitcoin and other virtual and digital currencies, fraud involving these assets has become more and more prevalent. There are new frauds involving cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other altcoins launched every day. The unfortunate result is that investors have their hard-earned money stolen by these criminals. In some cases, such as an unregistered initial coin offering or a Ponzi fraud, regulators are able to accumulate funds to be paid back to the investors harmed by the misconduct. Using forensic investigative techniques, our team can trace and analyze crypto asset movement to ensure an appropriate recovery for each victim.

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Notice Campaigns

RFS has successfully handled notice and outreach initiatives in each of our cases. We utilize all forms of media to execute our campaigns, and have successfully done so all over the world. Our team has become adept and supplementing our notice campaigns with targeted internet outreach. This includes cost effective initiatives such as Facebook, Reddit, and other channels that can be leveraged to further insure adequate notice to the relevant community.

Receiverships/Bankruptcy Services

RFS has broad experience in the bankruptcy arena, having been borne out of Mr. Breeden’s service as bankruptcy trustee in the largest ever Ponzi fraud before Madoff. Our depth of knowledge regarding the bankruptcy space, together with the infrastructure and core competencies in place, enable us to operate at a high level in bankruptcy cases. Currently, we are assisting the Receiver overseeing the administration of an estate that was created as a result of a failed digital asset initial coin offering.

Claims Processing

RFS manages the entire life-cycle of a case in-house. We have executed a full claims process in each one of our cases. We have built systems to insure the accuracy of each administration, processing claims in more than a dozen languages from more than 125 countries around the world. We have catalogued and reviewed millions of pages of documentation during our reviews. From claim entry/input, review, audit, and distribution, we have controls in place to protect the integrity of each claims process on behalf of our clients and insure conformance with governing regulations. RFS personnel possesses the knowledge and expertise to trace cash flows through numerous layers and to process claims involving nearly every different type of security.

In the aggregate, we have evaluated claims from nearly 2 million individuals covering claimed losses of over $160 billion on nearly 25 million separate transactions, approving approximately $50 billion in eligible losses under these programs.

Data Management

RFS has the capability and infrastructure in place to host and manage large volumes of data. The technology and database software we have in place enables us to receive, maintain and process significant amounts of data in the context of a settlement administration or otherwise. The technology and capability can be easily adapted beyond the settlement administration workspace.

Customer Support Center

RFS maintains outstanding investor support services including an in-house internet services group and our own highly-experienced call specialists. All of our call specialists have been with us for at least five years, and some for 15 years. Collectively they have handled more than a half million calls with fraud victims. RFS has created websites and set up toll free helplines for all of our cases, answering incoming calls and email inquiries with our experienced customer service personnel rather than to unhelpful and impersonal computer systems.

We pride ourselves in providing outstanding service to the victims in each case, strongly emphasizing the lost art of direct human-to-human interaction. The effectiveness and sensitivity of our hands-on assistance to victims helps produce high participation rates, high rates of cure of deficiencies and ultimately the highest percentage payouts.

Document Retention Services

RFS provides document retention services for all of its clients to insure adherence to IRS and other retention requirements.  RFS has a state-of-the-art document retention system and ample warehouse space available to meet any document retention needs.