Bermuda's Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) has been praised by a leading US lawyer for its role in helping to combat global financial crime.

Ed Davis, founding shareholder of Astigarraga Davis, based in Miami, featured in a number of panels including ''Stings' and 'Fraud Victim Class Actions' at the OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence Conference held in Miami this week.

Mr. Davis, who specialises in fraud and asset recovery and has played a key part in leading multi-jurisdictional recovery teams in a number of major fraud and public corruption scandals that broke recently, including Madoff and Stanford, spoke to The Royal Gazette about his work and involvement in Bermuda-related cases.

One of his most high profile assignments was a complex case involving a civil investigation and civil claims in the US, Bermuda, Switzerland and the Isle of Man arising out of an international fraud scheme used to siphon and launder Antigua government funds resulting from the repayment of a desalination plant financing by an arm of the Japanese government.

The Bermuda FIU first flagged up the issue and produced the necessary documents to back it up.

"The case was broken to the Antigua government by the Bermuda FIU," he said.

"They came forward and said there was something wrong there.

"They were quite helpful in getting documents to prove the fraud."

Mr. Davis said that Bermuda was also central in the famous 'Cash 4 Titles' Ponzi scheme case, in which the Bank of Bermuda (Cayman) paid out $67.5 million in an out-of-court settlement.

He added that while being impressed by the level of legal expertise in Bermuda, at the same time he had been frustrated by the long and expensive judicial system.

Mr. Davis, who currently serves on the OffshoreAlert Conference Asset Recovery Track to help set the agenda and has been speaking at the event almost since its inception eight years ago as well as his company co-sponsoring it for the past five years, said the beauty of the conference is that it attracts all types from both sides of the fence,

"This conference has always been a very high value conference because you really have the whole gambit of speakers involved," he said.

He said that corruption occurred worldwide and it was his job to help the victims of fraud to recover their assets.

"Corruption has been around since Julius Caesar was tried for it," he said.

"It has been around forever and it is probably going to continue to be around forever, but it is one of those things that you can manage."

Mr. Davis said that it was an even bigger issue for islands with tight knit communities and a fear of retribution from speaking out about misdemeanours.

That is where asset recovery teams come in, with Mr. Davis having chased assets across the world from the US and the Caribbean to Europe.

"I think it's a challenge in the Caribbean, and I would probably group Bermuda in there although it is not in the same region, where you are on an island and you have got a small group of people and it is hard to stand up and say: 'Give it back'," he said.