Fabio Virzi, partner at ECIJA, analyses the asset recovery mechanisms in Spain in the ICC FraudNet Global Report 2025
In his contribution titled “Asset Recovery in Spain: Civil and Criminal Law Mechanisms,” Fabio Virzi, together with Óscar Morales, provides a detailed analysis of the Spanish legal framework for the recovery of assets linked to fraud, corruption, and economic crimes.
The article reviews the most relevant civil mechanisms, such as actions for civil liability, precautionary measures (preventive seizure, asset confiscation, injunctions), and tracing tools. It also highlights the importance of criminal proceedings, which allow for the confiscation of illicit assets and the use of broader investigative measures.
Virzi emphasizes that, although Spain has effective instruments, significant obstacles exist, such as the complexity of international corporate structures, the growing use of cryptocurrencies, the slow pace of judicial processes, and the need for greater international cooperation in the enforcement of judgments and precautionary measures.
The text also points to emerging trends in the practice of asset recovery: the use of digital and forensic technologies to trace financial flows, the regulation of virtual assets, and the need to strengthen the specialized training of judges, prosecutors, and lawyers in the field.
With this publication, ECIJA reinforces its international leadership in complex litigation and cross-border fraud, providing a practical view from Spain on how to simplify the complex and anticipate the challenges posed by economic crime in an increasingly digitalized world.
Consult the full publication here.
Related professionals
LATEST FROM #ECIJA
In Mexico, international arbitration has become a common means of resolving complex disputes relating to investments, long-term contracts and strategic projects.
An article by Héctor Sbert, a partner in the litigation and arbitration department at ECIJA Barcelona, in which he analyses the scope of the recent reforms on corporate transparency and their impact on the regime governing shareholdings.
For years, digital evidence has been incorporated into civil and commercial proceedings as a natural extension of documentary evidence. Screenshots, emails, messaging conversations, attachments, recordings, and images have become a standard part of the evidence.
However, artificial intelligence implies that this approach must be reconsidered. Much of this evidence can no longer be treated as mere documents: they are technically vulnerable evidence, the strength of which depends on its origin, integrity, context, and reliability.
The daily disconnection caused by compulsive mobile phone use not only affects personal relationships: it reveals why cybercriminals are exploiting our biases and routines to carry out increasingly sophisticated scams.
ECIJA, represented by Héctor Sbert, Jesús Lorente Ariza and Xavier Miraball, has contributed as the author firm for the chapter on Spain in "Cryptoassets". Law Over Borders Comparative Guide 2026.
On 19 May 2026, María de Mulder Rougvie, counsel in the Litigation and Arbitration department at ECIJA Barcelona, spoke at one of the world’s leading forums on fraud, insolvency, asset recovery and cross-border enforcement (Fraud, Insolvency, Recovery & Enforcement).
The partner of ECIJA Chile participated in panels, working groups and networking activities together with leading figures in Ibero-American arbitration.
The measure unifies the national procedure with that of several local jurisdictions that already applied similar incentives.
The rise of wearable devices has turned the body into a constant source of highly sensitive data, pressing the principles of the GDPR against large-scale, persistent, and difficult-to-understand data processing.
