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$12 million held by Jersey finance institutions have been frozen in what has been described as the "largest ever" forfeiture of proceeds from the sale of stolen antiquities... But what led to this record seizure? And why is Jersey involved?
The Royal Court agreed to freeze the assets following an investigation into a scheme by the late Douglas Latchford, a disgraced art dealer, to sell stolen Cambodian antiquities in the USA and elsewhere.
Attorney General Mark Temple KC said that the Economic Crime and Confiscation Unit in the Law Officers’ Department and the Jersey Financial Intelligence Unit worked "in close partnership" with the US Department of Justice in this "important case".
Following the death of Mr Latchford, the proceedings were brought under the Civil Asset Recovery (International Co-Operation) (Jersey) Law 2007, which Mr Temple called a "powerful additional weapon for Jersey in the fight against international financial crime and money-laundering".
Pictured: Jersey's Royal Court has agreed to freeze the assets following an investigation into a scheme by the late Douglas Latchford, a disgraced art dealer, to sell stolen Cambodian antiquities in the USA and elsewhere.
Following an approach by the US Department of Justice to the Attorney Jersey, the Royal Court yesterday agreed to make the funds subject to a property freezing order.
This allows the Attorney General to apply on behalf of another country to freeze and return property which has been found to have been used in unlawful conduct or obtained in the course of unlawful conduct.
The money will eventually be returned via the US Treasury to the people of Cambodia in an asset-sharing agreement.
Douglas Latchford, a British and Thai citizen who lived primarily in Bangkok, was hailed as an expert and benefactor of the Cambodian cultural scene for decades, earning praise for his scholarly works on Khmer Empire art.
But in 2019, just months before his death, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York charged Latchford with trafficking Cambodian antiquities. He was accused of falsifying invoices, provenance documents, and shipping information to smuggle illicitly obtained artworks internationally.
Federal prosecutors in New York said that he had “built a career out of the smuggling and illicit sale of priceless Cambodian antiquities, often straight from archaeological sites.” A longtime legal adviser to Latchford said he had been comatose at the time and unable to rebut the charges.
The indictment was dismissed after Latchford’s death the following year at 88.
The charges were that, from his base in Bangkok, Latchford bought sculptures he is alleged to have known were originally ransacked from Cambodia’s ancient sites by organised criminals. He then made millions selling them via prestige dealers and auction houses in London, New York and elsewhere.
It appeared that Latchford attempted to conceal these shady dealings by establishing trusts in tax havens, such as Jersey.
The Pandora Papers, a trove of 11.9 million documents leaked to a group of investigative journalists in late-2021, put offshore finance in global spotlight and revealed the shadowy business dealings of some the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people.
The biggest single leak – more than 3.3m records – comes from Trident Trust Company, which is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands but has offices in Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, New York, London and 20 other locations.
There were 77 Jersey address references in the Papers, including private addresses in Grouville, Trinity, St. John and St. Mary, as well as offices in St. Helier.
Also, 250 ‘officers’ with Jersey links are also named, which include individuals as well as banks and trust companies, and nine Jersey-registered ‘entities’.
Among the prominent names from the art world to emerge in the Papers was that of late antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford, a leading Cambodian art scholar who used offshore trusts to sell looted art.
The Paper showed how Latchford formed two trusts in Jersey, both named after Hindu gods: the Skanda Trust in 2011 and the Siva Trust in 2012.
The art dealer hired Trident Trusts, a specialist offshore finances company, in 2011, after the U.S. government stopped the Sotheby’s auction of a looted Cambodian statue he had previously sold.
The Papers also reveal that the Skanda Trust had accounts in other offshore tax havens, including with Rathbones, a wealth management firm in Jersey, where very considerable amounts of money were held and invested.
One of the beneficiaries of the trusts was Latchford's daughter, Julia.
In early-2021, Julia agreed to donate to Cambodia her entire collection of 125 antiquities from the country's Khmer period that she had inherited when her father died.
The Cambodian government responded magnanimously to Julia Latchford’s promise of returning her father's antiquities, with Cambodia’s culture minister, Phoeurng Sackona, describing her as “precious and selfless and beautiful”.
However, Julia acknowledged that law enforcement authorities were continuing to investigate her father’s estate, which she inherited, for proceeds of crime at the time.
In 2016, following the Wiener indictment, Douglas Latchford’s investments, said to include the Rathbones account, are understood to have been subject to a suspicious activity report in Jersey, which enables suspected money laundering to be reported to relevant authorities.
Pictured: Jersey's Attorney General Mark Temple KC said that the Economic Crime and Confiscation Unit in the Law Officers’ Department and the Jersey Financial Intelligence Unit worked "in close partnership" with the US Department of Justice in this "important case".
Julia maintained that she was not personally subject to any investigation, and had not been involved in the sales of antiquities while they were part of the Skanda and Siva trust structure.
She said that her father had given her “credible” assurance that the allegations against him were false, adding that she was reassured by the “close relationship” Douglas Latchford still had then with museums and the Cambodian authorities, and the fact that major European auction houses continued to sell Khmer antiquities.
“I now know from recent research into [my father's] affairs, and becoming aware of information not available to us at the time (including the findings of law enforcement bodies) that in general and in particular cases, he lied to me, and concealed certain actions from me,” Julia admitted.
She began to hold independent discussions with the Cambodian government from 2017, she said, and her promise to return all the antiquities is understood to have been part of a formal agreement she signed with Phnom Penh shortly after her father died.
Julia also agreed to hand over his full documentation, said to include an inventory of his sales and extensive wider evidence of the global trade in Khmer antiquities.
Since Julia's agreement with the Cambodian government to give back the looted relics in 2021, negotiations have been ongoing over Latchford’s financial accounts.
However, last month, Federal officials announced that Julia had agreed to forfeit $12 million from Latchford's estate as part of a settlement to end the civil case that accused her father of profiting from the sale of stolen Cambodian artefacts.
Pictured: Twelve million dollars held by Jersey financial institutions have been frozen in what has been described as the "largest ever" forfeiture of proceeds from the sale of stolen antiquities.
Julia also agreed to turn over a seventh-century bronze statue from Vietnam that the federal authorities said had been bought by Latchford with illegally obtained funds.
“The late Douglas Latchford was a prolific dealer of stolen antiquities,” Ivan J. Arvelo, a special agent in charge with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, said in a statement announcing the settlement.
“His complicity in numerous illicit transactions over several decades garnered him millions of dollars in payments from buyers and dealers in the United States, of which as part of this agreement, $12 million will be rightfully forfeited by his estate.”
In their announcement, officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which handled the civil case, said that as part of his sales, Latchford provided false provenance records or made false statements on shipping and import records when antiquities were brought into the United States.
The officials said Latchford maintained bank accounts in Jersey, the UK, and America, and that he transferred at least $12 million in tainted proceeds to his bank accounts in Jersey.
The officials said that the disposition of the funds once they are received will be decided later by the U.S. Justice Department.
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