Nia Statham

Nia Statham is a Senior Associate* based in Baker & Partners’ Cayman Islands office. Nia specialises in cross-border digital asset recovery, fraud and asset tracing with a focus on DAOs/ Web3 projects and the Cayman Islands Foundation Company.

Nia is experienced in advising on crypto recovery strategies arising from high value hacks and thefts, and acted for two petitioning retail investors in the first winding-up of a Cayman-domiciled holding company behind a defunct cryptocurrency exchange. She is also involved in the recovery of 11,000 Bitcoin from a centralised cryptocurrency platform and acted in coordinated cross-border receivership proceedings ringfencing USD 800 million in digital assets. Nia has also acted in recovery efforts connected with US $7.65 billion stolen from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund amid global corruption investigations.

Nia regularly provides training on DAOs, digital asset recovery and crypto laundering, and has spoken extensively on the topic for panels hosted by the American Bankruptcy Institute, The Association of Women in Cryptocurrency and the Crypto Fraud and Asset Recovery (CFAAR) network (amongst others).

Prior to moving to Cayman, Nia trained and qualified with the London branch of a US firm where she assisted on various cross-border behavioral investigations on behalf of conglomerates, large retailers and private equity houses across Europe, with a special focus on market investigations in pharmaceuticals and Big Data. Nia also supported a coordinated on-site response to a dawn raid performed by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.

She then moved to New Zealand and worked on a NZ $450 million cross-border accounting fraud which touched on a number of jurisdictions across the APAC region. In the British Virgin Islands, Nia was involved with a range of high value and profile asset recovery matters in both the shipping and aviation industries, and acted in matters arising from high-net worth family disputes.

Recent Matters

Notable digital asset recovery engagements include:

• Acted in coordinated cross-border receivership proceedings ringfencing USD 800 million in digital assets.
• Acting in the recovery of 11,000 Bitcoin from a centralised cryptocurrency exchange.
• Represented two retail investors in the Cayman Islands’ first successful winding-up petition of a Cayman-domiciled holding company behind a defunct cryptocurrency exchange.

Associations & Memberships 

• The Association of Women in Cryptocurrency
• International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring

* subject to work permit board approval