Financial fraud is rife the world over -- at least that's what the world's top legal experts told Daily Maverick at the Frontiers of Asset Recovery Conference 2025.

The previous Frontiers of Asset Recovery Conference was held at the Oyster Box in Umhlanga. The fact that the 2025 edition was at the Mount Nelson shows the organisers are quite wedded to that old money charm.

Fraud, unfortunately, we heard at the conference, confounds asset recovery experts the world over.

That was perhaps the most valuable lesson from a full schedule of presentations, panel discussions and the kind of networking that happens over miniature pastries: South Africa's struggles with State Capture and financial misconduct are not exceptional. We're fighting the same battle as everyone else, just with our own particular scars.

It's not the laws, it's the fraud

"The headwinds facing the rule of law and criminal justice, I think, are the strongest they've been in decades," explained Anton du Plessis, deputy director of public prosecutions for the National Prosecuting Authority. The bar, he warned, would keep rising because criminals would keep innovating.

It's almost heartwarming that a room full of advocates, prosecutors and asset recovery specialists were all trying to...