Migom Bank has been under statutory administration since March 2024, and the bank lost $750M in public market capitalization. Finally, the bank’s administrator has positive news on recovering missing funds and advancing legal strategies.
The latest update delivers clear evidence of misdirected assets and outlines steps that will guide the return of client deposits. After months of detailed investigation and coordination among legal, accounting, and regulatory teams, the bank can point to tangible progress.
This article highlights the administrator’s key findings, covers recent legal developments, and explains what customers can expect next.
A Recap of What Happened to Migom Bank
In May 2020, Migom Global Corp acquired the bank with a share issuance valued at $1.136 million to former owner Thomas Adrian Schaetti. Under new leadership, Migom Bank expanded fast across Europe and Asia. The key focus was blending traditional finance services with cryptocurrency rails.
Corporate clients used the bank’s multi-currency payments for cross-border trade, while retail customers welcomed faster settlement on digital transactions. The bank opened accounts in Luxembourg, the UAE, Austria, and Ghana, each under local licences that allowed both fiat and crypto operations.
This phase of growth earned Migom a reputation for flexible payments and swift onboarding, and it laid the groundwork for its later international presence.
However, trouble arrived without warning in early 2023. Online portals went dark, correspondent-bank relationships dissolved, and regulators flagged a severe capital shortfall. Customers found their logins blocked and withdrawals frozen. The board met in a crisis session and declared insolvency after finding no immediate remedy.
On March 18, 2024, the Ministry of Finance of Dominica stepped in and named a UK-based joint law and accounting team as the statutory administrator. That move transferred all daily control to the administrator, who would manage customer communications, creditor claims, and the quest to recover funds.
Administrator’s Investigation and Detailed Findings
The statutory administrator team set up secure case rooms in London and Roseau, Dominica. Over several months, they amassed more than 14,000 pages of documents, including bank statements, internal emails, audit reports, and blockchain transaction logs.
They interviewed dozens of staff members, dozens of creditors, and external service providers. Forensic experts verified each fiat and crypto flow against independent ledgers. In August 2024, the team filed its report with Dominica’s Financial Services Unit.
A 153-page cover letter from the lead UK barrister spelled out the evidence – client funds moved without creditor approval landed in six entities controlled by Mr Schaetti.
These entities included Migom Investments SA in Luxembourg, Migom Investment FZE in the UAE, Migom Verwaltungs GmbH in Austria, Migom Ltd in Ghana, Spectrum Payments in Canada, and Migom Global Corp and Migom Investments LLC in the US.
The administrators concluded these transfers amounted to theft of customer assets, embezzlement of bank resources, and misappropriation of government regulatory capital.
Authorities Are Efficiently Tracing the Missing Funds
Armed with the report’s findings, the administrators urged immediate criminal action. They recommended freezing all related accounts, securing restraint orders, and conducting voluntary interviews under criminal powers. They warned that uncooperative parties should face arrest warrants. Dominica’s government acted swiftly.
Within weeks, courts in Europe and North America received applications to freeze the identified accounts. The Police Force, Office of Public Prosecutions, and Attorney General’s Chambers coordinated with partner agencies abroad to enforce restraint orders.
Investigators traced €21 million to a Latvian bank that hosted deposits in Baltic International Bank and uncovered €5 million linked to the collapse of Transactive Systems UAB in Lithuania. These steps have narrowed the scope of missing assets and laid the foundation for recovery.
New York Class Action Update
In August 2024, a group of US investors filed a class action lawsuit in New York, alleging false financial statements and seeking damages for share-price losses. That suit drew on early disclosures but paused in April 2025 when plaintiffs withdrew their complaint to incorporate fresh evidence from the administrator’s report.
They plan to refile in the near future with broader claims that will include aiding and abetting fraud, conspiracy to misapply customer assets, and breaches of federal securities laws.
Legal analysts expect the amended complaint to demand significantly higher damages and to target additional defendants linked to the misdirected funds. The new filing will leverage detailed transaction mappings and corporate-ownership charts revealed by the administrator, and it could accelerate settlement talks or push for a faster recovery timeline.
Next Steps: Liquidation and Customer Guidance
With criminal proceedings underway and the class action poised for refiling, the government will appoint an internationally recognised liquidator.
This latest update from Migom Bank’s statutory administrators marks a clear turning point. The report’s detailed evidence and Dominica’s prompt legal actions have created a credible roadmap for tracing and recovering missing funds. The refiled class action in New York will add legal pressure and leverage, while the appointment of an international liquidator will operationalise the recovery process.
Affected customers and investors can now anticipate concrete progress and eventual distributions.
