Type of refusal
Frozen funds with a counterparty in United States
Frozen funds in the United States usually sit with a platform, fund, or SPV incorporated in a US state. What can be established without describing court procedure is the entity's registered status, its officers, and whether the platform's terms name arbitration or litigation. That is the starting point before any recovery step. Other frozen-fund situations across jurisdictions are indexed separately.
Who is actually on the other side
A platform holding frozen funds is rarely a single legal person. It is often a Delaware LLC or corporation, sometimes layered behind a separate custodian or a fund entity registered in another state. State corporate registries show incorporation status, a registered agent, and whether the entity is still in good standing. That record does not show whether the platform holds client assets in its own name or as agent, which is why the underlying terms matter as much as the registry entry. Jurisdiction notes for the United States set out what the registry layer can and cannot confirm. Whether the burden of showing that funds are frozen sits with the investor or the platform is a separate question, covered in how burden of proof works in frozen crowdinvesting funds.
What to secure before the counterparty reacts
Preserve the record of what was promised and what happened to the money before access changes further. Save the original subscription agreement, every platform notice about the freeze, transaction confirmations, and any statement showing the account balance immediately before access was blocked. A screenshot of a dashboard is not enough once a platform can alter what a user sees. Export data while the interface still allows it, and keep copies outside any account the platform controls, since frozen account matters often turn on whether the investor can show the account's state at a fixed point in time. How a demand for return of funds is typically framed, without promising an outcome, is set out in demanding money back when crowdinvesting funds are frozen.
Where a judgment would have to be enforced
The United States signed the 2019 Hague Judgments Convention on 2 March 2022 but has not ratified it, so no treaty route exists yet [N170]. Enforcement then depends on the type of decision reached. An arbitral award into the United States generally follows a more established framework than a foreign court judgment [N172]. Documents produced abroad for a US enforcement matter can be authenticated by apostille, applied there since 15 October 1981 subject to its own reservation [N413]. A route through a third jurisdiction first, such as enforcement from the UAE into the United States, follows a different regime, and general mechanics are set out at enforcement of judgments in the United States. This firm charges no fee contingent on recovery. Its registration can be checked in the public register, as explained at how to verify a law firm.