Our Story

Whitfield & Crane was founded on a simple conviction: in a world moving online, justice must move faster than the fraudsters. The firm began in 2009 when two former federal prosecutors, Eleanor Whitfield and James Crane, joined forces after recovering a family’s retirement fund from an offshore wire-fraud ring. That first case defined our practice — and our refusal to accept that stolen money stays stolen.

A retired teacher in Ohio wired her savings to a fraudster posing as a bank security officer. Within 72 hours the funds had crossed four borders. Whitfield & Crane traced, froze and recovered the full amount — the first of hundreds of cross-border recoveries that now define the firm.

As cryptocurrency fraud exploded, we built one of the first dedicated digital-asset recovery desks in private practice — investigators who read blockchains and litigators who freeze wallets. Today that team has traced and recovered assets in more than 40 countries.

When online scams surged during the pandemic, we answered with a 24-hour response desk and grew our offices across the United States, Europe and Asia — because fraud never sleeps, and neither does our phone line.

We crossed $1 billion in funds recovered for victims — and marked the milestone the only way we know how: by taking on more cases.

Whitfield & Crane is home to more than 100 lawyers, investigators and analysts across four offices worldwide, with more than $2 billion recovered for victims of online fraud. The scammers change their methods. We change faster.