The U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has made its first use of an enforcement tool that was meant to bring oligarchs and kleptocrats to book. But lawyers are unsure whether the move signifies either a change in direction or fortune for the agency.

On Jan. 17 at the High Court in London, the SFO secured its first unexplained wealth order (UWO) in a bid to recover a 1.5 million-pound sterling property suspected of being purchased with the proceeds of a £100 million fraud.

Neil Hodge is a freelance business journalist and photographer based in Nottingham, United Kingdom. He writes on insurance and risk management, corporate governance, internal audit, compliance, and legal...