Asset Tracing Case Studies

Asset Tracing is a process investigators call 'follow the money'. The investigation team trace assets using financial investigation techniques.
During this process, they will determine the target's assets and examine any revenue or income that has been generated by criminal activity.

Case #1

Task

US based company, having several key operations within Africa, identified an unusual increase in its third-party vendor costs at a number of its remote sites. They suspected that there was a potentially serious issue related to the inexplicable rise.

Result

An investigation was conducted which covered several global locations. This resulted in the identification of significant assets of a senior manager indirectly involved in the contract. The evidence gathered supported the assertion that the manager had been paid to influence the contract award.

Case #2

Task

An Individual based in Canada invested a considerable sum of money with a financial broker. The investments were split between purported low and high-risk options in offshore entities. Following the individual’s death these investments became part of the estate left to his only child. However, no returns had been realised on the investments, as was expected.

Result

A review of the investments was undertaken. Our investigators were able to ascertain that the broker had moved the funds through several shell companies set up in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Working with several governmental and law enforcement agencies in a number of jurisdictions a significant portion of the money was recovered.

Case #3

Task

A senior executive within a global corporation was suspected of having committed fraud and contravening the company’s anti bribery policy in relation to a significant supply contract.

Result

Our investigation team was engaged to complete an impartial investigation, on behalf of the company, in order to establish the facts behind the allegations. The evidence obtained confirmed collusion between the supplier and company executive as well as identifying assets that had formed part of the scheme.

Case #4

Task

A large organisation was suspicious that large scale fraud was taking place within their organisation. It was suspected that this fraud had been ongoing for a number of years and involved a number of employees..

Result

Physical and technical surveillance was authorised in order to gain evidence to support a prosecution by the CPS. This part of the investigation took place over a period of months, involving a number of specialist investigators working as a team. The end result was that we were able to gain evidence to prosecute and also recover a large percentage of the monies taken over a period of years.

Case #5

Task

A manufacturing company was concerned that a senior employee was committing large scale fraud within a business. The senior manager was in a position of trust and influence and there had been no suspicion by his managers until profits took a turn for the worse.

Result

An investigation was launched that eventually included technical and physical surveillance to back up the audit trail and evidence gained from interviewing fellow workers and customers. The net result was that fraud was identified, a prosecution made, assets identified with large amounts of funds being returned to our client.