Our team was tasked to identify business of a Client’s potential contractor in a country, investigative capacities whereof are very limited. We made a number of operative enquiries through our network of well-placed human sources to find out quickly that the Client was approached by a fraudster who had caused substantial damage to his our clients previously.

Seeking new business opportunities in one of countries of Central Asia, the client encountered a businessman who offered distributorship. As the country where he wanted to expand was considered risky to do business, he proceeded with background screening to assess risks of cooperation.

Preliminary searches showed that the designated contractor was a newly established body corporate with no commercial activities so far. Publicly available registries were examined to find traces of the company’s predecessors and narrow down beneficiaries and their other business interests.

Upon summing up the results, our team traced connections that were identified as a group of individuals that had been active in the industry for many years. The contractor’s owner himself was a key principal of this group that acted through multiple technical companies.

Contacts were established with former clients and suppliers of legal entities that belonged to this group. They confirmed that the individual who approached the client, as well as his associates, had a derogatory reputation within the industry. However, they managed to get away with fraudulent activities, and it would be virtually impossible to prosecute them.

The individual himself inflicted substantial damage to his employer and engaged with fraudulent activities. Even though his misdeeds or unethical behavior by his group of companies had never ensued further legal ramifications, gathering of HUMINT and crosschecks of retrieved information with circumstantial evidence allowed establishing a comprehensive profile of the contractor, identifying its principal stockholders and evaluating actual market capabilities of the associated business group.

The client discontinued all commercial activities with the contractor and alerted his representatives about the situation.