Practice area 04
Corporate Investigations
Internal theft, due diligence, and the questions a business cannot ask openly without creating the problem it is trying to solve.
Licensed Illinois private detective agency · Established 1991 · 35+ years
Corporate work divides roughly into two: finding out what has already happened inside a business, and finding out who you are about to be in business with. Both are usually time-sensitive, and both are usually confidential from most of the organisation.
Internal matters — stock that does not reconcile, a supplier relationship that looks too comfortable, a departing employee who left with more than their belongings — need handling that does not announce itself. An investigation everybody knows about changes the behaviour it was commissioned to observe, and can create employment exposure that did not exist beforehand.
Due diligence is the quieter half: establishing that a principal is who they say they are, that the track record stands up, that the entities are real and solvent, and that there is no litigation history nobody mentioned. It is unglamorous and it is almost always cheaper than the alternative.
What this covers
Included in an engagement.
- Internal theft, shrinkage and diversion investigations
- Pre-transaction due diligence on principals, entities and claimed history
- Departing-employee and confidentiality matters
- Corporate espionage and information-leak enquiries
- Interviews conducted properly, with a record of what was said
- Coordination with your counsel throughout
Said plainly
What this service cannot do.
Worth reading before you instruct anybody in this profession, including us.
- We cannot obtain bank records, telephone records or medical records. They are protected, and obtaining them by pretext is a federal crime.
- We do not access employee accounts, devices or private messages without lawful authority from the business to do so.
- We investigate. Employment decisions and any disciplinary process remain yours, and should be taken with your employment counsel.
Related
Often instructed alongside this.
Corporate Investigations
Tell us what has happened.
The first conversation costs nothing, goes no further, and you will get an honest view of whether this is something we can help with — including when the answer is that it is not.