Representative Matters

Selected matters, with identifying details changed. Each account sets out the question and what the work found.

Hand-coloured 1818 caricature of barristers in wigs cross-examining a witness before a judge

“Cross Examination of a Witness” (1818), Library of Congress; no known restrictions on publication.

Lead matter · Due Diligence on Indian Targets

A Japanese investor’s first look inside an Indian conglomerate

A Japanese financial-services group, preparing a major commitment to a large, diversified Indian business group, needed the group and its principal examined, including their record, reputation and political exposure. The work ran in two phases: the public record first, then discreet source inquiries on what the record could not answer. Interim and final reports went to the client's investment committee.

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The areas

Due Diligence on Indian Targets

Internal & Whistleblower Investigations

Litigation Support & Asset Tracing

FCPA & Anti-Corruption

Corporate Compliance Investigations

Trade & Supply-Chain Compliance

Insolvency & IBC Investigations

Due Diligence on Indian Targets

A Japanese investor’s first look inside an Indian conglomerate

A Japanese financial-services group, preparing a major commitment to a large, diversified Indian business group, needed the group and its principal examined, including their record, reputation and political exposure. The work ran in two phases: the public record first, then discreet source inquiries on what the record could not answer. Interim and final reports went to the client's investment committee.

The clean report that let a buyout proceed

A global private-equity buyer, instructing through its US counsel, needed pre-acquisition integrity due diligence on an Indian technology business, covering the company, each subsidiary and the founders. Sources spoke well of management, and the record showed nothing that bore on the deal. The report was clean, and it rested on the same work an adverse finding would have needed.

Pre-listing diligence on a public-sector issuer

Ahead of a public offering, the bank managing it needed an independent investigation of the public-sector issuer, and of the senior executives who would carry the offering. The company and the executives were investigated together, with findings reported to the listing timetable.

An institutional investor’s window into an Indian unicorn

A North American institutional investor, weighing a position in a prominent Indian consumer-internet company, needed an independent view of the company and its founders within the deal timetable. The work covered structure and filings, litigation and regulatory checks, the founders' backgrounds, and press and market commentary.

Background checks on a fund manager’s principals

Before deepening its relationship with a pan-Asian alternative-asset manager, a North American institutional investor had the manager's key principals investigated one by one, covering their records, business interests, litigation, and reputation among counterparties.

Background check on a senior Asia executive

A US technology company asked for a records-only background check on its most senior Asia executive. The court, watchlist and media checks were clean. The check did find an early period of employment that his official biography left out.

Internal & Whistleblower Investigations

Expense fraud, verified with the vendors

A global energy group suspected fabricated expense claims in its Indian operation. Every doubtful bill was tested with the vendor that supposedly issued it, including hotels, restaurants and transport operators in two cities, one of them outside India. Each finding was tied to a numbered exhibit.

Kickback allegations, investigated under counsel

A global enterprise-software company faced malpractice allegations against two former employees of its Indian arm. The investigation was instructed through a law firm so that it ran under privilege, and it relied on documents and third parties, because former employees often cannot be interviewed.

From one whistleblower letter to a distributor network

A whistleblower complaint at a multinational medical-devices company grew, under US counsel's direction, into an investigation of its Indian distributor network. The work combined know-your-counterparty reviews across the network, interviews, and a comparison of the findings with the company's own sales data.

Reconstructing a decade of fabricated fieldwork

A whistleblower alleged that field research at a South Asian operation of a global market-research firm had been fabricated. Payment sheets and archived backups from 2000 to 2012 were reconstructed until the fabricated projects could be told apart from the genuine ones. The proof came entirely from the company's own records.

Forensics for the creditor of a defaulted group

When a large listed industrial group defaulted, a special-situations fund commissioned an outside-in forensic review of its structure, related entities and the transactions most open to question. The review was built without the debtor's cooperation, to inform the fund's decisions on enforcement and negotiation.

Litigation Support & Asset Tracing

Mapping what a group actually owned

US litigation counsel needed to know what an India-rooted conglomerate actually held, including ownership through offshore structures in several jurisdictions. Registries supplied the master list, and former insiders pointed to assets the filings did not show. The report came with a dated and sourced schedule of assets.

India asset search for a US fraud claimant

A fraud defendant had left the United States before the recovery proceedings caught up with him, and the claimant needed to know what he and his family held in India. The search covered the family as well as the individual, and ran through the registry offices of three cities.

The trace behind a lender syndicate’s strategy

A lender syndicate, through its US trustee, needed to know what an industrial group in default actually held before deciding how hard to press. The trace was built without the debtor's cooperation, so that its findings could support whichever route the syndicate chose.

A staged asset trace for an overseas investor

An overseas investor pursuing an Indian promoter staged its asset trace. The first phase established whether pursuit was worthwhile, and the second was commissioned on the strength of its findings.

A maritime claimant’s India asset search

A Singapore maritime claimant needed to know whether its Indian counterparty held anything worth pursuing. Registry and property records, and litigation and credit histories, were assembled into an evidence file for whichever route counsel chose next.

FCPA & Anti-Corruption

An anti-corruption review before the regulator asked

The India arm of a US technology company worked through resellers and subcontractors, some of them dealing with government customers. Nothing had gone wrong, and the parent wanted the exposure examined while the review was still voluntary. The review covered the compliance framework, dealings with government, interviews and transaction sampling, and ended in a remediation report.

Building a compliance program from zero

A US group's India venture needed an anti-corruption program built. The work scored the risks against actual exposure, mapped each risk to a control, drafted policies meant to be followed, trained the people who would apply them, and set out a sequenced rollout.

FCPA diligence through US counsel

A US law firm, advising on a transaction with corruption exposure, instructed FCPA due diligence on the target, covering its ownership, history, dealings with government and the people behind it. The work was instructed through counsel from the start, so the findings could be protected as work product.

Corporate Compliance Investigations

Screening program for a dealer network

A consumer-appliances manufacturer needed its dealer network screened, from companies to family proprietorships. Nearly two hundred reports were produced, each at a depth matched to the dealer's risk: a quick records check for most, field inquiries for the few that needed them, and a route to escalate between the two.

Procurement integrity, tested at the plant gate

At a US manufacturer's Indian plant, procurement needed testing against the vendors themselves. Quotations and bills of materials were read for signs of steering, suppliers were checked as real businesses, and the security contractor's billing was compared with what the site received.

Trade & Supply-Chain Compliance

Tracing bonded labor through a textile supply chain

A global retailer needed to know whether a bonded-labor recruitment scheme in southern India's spinning mills touched its supply chain. Supplier records were read against published NGO findings, and the mills' recruiting, housing and pay practices were investigated on site.

Verifying carbon offsets in the field

A global energy company was buying carbon offsets from programs in India and wanted to know whether the programs were operating as their documents described. Field verification of the programs and their developers showed which credits it could rely on.

Insolvency & IBC Investigations

Recovering brand value for a liquidation estate

The liquidators of an overseas-listed group held well-known consumer brands that were earning for other people. Tracing the licensees in India showed who was using the brands, with what substance and on what terms, so the estate could decide how to recover the value.

Identifying details in these accounts have been altered. No client, subject, or matter is identifiable.