Investigations

Are you looking for answers?

Has something gone wrong? Do you need to know why, who, when and how? Do you need an independent perspective?

When you’re facing an investigation, allegation or crisis it’s essential to get to the important facts as quickly as possible. But these events typically come out of the blue, catching the organisation unawares. We are here to support you at every stage, from identifying, extracting and analysing relevant data, to making sure that you never face the same emergency again.

Transparency means more investigations

Businesses worldwide are under increasing pressure to demonstrate high ethical standards and meet stakeholder demands for transparency. Investigations, whether mandated by regulators or instigated internally, are on the rise as a result.

A range of diverse events and crises can warrant a thorough investigation, including:

A whistleblower report or tip off
Suspected fraud or misconduct
The loss of sensitive data or intellectual property
Notification of a regulator query or investigation
Missed non-performance targets.

Dealing with these events effectively takes time, effort and investment. Allegations must be investigated thoroughly, discreetly and quickly, with the minimum disruption to the business – requiring skills that typically go beyond the capabilities of a business. But we are here to help.

How we can help

Our investigations teams have extensive experience of working on a wide range of complex investigations in multiple jurisdictions and sectors, including some of the most high-profile ever conducted. We work alongside in-house and external legal teams, carry out internal or regulator-mandated investigations, and frequently support audit teams to help them understand issues that may arise during their work.

Our investigations typically include:

The use of cutting-edge technology to extract and clean relevant data from electronic and other sources, including high volumes of transactional data
Innovative data analytical techniques to identify patterns and review documents and other sources
Interviews with targeted personnel, compliant with Police and Criminal Evidence legislation
The use of data visualisation techniques to explain what we’ve found, clearly and concisely
Experienced financial and non-financial investigators with a wide range of skills including bribery and corruption investigators, forensic accountants and intelligence analysts
The involvement of our network of third party specialists when specific knowledge is required
A remediation plan, including a report for the regulator or stakeholders if necessary
A compliance review, risk assessment and/or advice on prevention to reduce your future exposure.

Case studies

Global anti-bribery and corruption investigation
Seeking out fraud in a global business

Global anti-bribery and corruption investigation

We assisted our client, a global engineering company, and its external legal counsel in its internal investigations into allegations of bribery and corruption and associated intermediaries. Our work involved conducting a forensic accounting investigation to identify payments to numerous intermediaries, mostly over a 12-14 year period across multiple territories and using multiple sources of structured and unstructured data, including banking data, accounting information, and hard copy records. Our work was provided to the relevant authorities and enabled the client to demonstrate that it had fully cooperated with the relevant authorities, which resulted in a favourable settlement for our client.

Seeking out fraud in a global business

Our client suspected fraud or misconduct at one of its global distributors. Using data analytics techniques, our team investigated, looking for indications of bribery, corruption or fraud. The results of this analysis informed our on-site visits, reducing the cost of the reviews. The resulting forensic report meant that the client eventually took legal action against the distributor, as well as a number of employees.