Before you invest investigate.

Or, maybe you’ve already made an investment and it’s not working out. We undertake projects anywhere in the world where people speak English, French or German. My team and I can help you manage risk with in-depth research, politely termed KYC (Know Your Customer) or Integrity Due Diligence (IDD), or simply ‘corporate investigations’. Sometimes a local client just wants us to check out a person or a company so that they can make a more informed decision. Or, we may do more thorough ‘regulatory compliance’ for financiers and organizations. They are often required to look at potential partners ahead of a major transaction, or before appointing an executive or member of the board. The aim is to reduce their chances of making a dumb mistake.

We specialize in the part of risk management known as ‘source inquiries’ (or ‘Humint’ in CIA lingo): My team and I seek out sources — people with knowledge of the subject. The sources may be former employees, managers and investors. They may be competitors, customers, regulators, or industry experts. We use google and AI but only for background. Our job is to find information that is not publicly available. It’s not always easy to get people to talk.

It’s about building trust while also being discreet. The client is often looking for red flags — is the subject associated with money laundering, sanctions breaches, human rights abuses, anything that smells of corruption, criminality or immorality. Is the subject associated with PEPs — Politically Exposed Persons? And then there are issues of ESG — Environmental Social and Governance.

I’ve honed my investigative and interview skills as a journalist working for major international news outlets. It’s often best to start with unassuming questions: Is the subject doing well? Is the investment well managed? How is the market? Are regulations a problem? Might they be changing? What are the main challenges? If the source seems willing, the questions get harder: Who is working against the subject? Has the subject misled people? Are there ulterior motives? Is the subject somehow failing?

Then the work begins. It is the level of detail in our reporting that makes us the best at what we do. My team of researchers and writers go through every word a source has told me, pointing out the smallest contradiction that could be relevant. We pride ourselves in careful editing and footnoting to ensure that what we report, synthesize and analyze is accurate, concise, easy to understand, a pleasure to read and, most of all, useful.

We are often just a small cog in the machine. We work with some of the world’s biggest risk consultancies, but also boutiques and individual consultants. They must be people we know and trust especially if they are intermediaries for end clients whose identities we may never know.

My consultancy is currently based in the glorious West African Republic of Ghana but I have lived and worked all over Africa as well as in Germany, Australia and New York USA. Our reports are strictly confidential, so very few people ever get to read them. But we must be doing something right as we keep getting lots of interesting projects.

Please contact us if you think we can help you.