Before you invest investigate.

Or, maybe you’ve already made an investment and its not working out. My team and I help you manage risk with our in depth research, politely termed KYC (Know Your Customer) or  Integrity Due Diligence (IDD), or simply ‘corporate investigations’. What we do is often a requirement for ‘regulatory compliance’: Organizations are required to research potential partners ahead of a major transaction, or before appointing an executive or member of the board. It reduces the chances of making a dumb mistake.

I specialize in the part of risk management known as ‘source inquiries’ (or ‘Humint’ in  CIA lingo):  Working discreetly, my team and I seek out sources — people with knowledge of the subject — and get them to talk, usually on the phone. They may be former employees, managers and investors. They may be competitors, customers, regulators, or industry experts. We work with some of the world’s biggest risk consultancies, as well as boutiques and individuals. They must be people we know and trust. They are often intermediaries for end clients whose identities we may never know.

We help these clients understand particular aspects of their subject of interest. It may be the big picture, like ESG — Environmental Social and Governance. Or they may want us to identify PEPs — Politically Exposed Persons and look for red flags — associations with money laundering, sanctions breaches, human rights abuses, anything that smells of  corruption and criminality. 

But we don’t draw attention to our inquire. We start with simple questions: Is the investment well managed? Do its managers have the right experience? Do they have an agenda? How is the market? Might it be changing. Are there problems with regulations? I’ve honed my investigative and interview skills as a journalist for major international English and German language news outlets.

The level of detail in our reports 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 on careful editing and footnoting to ensure that what we produce is accurate, concise, easy to understand, a pleasure to read and, most of all, useful. 

We are based in the glorious West African Republic of Ghana, I have lived and worked all over Africa as well as Germany, Australia and 20 years in New York USA. So we undertake projects anywhere in the world where people speak English, French or German. 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.