Disputes & Investigations

WHAT WE DO

Companies are vulnerable to fraud, theft, bribery, corruption, cybercrime and litigation. In a globalised world, complex corporate structures can obscure money flows, the true ownership of assets, or the identity of an adversary. Law firms, businesses and private clients need specialised investigative support in contentious situations such as legal proceedings, commercial disputes and internal investigations.

Our team of experienced investigators is able to identify critical information gaps and uncover the facts, ensuring you are better informed than your opponents and giving you the greatest chance of success.

Disputes are an unfortunate reality of doing business, but must be approached with planning and resolve. If companies, private individuals or their advisors are missing critical information, they can be outwitted in legal proceedings, cheated by competitors or defrauded by their employees. If investigations are not run in a lawful and ethical manner, litigation strategies will be critically undermined.

Our rigorous and transparent methodology gives our clients confidence and has helped us build long-lasting relationships with leading law firms, businesses, governments and private clients. We fill critical gaps in your knowledge and understanding, delivering material commercial impact.

How we work:

We have dedicated open source specialists, digital forensic investigators and cryptocurrency blockchain analysts sitting alongside traditional investigators, linguists and regional experts.
We leverage our global network of contacts to deliver human intelligence that adds genuine insight and perspective to our findings.
Our rigorous analysis and creative approach to the most complex problems provides clear and actionable solutions to our clients.

Our investigations can help you prevent exploitation and financial losses, resolve disputes in your favour and recover funds.

WHY S-RM?

Client focus. We will work closely with you to understand your concerns and priorities, making sure we answer the questions that matter most to you. We adapt to changing situations and timelines and will frequently update you to ensure our findings have the greatest material impact.

Specialist skills, one team. Our forensic specialists, extensive source networks and highly skilled investigators work collaboratively, exploring all avenues to identify the information you need.

Global reach. With more than 100 analysts, speaking 30+ languages, spread throughout our nine global offices, our team brings regional expertise and local insights to any situation. Most of our investigations traverse borders and there are few jurisdictions where we haven’t worked in the last 17 years.

Client Successes

We carried out an investigation into our client’s joint venture partner to understand their motivations for blocking a public listing of the company. Having mapped the various stakeholders and advised our client on the points of contention, we subsequently brokered a meeting between the two parties, allowing our client to resolve the issue and move forward with the IPO.

We traced the global assets of a businessman engaged in multiple sets of legal proceedings against our client, one of their former counterparties, worth more than USD 250 million in total. We submitted an expert witness report to the High Court in London demonstrating our opponent’s dissipation of assets, leading to the award of a worldwide freezing order against him.

We were instructed by the general counsel of a major fast-moving consumer goods company to conduct an internal investigation into suspected fraud. We uncovered hidden transactions and corruption in the supply chain, allowing our client to take action against the perpetrators, prevent further losses and recover funds worth USD 6 million through civil litigation.

We were instructed by the CEO of a UK plc to investigate an activist shareholder who had recently acquired a large stake. We compiled a ‘playbook’ of the activist’s previous actions, behaviours and tactics, including comprehensive intelligence from previous management teams, allowing our client to formulate their strategy.