Due diligence

Source the intelligence you need to navigate business integrity and compliance challenges, from the everyday to the most complex.

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S-RM is an industry-leading provider of integrity and reputational due diligence. From regular reporting for financial crime compliance teams through to in-depth investigative due diligence ahead of major transactions, we support blue-chip clients in multiple contexts. 

Our expert consultants combine the latest open-source research techniques with a global human source network, to provide actionable insights. S-RM's experienced team is trained to operate ethically and with discretion. 

The depth and breadth of the S-RM team is a strong point. The company's global presence means that they can service requirements quickly and easily across all geographies and time zones.

Chambers & Partners, Crisis & Risk Management, Investigative Due Diligence Guide 2023

Why S-RM?

Top tier provider

Band 1 for Investigative Due Diligence in the 2022 and 2023 Chambers and Partners industry rankings

Regional expertise

45+ languages spoken, deep knowledge and experience across all regions

Commercial understanding

Expertise across industries and sectors

Trusted partner

Supporting clients with investigative due diligence for over 15 years

Due-Diligence

Compliance due diligence

Receive actionable insights on business integrity and compliance risks. We work with investment banks, private banks, investment managers, commodities traders, government agencies and corporate clients to provide rapid and carefully sourced insight. 

  • Unwavering client focus means we work closely with you to understand your concerns and priorities.
  • We explore numerous avenues to deliver actionable intelligence, using regional specialists, extensive source networks and highly skilled investigators.
  • Our scalable model maximises transparency around delivery at each reporting level, making it easy to extend coverage across related entities or principals. 

Transaction due diligence

Our highly experienced practitioners provide discreet intelligence for high-stakes decision-making ahead of private equity investments, M&A, joint ventures, capital markets transactions and new market entry. 

  • We work alongside financial and legal due diligence teams to help you identify and price risk by performing investigative and cyber due diligence on investment targets.
  • Our investigative due diligence can be tailored to fill critical knowledge gaps, including insight on management teams, commercial strategy, and governance issues.
  •  Due diligence is often supplemented with market entry reporting, focused on political, regulatory and wider commercial intelligence ahead of transactions.
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Citizen & Visa

Investment migration due diligence 

Receive in-depth due diligence reporting to identify compliance and integrity risks facing citizenship and residency-by-investment programs.  

  • Work with our dedicated team with extensive experience supporting citizenship and residency-by-investment compliance programmes.  
  • Our global network of offices ensures each project is staffed by suitable regional experts.
  • Get support across all sectors and jurisdictions, including where information is hard to access or interpret.  
Case study

Assisting multinational corporations with complex due diligence 

We manage third-party and supply chain risks for major multinational corporations. Our clients include FTSE and Fortune 100 companies across the major sectors, including energy, industrials, consumer goods and technology. We conduct due diligence on our clients’ third parties, partners and suppliers, helping reduce their exposure to reputation, sanctions, bribery and corruption risks.

S-RM has a strong ability to address complex investigations (publicly exposed entities, multi-jurisdictions) and cross referencing with a diverse set of sources.

Chambers & Partners, Crisis & Risk Management, Investigative Due Diligence Guide 2023

Case study

Supporting private equity sponsors

We support a broad range of private equity sponsors – including large and mid-market buyout funds, sovereign wealth funds and DFIs. We are equally comfortable receiving instructions from deal teams directly, or via compliance counsel.  

Our clients trust us at critical and sensitive stages of a deal to work with speed, versatility, regional and sectorial experience and discretion. 

We recommend S-RM to our clients for both highly complex cross-border transactions, as well as for 'daily driver' types of matters - they are equally adept at handling both.

Compliance counsel to private equity

Case study

Helping financial services with due diligence processes 

Working with investment banking and financial services compliance teams is part of our DNA. We have been trusted partners, consultants and providers of a range of due diligence services to some of the world's leading financial services businesses for over a decade.  

We regularly advise clients on matters relating to financial crime compliance, AML and sanctions, as well as general transparency or ESG issues. 

S-RM are experienced, professional and accommodating, and their biggest strengths are their focus on customer service and high quality work they provide.

VP, Financial Crime Compliance at a bulge bracket investment bank

Our experts

Our experienced team bring valuable insights to each due diligence engagement.

Ian Massey
Ian Massey
Head of Corporate Intelligence, EMEA

Ian is the head of S-RM’s Corporate Intelligence division in EMEA. He leads a large team providing expert coverage of markets in Europe, Russia and the CIS, the Middle East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. He has spent most of the last 15 years in intelligence-related roles and has extensive industry experience across several practice areas; these include pre-transactional due diligence, multi-jurisdictional investigations, and supporting clients’ financial crime compliance and third-party due diligence programmes.  

Ian joined S-RM in 2014. Between 2017 and 2020, he established and grew S-RM’s first Asia office in Hong Kong, before returning to the UK as Director of Operations for the Corporate Intelligence division.  

Prior to joining S-RM, Ian held front-office investment banking roles at JP Morgan and Jefferies. He has worked in deal teams on M&A and capital markets transactions in several sectors, including energy, financial services, insurance, healthcare, biotech, retail and consumer services. He spent five years as an officer in the British Army, where he specialised in operational intelligence. Ian speaks fluent French and conversational Arabic and Pashto. He read History at the University of Cambridge. 

Morgan Stark
Morgan Stark
Head of Corporate Intelligence, Asia

Morgan Stark joined the business in 2019.

He leads the delivery of intelligence and diligence work throughout the Asia Pacific region. Before S-RM, Morgan led the Stroz Friedberg due diligence and strategic research practice in Hong Kong, where he worked from 2012.

Morgan has a BA from the University of York, and an MA and PhD in Russian Philosophy from University College London. He speaks Russian, Mandarin, and Cantonese.

 

Stark, Morgan

Sam Taylor
Sam Taylor
Head of Corporate Intelligence, Americas

Based in New York, Sam lead’s S-RM’s Corporate Intelligence practice in the Americas. He has over 13 years of industry experience leading professional services teams; supporting clients in complex crises; and conducting and managing investigations. Sam specializes in multi-jurisdictional investigations, proxy fights, asset tracing, litigation support, and complex transactional investigative due diligence. He works closely with counsel, compliance units, and deal teams to advise clients on investigative strategy, how to best approach challenging jurisdictions, and answer specific questions.

 

Sam specializes in the US and Latin America, but has worked on global engagements touching Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Sam spent eight years at Kroll where he led the North American research practice and co-led the monitorship of a bank fined for violating US sanctions law. Prior to joining S-RM, Sam worked for a Big Four accounting firm and later managed investigations at a boutique litigation support firm focusing on cross-border cases in Latin America.

Diana Nyabongo
Diana Nyabongo
Director of Operations, Corporate Intelligence

Diana is head of S-RM’s South Africa office and the Director of Operations for our Corporate Intelligence business. She has extensive experience providing clients with intelligence to support decisions relating to market entry, regulatory compliance and business operations in the sub-Saharan Africa region. She joined S-RM in 2014, and during that time has held a number of positions, including as the head of the sub-Saharan Africa Corporate Intelligence team and as an Associate Director co-ordinating the company’s strategy programme.

Prior to S-RM, Diana worked at The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab researching development policies and conducting impact analysis in Southern Africa, and at the University of Cape Town where she led the School of Economics’ undergraduate writing program. She is originally from Uganda, fluent in Swahili and holds a holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Economics.

Ian Massey
Ian Massey

Head of Corporate Intelligence, EMEA

Morgan Stark
Morgan Stark

Head of Corporate Intelligence, Asia

Sam Taylor
Sam Taylor

Head of Corporate Intelligence, Americas

Diana Nyabongo
Diana Nyabongo

Director of Operations, Corporate Intelligence

Talk to us

Receive valuable insight into your due diligence challenges

We help your business navigate even the most complex due diligence challenges. Get in touch today to learn more.

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