ASSET SEARCHES
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Asset Search – Reveal an individual or company’s true financial situation and net worth
It is true to say that a number of people are not transparent and aim to hide assets from business associates, relatives and partners for the simple fact that they worry that the same assets will be ceased if there is financial fallout within a business or indeed separation and divorce settlements.
Why does the need arise for an asset search?
This can be something as simple as your business partner omitting to divulge information on a property purchased or perhaps using related party transactions between their company and another business, they control to move money to where they think it can’t be traced. In some cases, people set up companies in order to funnel money out via dividends or similar director perks. Offshore bank accounts or holdings are often used to keep money out of the tax man’s hands but equally could also be keeping a former spouse in the dark or a business that has been defrauded. Assets are likely to be concealed for tax purposes or other financial reasons.
For whatever reason the Proactive Investigations asset search service is available for individuals and businesses to help demonstrate the financial profile of an individual or entity. Working along side you and your legal team we will plan a thorough investigation, collating facts and provide both court evidence and full report to support your claim.
The reporting structure will allow us to locate physical and financial assets presenting evidence of investments, acquisitions, ownership and partnerships. The results of which will conclude if the individual or company has anything of value prior to expensive litigation procedures.
Asset and trace investigations that include but are not exhaustive of our service:
- Asset and investment tracing
- Finding hidden assets
- Proof of land, property and asset ownership
- Mapping of front companies and tax shelters
- Tracing chains of ownership and paper trails
- Expert assessment of individual worth and resources
- Global reach and resource
How do we track down hidden assets?
Administering an asset check is essential to track down the many different ways individuals or companies try to conceal their assets.
Investigations commence with a full background check. A large proportion of information is already available in the public domain such as land registry and vehicle license register and more can be obtained by utilising paid for services. The critical part is following up the information and detailing this in a systemised manner. Taking note of the small print in accounts transactions is of critical importance to pull out key data of techniques used to transfer assets. Digital online searches and investigations can also reveal a whole host of information for both companies and individuals.
Why you should conduct an asset search/trace before litigation?
The whole litigation process is timely and costly. You may at the end of it win your case but if the other party doesn’t have the assets or means to settle you will be at a loss.
The asset trace and search report we can provide will contain hard evidence for presentation to courts but will equally provide you with the knowledge and confirmation if they have the money to settle your claim.
If the process determines there are no hidden assets then it will save you money on progressing with potential litigation spend, however, if we should reveal hidden assets to you throughout the process you have the information to work towards having these frozen.
Case Study
We had a private client whose father, who was a pedestrian at the time, was killed following a road traffic collision. The police had attended and when they tested the driver of the offending vehicle, the result was positive for having consumed drugs, he was arrested, and an investigation was started.
Our client was initially not happy with the communications between the police and him about where the investigation was up to and he contacted us with a view of potentially taking out a private prosecution, dependant on the actions taken by the police.
The client asked us to conduct a trace enquiry and then follow it up with an asset search on the subject, which we conducted.
We traced the subject to an address and then cracked on with our asset searches, we discovered that the subject set up a limited company to a registered address that did not exist. We also discovered that the subject had a close relative who lived on the same road as where the bogus address was for the limited company.
Further enquiries revealed that the subject had been convicted and served a substantial prison sentence for being responsible for attempting to smuggle a large quantity of Class A drugs and he would have been released from prison around the time of the bogus limited company being set up.
Enquiries are still ongoing to ascertain any finances the subject have hidden, but this case highlights the phrase “Never lose sight of the squirrel”
PROBLEM
We were instructed by a large bulider’s merchants to investigate a case where a credit account had been opened with our clients company which allowed them to obtain over £10,000 worth of goods on credit. The company had already conducted credit checks on the individual concerned, who turned out to be a false creditor. Our enquiries commenced & we concentrated our investigation on the subject’s company which did not exist. We attended the address where the goods were delivered & we were able to speak with the landlord of the premises, who allowed us to view inside the blocked off mill building, we weren’t able to gain entry but we observed what appeared to be a substantial amounts of the stolen goods stored inside, these were later recovered.
SOLUTION
The landlord gave us the name of the tenant and we made extensive enquiries to track this individual down. Every time we visited premises that this individual had been renting, we discovered that this person had moved on and this went on over several weeks. We engaged in conversation with another landlord who was owed a substantial amount of money by our subject and he gave us intelligence that led us to identify the subject’s possible workplace and a potential vehicle that he was using at the time.
OUTCOME
We found his vehicle parked up unattended on a road in an area we believed he may be residing, it was difficult to conduct observations on his vehicle, so we decided to observe his works premises at around closing time. We followed him from his works premises on foot to a city centre car park, then back to an address which tied up with where we had observed his vehicle previously and the matter was reported back to our client, who in turn reported the matter to the police, some of the stolen property was recovered and we understand that the team who were responsible for the theft were identified and subsequently prosecuted.
"Our objective is to ethically achieve the best outcome for your enquiry by conducting a positive, professional investigation whilst maintaining strict confidentiality."
