Case Study 1
During a search, we determined that the CEO of a company had not graduated from the graduate program in the 1970s that he claimed. After in-depth research, we found that he had not attended that school and merely stated the graduate program to “boost” his resume. Verifying education may not seem important to you or the deal; however, if individuals claim to have attended or graduated from an institution, it should be confirmed. Why? Past employment and education are very easy to “fudge” and rarely verified. If someone is lying about a degree, what else are they “fudging”? The number one thing people lie about is their education degree. This is an excellent way of determining someone’s character.
Case Study 2
A lender ordered a discreet due diligence investigation on a potential borrower. The lender had several concerns that went far beyond the financials of the business and the borrower. We conducted a discreet search on the individual and determined that the borrower had several business affiliations, and one of his business partners from a defunct company had been convicted of several counts of fraud. The relationship with the past partner and the borrower could then be examined to determine if there should be any concern with moving forward with the loan.
Case Study 3
We had a customer contemplating signing a significantly large contract with a vendor. Our client had concerns that the vendor may not be able to fulfill the contractual requirements, which would dramatically affect their growth. Thus, we conducted a due diligence investigation and found that the vendor had multiple plants across the United States and that some of the plants had financial problems and pending lawsuits. Our client was then able to make better business decisions based on this specific information.
Case Study 4
During an M&A investigation for a private equity firm, we discovered several red flags on one of the two owners of the business they were acquiring. The subject had old criminal records and claimed that the case was expunged when, in fact, it was not. He served time for three counts of indecent exposure, which was also reported to the California Sex Offender Registry. One of our expert investigators found that the subject had also been charged in Florida as a sex offender, even though he had never lived in Florida. In addition, he had some past drug charges, miscellaneous debt-related civil cases, and a foreclosure.
The history of the subject led to several concerns for our client. If we had limited the search to just the county of residence, only the foreclosure case and one small claims case would have been reported. Since the client wanted a comprehensive investigation conducted, we were able to investigate further and share the full scope of findings.