The Emerald Group’s Investigative Services Division conducts worldwide financial and fraud investigations, dealing with such issues as:
Management and employee fraud and misconduct / Contract and procurement fraud / Bankruptcy and asset concealment fraud / Securities, investment and loan fraud / Contract and procurement fraud / Insurance and health care fraud/ Computer crimes and software piracy / Money laundering investigations / Asset identification and location / International law enforcement liaison.
Investigative Services also conducts due diligence investigations, including background and financial inquiries on Joint Ventures, Investments Mergers and Acquisitions, Conflicts of interest, Customer integrity and stability, Prior litigation searches.
One of our greatest strengths is the proven expertise of our associates. Their ability to identify the critical issues, develop a strategy, and carry out a through investigation is the Emerald hallmark.
The infringement of intellectual property rights, whether within the realm of clearly-defined trademark, copyright, and patent violations or the more abstract world of trade secrets and creative works-in-progress, is at an unprecedented level and has become international in scope. Unfortunately, few law enforcement agencies have the jurisdiction, resources or experience to handle these complex investigations.
The Emerald Group has both the technical resources and the global network to provide individuals, corporations and law firms with sophisticated investigative expertise that can protect their intellectual property. We can also pursue those who seek to profit from the piracy of our clients’ products.
Intellectual property investigative capabilities include:
Validating complaints of infringement / Developing corroborating evidence and witnesses / Interviewing potential witnesses and informants / Identifying production outlets and distribution channels / Undercover investigations Searches and seizures / Forensic laboratory examinations / Background investigations of suspected violators / Identifying, locating and seizing illicit assets / Domestic and international law enforcement liaison / Developing anti-piracy programs.
Examples of investigative successes in this area include cases in which Emerald:
Determined that the European managing director of a multinational firm was engaged in a pattern of activities including bribes and kickbacks from vendors, extortion of distributors, gross inflation of sales figures, and possible affiliations with organized crime figures.
Successfully established the guilt of a senior executive of an international financial institution who was demanding and receiving kickbacks from customers in a foreign country.
Identified a group of corporate managers and an internal scheme by which they defrauded their employer through a “phantom” vendor and fictitious order procurement scam.
Located a bank account in a tax haven country into which millions of dollars of illegally diverted corporate assets had been secretly deposited. These funds were traced through six countries – including two Caribbean island nations.
Identified and traced the global activities of a multinational organized crime cartel based in Moscow. The cartel was attempting to infiltrate and control an entire industry in several countries from the former Soviet Union. The results of our investigation were successfully used by our client to publically expose this cartel and thwart their efforts to seize control of the industry.