It often starts quietly. A supplier invoice that does not quite make sense. An anonymous email to the chair. A rival who seems to know your pricing before your clients do. By the time a concern reaches the board, there is usually a real question to answer, and the way the first few days are handled decides whether it ever gets answered properly.
Why independence matters
Internal teams know the business, but they also know the people, and those under suspicion may be colleagues, managers or friends. An independent investigation removes that conflict, protects the people running it and gives the outcome a credibility that an in-house review can struggle to achieve, whether the findings end up in a disciplinary hearing, an employment tribunal or the civil courts.
What we investigate
Procurement and payment fraud. Expense and payroll abuse. Conflicts of interest and undeclared relationships with suppliers. Leaks of confidential information to competitors or the press. Allegations raised by whistleblowers, which carry their own legal protections and must be handled with particular care.
How an investigation unfolds
We begin by agreeing the questions with you and, where appropriate, your lawyers, and by securing the evidence before anyone is alerted. That may mean preserving email and devices through our digital forensics team, reviewing records, carrying out discreet background enquiries and, where justified, surveillance. Interviews come later, once the facts are understood, so that they can be planned rather than improvised.
When the leak is in the room
If confidential discussions are reaching outsiders, the source is not always a person. A corporate TSCM sweep can rule out, or uncover, a listening device.
Concerns about a specific employee? See insider threats. For legal proceedings, see litigation support. Contact us in confidence.
