Scam trace and criminal
Our team of detectives and investigators is led by the company CEO, Preston Smith, whose record in scam tracing and reporting goes back more than a decade. Smith's investigative work gained renowned in CEE in the early 2000s, following a career that spanned the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia.
Noteworthy onvestigations include the following:
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Smith located, identified and proved the identity of Aleksander Goldberg, Australia's most notorious white collar criminal and fugitive. Goldberg's whereabouts were unknown for a decade, despite 19 counts of fraud and embezzlement, an Interpol warrant and theft of USD1.5 billion.
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In an investigation that long preceded the Panama Papers, and which saw the forensics recovery of more than 50,000 files, Smith exposed Poland's largest proven money-laundering operation, which saw fourteen executives in Poland's state-insurer prosecuted for diverting millions to the Channel Islands. Smith's liaison work between that company and Jersey authorities resulted in the shutting down and arrest of key lawyers in the offshore haven of Jersey, investigations in Russia related that that country's largest natural gas producer and multiple investigations in Poland.
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Smith has supported multiple forensics cases and been instrumental in breaking scams and VAT carousel arrangements in Poland and the region.
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Smith also appeared/been named as a witness for CEE national parliamentary investigations, a probe into sex trafficking in the Balkans that resulted from a US State Department inquiry and a number of prosecutions on both the local and national level.
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Additionally, his work investigating organized crime/kidnappings for ransom resulted in the arrest o more than 25 persons in the region. Likewise, he has participated in international social engineering and VAT scam investigations that have directly resulted in multiple arrests.
It should also be said that CDDI members have been routinely tapped by boutique and major risk consultancies in Europe to break down scams/assist in difficult and highly sensitive CEE, SEE and CIS investigations .