Corporate Due Diligence & Investigation

Liaison with prosecutors

Those who have worked in or with local authorities will be the first to tell you that prosecutors and police are typically overworked, faced with limited budgets and forced to deal with both fickle politics and the whims of an ever judgemental public. Triage is natural under such circumstances--as is acute misunderstanding of just what should be prosecuted and what simply cannot be considered a case.

Corporate Due Diligence and Investigation has key investigators with decades of police experience in the region. They know first-hand what is viable not only as evidence, but as a strategic approach to an investigation where criminal or tax officials are involved. While a good lawyer is always an important element to criminal litigation, an approach through persons who "know the other side" can make the difference when it comes to ending product diversion or encouraging prosecutors or police to put effort into a difficult case.

It should also be mentioned that while we do not list our investigators on this site out of security concerns, the company president, Preston Smith, is arguably a truly leader as an investigator conducting such cases in the region. These include:

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 USD 1.5 bln. He later liaised with authorities regarding these matters.
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. He liaised between the Polish company, local prosecutors and international prosecutors, and his work between that company and Jersey authorities resulted in the shutting down and arrest of key lawyers in the offshore haven of Jersey.
His work also resulted in investigations in Russia with regard to a major natural gas producer and multiple investigations in Poland.
Smith also appeared 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.
His work investigating and liaising re organized crime/kidnappings for ransom indirectly resulted in the arrest of more than 25 persons in the region. He was personally thanked by the ambassador of one of the primary targeted groups of victims, following these efforts.
Smith liaised directly with prosecutors investigating and international social engineering and VAT scam investigations that led directly to multiple arrests. This included planning and conducting surveillance operations that identified the whereabouts of targets wanted by police.
Smith has also extensively worked with police with regard to identifying potential witnesses. In these cases he successfully identified potential witnesses for questioning based on untapped evidence without damaging or impeding an ongoing investigation.
Smith has liaised with not only prosecutors but NGOs and human rights groups, as well as with journalist associations with regard to child custody incidents that have seen abuse or children transported across international boundaries.
Smith has routinely been tapped by boutique and major risk consultancies in Europe to break down scams/assist in difficult and highly sensitive CEE, SEE nd CIS investigations while also garnering admissible evidence for both criminal and civil prosecution.

Please note that every case is different. What may seem an obvious case for prosecution for the layman simply may not be viable for a prosecutor. That said the opposite is often true, although creativity and the establishment of trust is key.

Please do not be afraid to contact us for a free consultation.