If you or your clients are contemplating a new partnership, joint venture, merger or corporate partnership, perhaps you should consider the benefits of a due diligence investigation to avoid fraud risk inheritance. Due diligence has proven to be vital in identifying fraud risks and discovering ‘off-balance sheet’ issues. 

Legal entities, independent from ownership, remain responsible towards the fiscal authorities. Non-regularisation of fiscal fraud can lead to fines of up to 200% for VAT-related issues and 309% for payments viewed as secret commissions. Imagine you are confronted with these fines for prior actions that were taken in a firm you recently acquired. Recovery of losses from former shareholders or owners is often impossible in practice due to the organisation of personal bankruptcies.

We use a wide variety of investigative techniques such as:

 Background investigations of companies
 Conflict of interest reviews
 Test presence of misrepresentations and non-disclosures of material
    facts or issues
 Test presence of hidden debts
 Test presence of fictive suppliers or use of false invoices
 Test presence of foreign customers that are not compliant with VAT 
   regulations or use false sales contracts
 Fiscal fraud red flag testing
 Money laundering red flag testing
 Bribery red flag testing
 Test presence of data security risks
 Test presence of other forms of non-compliance with laws and
    regulations
 Forensic interviews