SOME CASE HISTORIES

The following are excerpts from actual assignments. Only the most identifying details have been altered to protect confidentiality. ALL relevant details are completely accurate and unaltered.

EXAMPLE # 1

A leading producer of a specialized telecommunication component is advised that an offshore company is making exact replicas of this component and flooding the Canadian market with the 'clone' and extremely low prices.

Our investigators were assigned to track the source of the product and finally identified a small factory in the pacific rim. An operative was dispatched to that country to view the factory and obtain samples under the guise of a potential investor.

The investigator obtained photographs of the factory, the raw materials and the equipment. Samples of the finished product were also obtained.

The samples were tested in Canada by our client and found to be of exceptionally high quality. Our client was so impressed with the quality and the price of the product that they approached the factory owners and entered into a contract to have them make this component on a sub contract basis. Out client ceased production of this item in Canada, reassigned the staff to other manufacturing activities and saved several million dollars through the use of quality components at lower prices.

EXAMPLE # 2

In this case, our client was a manufacturer of specialized technical equipment. They suspected that a sales representative was passing information to an outside party. The suspicion arose when several extremely sensitive issues (all of which were discussed in a secure meeting room) were found to have been passed on to outsiders.

A surveillance on the employee in question revealed that he had recently begun a romantic relationship with a woman. Further investigation determined that this woman was an employee of a direct competitor to our client. Our client's employee was confronted, admitted to passing information "to impress his new girlfriend" and he was terminated for cause.

EXAMPLE # 3

A client approached us to investigate a company which they were considering as a potential acquisition. Accountants had declared the financial aspects of the target company to be solid, the legal advisors had created the appropriate contracts but the client wisely wanted to know about the company from a 'street level' perspective.

We interviewed customers, employees and conducted a detailed background check on the principals. We found that despite increased earnings (and retention of those earnings) over the past several years, that the company had consistently fallen short on delivery deadlines, had a very high employee turnover due to outdated management practices and that the principals of the company had less that sterling backgrounds.

As a result, the offer was amended, the retention of the current principals as managers was deleted from the contract and a program of damage control with existing clients was embarked upon.

EXAMPLE # 4

In this case, our client was in a very competitive retail industry. They were positive that they had an inside leak as their marketing plans were being adopted by their competitors almost as soon as they were created. In several cases, negotiations to lease retail space in prime traffic areas failed as the competitor was approaching landlords and offering higher rent than our client.

We conducted a security audit and found that our client had virtually no information security program in place. Sensitive documents were visible through windows from the exterior of the offices, anyone who could log on to a computer could access every file and program within the office and sensitive material which was to be destroyed was recycled as opposed to being shredded.

In this case, we did not identify the culprit but we created and implemented a security program which restricted access to files and programs, we educated staff in the importance of confidentiality and we completely eliminated the 'leak'.