Acting for an African sovereign state, iSanctuary was commissioned to identify and recover assets from politically exposed persons, PEPs, through intelligence-gathering assessments, of selected individuals, conducted through our iSanctuary Assettracer ™ and the use of our proprietary methodology.<br /><br/> Extensive research was conducted to identify assets associated with the individuals, including global searches across over 2 billion public and 240 million corporate records, across 190 counties. Consequently, supporting evidence gathered was utilised to demonstrate the level of lifestyle, location of physical and liquid assets, relevant business relationships, and family members. <br /><br />Additionally, these searches identified crucial information to assist in the determination of the risk of assets dissipating. As a result of Assettracer's multijurisdictional data sets we were able to obtain tax, import/export data and offshore data leaks, directly assisting in the identification of UK real estate, comprising 6 London residential properties, with a total value in excess of £23 million, directly attributable to the PEPs.

An Asset Tracer report was commissioned by our client, concerning a high-net-worth female POI, a socialite on the run, and subject to an Interpol red notice for her involvement in significant corruption by misappropriating public funds for her personal benefit. The large-scale international corruption offence saw the POI trading in state-owned oil, diamonds, and art worth billions.<br /><br /> Asset Tracer as a foundation of the investigation, highlighted a significant UK property portfolio linked to the POI and her familial network; however, steps by a network of professional enablers and facilitators had obfuscated ownership via a blind Isle of Man structure. Many investigations end here; however, to get behind this firewall our team was instructed to dive deeper into the data with our Asset Tracer + product. <br/> <br/> Asset Tracer + uncovered her digital footprint, including accessible social media accounts for not only the POI but her family network under a series of pseudonyms, with family members often proving the chink in the armour with less diligent personal security considerations.<br/> <br/> By forensically capturing the rich tapestry of media, including videos, our OSINT analysts placed the subjects at the property by matching subtle architectural details in the fore and background to the publicly available property plans. <br/> <br/> This generated a credible body of evidence of association linking the family’s pattern of life to the UK property as a ‘centre of gravity’, including details of the POI children’s education and schooling in the South Kensington area.<br/> <br/> Our team were also able to provide near real-time updates on the POIs location detailing international travel despite the red notice via geo-positioned images. Asset Tracer + is vital to support your legal teams in the forensic capture of globally sourced intelligence to build the strongest possible case to secure asset recovery.

iSanctuary were engaged by a law firm following the discovery that the finance director, of an international chemicals company, had stolen substantial amounts of money from his employer over a period of ten years. The theft was discovered following an audit that identified significant VAT underpayments, which consequently disclosed a ‘black hole’ in the company accounts. <br /> <br />The evidence pointed to criminality on the part of the finance director, who was not forthcoming in providing a detailed explanation of what he had done with the money. Without evidence confirming criminal behaviour, our client would have had to bear the responsibility of making good the deficit; therefore, it was imperative to locate assets gained through fraud and theft to help address significant monetary loss for the client. <br /> <br />Our brief was to conduct a forensic investigation of the theft, to establish where the funds had gone, and identify and recover criminal proceeds; this included deploying iSanctuary’s in-house forensic accountant and the forensic examination of associated computers and digital media. <br /> <br />Our investigation of the subject and his familial network identified properties, businesses, vehicles, personal assets, and substantial expenditures. We were able to illustrate how the stolen monies used supported the subject’s lifestyle, including substantial investments in a marital property which increased its value significantly, and investments into his wife’s current business. <br /> <br />We provided an evidential witness statement to support a successful Norwich Pharmacal Order application for associated banking material which provided supporting evidence of the subject’s criminality and movement of funds.

The client was represented in the largest-ever divorce settlement awarded in the UK courts. iSanctuary were tasked to identify the ultimate beneficial ownership of high-value properties in London and the current and previous owners of a super yacht. This information was critical as the client's (now former) husband appeared to have deliberately divested himself of all assets to avoid paying his wife a financial settlement in the divorce proceedings. <br /><br/> iSanctuary financial investigators and analysts established which properties in London were held under an offshore blind trust and attribution of use and ownership. Although the yacht had been sold, through inquiries in Europe, BVI and Asia, alongside extensive Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) work, we established previous ownership of the client’s former husband and, importantly, the date of sale, how and to whom. All this information helped the client and her legal team prove the asset and its proceeds, made at the sale, were part of the financial portfolio of her former husband. <br /><br /> The client was ultimately awarded £100M in a divorce settlement.