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October 2023
Foreign Investors Have Reasons for Confidence After Thailand’s Tumultuous General Election

After weeks of political paralysis following the May 2023 general election, Thailand finally has a government that can begin work on pulling its economy out of a post-pandemic slump. The 11-party coalition government under the leadership of Prime Minister Srettharead more

August 2023
Shielding Executives from the Digital Storm

While businesses frequently assess their online reputations, cyber security, and online data vulnerabilities, the same level of scrutiny is not always applied to these areas as they relate to company executives. Investigations of social media, deep web, and dark webread more

April 2023
Orange Soda in Fiji: Global Asset Tracing

Attempts to chase assets of Russian oligarchs following the Russian invasion of Ukraine have brought newfound attention to the byzantine ways in which malefactors can hide their beneficial ownership of assets, whether they be luxury properties in London, superyachts inread more

December 2022
Don’t Feed the Trolls: An Investigator’s Approach to Online Harassment

In this Corporate Counsel article, Managing Director Chris Ribeiro discusses investigative responses to hate or misinformation campaigns.read more

November 2022
Beware the October Surprise

One month before Election Day 2022, Wes Moore was primed to be elected the next governor of Maryland. His campaign was riding the momentum of a hard-fought victory in a highly competitive Democratic primary; one in which Moore defeated nineread more

November 2022
Data Privacy Laws and Private Investigators: What You Need to Know

When most people think about privacy laws, what springs to mind are banks, insurance companies, and health care providers; businesses that move reams of data every day. However, since information, including personal information, is the stock-in-trade for every private investigator,read more

August 2022
Mitigating Risk of Data Leaks in Investigations

Businesses should implement strategies that minimize the chance of leaking collected data, explain Chris Ribeiro and Liam Hanlon at global investigations firm Nardello & Co. Top of the list they say is for firms to prepare for leaks, learn from past experiences, and proactively engage partners and investigators on the latest tools and techniques.read more

August 2022
Chinese Money Laundering Scheme Boosts Drug Trafficking in US

Managing Director Chris Urben contributes an opinion piece to The Hill.read more

July 2022
Moderna’s Single-Day CFO: The Importance of Conducting Thorough Background Investigations

On May 9, industry veteran Jorge Gomez reported for work as the new chief financial officer of biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., as the company sought continued global growth following the success of its messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccine. Gomez was aread more

June 2022
Intelligence in the Modern World: The Opportunities and Barriers of Data in Today’s Investigations

Managing Directors Christopher Ribeiro and Amie Chang discuss the importance of open source intelligence in modern investigations in this Law.com article.read more

May 2022
New Front Lines in AML Investigations

From cryptocurrency and real estate to Chinese underground banks, Nardello & Co. Managing Directors John Auerbach, Howard Master, and Chris Urben outline emerging front lines in complex financial crime investigations in a chapter of International Comparative Legal Guide’s Anti-Money Laundering Laws and Regulations 2022.read more

May 2022
Investigating the SCOTUS leak: Here’s what needs to be done

Senior Managing Directors Nicholas Peck and Thomas Feeney contribute an opinion piece to The Hill.read more

April 2022
Mitigating Risks in Private Investigations

Today in Bloomberg Law, Senior Managing Director Michael Ramos and Chief Legal Officer Warren Feldman discuss the situations where private investigators may be useful to attorneys conducting probes into allegations of corporate misconduct. They emphasize that private investigators must use ethical and legal methods to gather evidence so that it is admissible in court, and that attorneys can be held responsible for illegal conduct by investigators, such as pretexting.read more

April 2022
Revisiting the Criminal Defense Subpoena

In this New York Law Journal special section on white collar crime, Nardello & Co. Managing Director and Counsel to the CEO Howard Master applies his experience in federal and state prosecutors’ offices and his work on wrongful conviction cases to recommendread more

March 2022
Managing the Cyber Storm, Making Order Out of Chaos

The gloves have come off in cyberspace: nation states, ransomware groups, and organized cyber-criminal organizations are taking sides. Industry professionals continue to see the targeting of multinational technology companies, cyber defense solutions, and trusted identity platforms. Over the past month,read more

March 2022
Data Wars: Global Companies in the Geopolitical Crosshairs

In Corporate Counsel today, Nardello & Co. Managing Director John Auerbach and Trenchcoat Advisors co-founders Bill Priestap and Holden Triplett provide tips for better securing your company in today’s high-risk cyber environment, noting that incident prevention is paramount, so security must be more prominent and proactive.read more

March 2022
Not So Elementary, My Dear Watson: Complying with International Sanctions

As seasoned investigators, we are routinely engaged by our clients to carry out due diligence investigations to minimize the risk of exposure to sanctioned parties. These parties include individuals/companies appearing on government blacklists such as the US Office of Foreignread more

February 2022
Will Japan’s Economic Security Push Trigger a Paradigm Shift in Its Due Diligence Mindset?

Amid growing concerns about Chinese espionage and threats to Japan’s supply chains laid bare by geopolitical tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has made economic security a signature policy item ahead of upper house parliamentary electionsread more

January 2022
Environmental Accounting Requires More Than Just Auditors—It Also Needs Investigators

As shown during COP26—the UN Climate Change Conference—in Glasgow this past fall, the role financial markets can play in ending dependence on fossil fuels engenders heated discussion and debate. UBS recently estimated that $140 trillion will be spent to realizeread more

January 2022
‘Everyone Has to Give Blood Sometime’: Lessons for Theranos Investors

Chief among the questions raised by the criminal fraud conviction of Elizabeth Holmes, at least among investigators who assess risk for a living, is: “What steps could investors have taken to avoid being victimized by the Theranos fraud?” In aread more

December 2021
China Evergrande: Managing the Risk of a Black Box Economy

With the high–profile struggles of real estate giant China Evergrande Group in the news, long–time China market watchers can be forgiven for feeling a touch of déjà vu. This week the company reportedly defaulted on over USD 300 billion ofread more

November 2021
ESG Due Diligence: A New Class of Risk

The rapid rise of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) framework as a measure of corporate performance is remaking global business. Regulators around the world are rewriting the playbook for political and market demands that companies report their environmental andread more

November 2021
South Dakota—the new Liechtenstein? What the Pandora Papers Say about US Fiscal Paradises

In mythology, Pandora opened her box and released all manner of evil into the world. Just as Prometheus warned against what might come, the recent revelations of the Pandora Papers — a leak of millions of documents from 14 offshoreread more

October 2021
The Investigator’s Endgame: Finding Success Without Compromising Ethics

Modern day investigators have the luxury of seemingly endless technological resources that allow them to investigate in ways that Sherlock Holmes could have only dreamed of. The gift of modern technology and all its bells and whistles does come withread more

July 2021
Enticement and Dissonance: Wall Street Bets on China in Spite of Tensions

Amid worsening US-China relations, US financial institutions are doubling down on the world’s second largest economy. Enticed by China’s loosening of foreign ownership rules in the financial sector, American financial institutions are pursuing an unprecedented opportunity to capitalize on theread more

July 2021
Biden’s Central American Anti-Corruption Campaign and Implications for US Businesses

Last month, US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Guatemala in her role overseeing diplomatic efforts aimed at reducing migration pressures in the Northern Triangle of Central America. Vice President Harris had a stark message for the Honduran, Salvadoran, and Guatemalanread more

May 2021
The More Things Change, The More Things Need to Change: Competing in an Unregulated Environment

The last twenty years have seen tremendous changes in how we interact, both personally and professionally. Social media and crowdfunding have, to varying degrees, impacted our daily lives. There is no question that these platforms have had a positive effect:read more

April 2021
As Shareholder Activists Flex Their Muscles, What Lessons for Japan, Inc?

Anyone who thought shareholder activism would never take root in Japan had a rude awakening at Toshiba’s extraordinary general meeting last month. An investor revolt on March 18 saw Singapore-based activist fund Effissimo Capital Management, the largest shareholder of theread more

March 2021
The Old Boys’ Network is Failing

Former Covid vaccine czar Moncef Slaoui’s departure from various corporate positions following sexual harassment allegations and the continued calls for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation following allegations of bullying, inappropriate comments, and unwanted touching, are only two of theread more

March 2021
January 6 and Beyond: Understanding the New Social Media Landscape

The storming of the US Capitol on January 6 shocked the nation and laid bare the dangerous consequences that online radicalization poses to American democracy. Attorney General Merrick Garland, in his Senate confirmation hearing on February 22, declared that domesticread more

March 2021
The “Robinhood Effect” on Due Diligence

Until recently, many Wall Street professionals viewed individual retail investors as minor players in the equity market with little power to drive share prices. That assumption was finally put to bed by the astonishing surge (and subsequent crash) of onceread more

March 2021
The EU’s Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence: Be Prepared, Not Worried

The idea that businesses should take care not to engage in or enable human rights violations in their overseas operations is not novel. Corporate social responsibility is a principle that has been around nearly as long as corporations themselves, andread more

February 2021
Modern Risks Demand Modern Due Diligence

The notion that financial institutions and other commercial actors should take reasonable precautions to avoid facilitating criminal activities—today commonly referred to as “due diligence”—has its origins in early twentieth-century efforts to combat money laundering in casinos by organized crime groups.read more

January 2021
Hack & Sell Short: A New Cyber Threat

A recent piece in the Financial Times drew attention to the potential for short sellers to drive down a company’s share value by conspiring with hackers to attack a target company’s IT systems. The author of the article made theread more

December 2020
PPE Fraud: Buyer Beware

Among the many consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is the unprecedented demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), typically used by medical professionals, but which now has become a life-or-death necessity for people around the world. This frenzied demand has revealedread more

November 2020
China-Led Trade Agreement Symbolizes Challenges Facing Biden Administration in Asia

Largely drowned out by post-US election vitriol and new waves of COVID-19 infections, a significant China-led economic milestone in Asia-Pacific was reached on November 15. The signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (“RCEP”)—creating the world’s largest trading bloc—is aread more

November 2020
FCPA Defendants Shouldn’t Take the Heat Alone

These days, when it comes to enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the buck often stops at an individual executive’s desk, not at the door of the company’s legal department. For those in the prosecutorial crosshairs, personal exposureread more

November 2020
Blind Followers: Popular Misconceptions About Surveillance

Inspector Javert may not have been a kind man, but he was a thorough professional, the right man to infiltrate the students’ movement and to help quash the Paris Uprising of 1832. He did as he promised when, in theread more

October 2020
Don’t Let the Pandemic Launch Your New Product For You

With an economy stalled by the pandemic, companies are keeping new products under wraps and waiting for a better time to launch. But the longer new product campaigns are delayed, the more vulnerable they become to having specs leaked toread more

September 2020
Private Eyes & Public Profiles: The Ethics of Using Social Media in Investigations

As the events—both inconsequential and monumental—in people’s lives have spread onto Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok, and other platforms, a record has been created of comings and goings, personal opinions and piques, that can be a trove for private investigators.read more

September 2020
Malaise Till Kingdom Come: Pro-Democracy Protests Push Thailand Into Uncharted Territory

A mass of university students giving the three-fingered Hunger Games salute. Calls for democracy and the end of authoritarian rule. A grassroots movement without a political party whose preferred organizing tools are social media groups and encrypted messenger applications. Onread more

August 2020
Impeaching the Credibility of a Government Witness

In most criminal trials, the testimony of a cooperating witness is a key, if not essential, part of the government’s case. No one knows the facts of a criminal conspiracy better than a participant in that conspiracy, or so theread more

August 2020
Using Investigators in Workouts, Restructurings, and Bankruptcies

Given the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus, experts expect a tidal wave of bankruptcies. We are already seeing the growing crest of that wave with Chapter 11 filings by household names such as Neiman Marcus, JCPenney, J.Crew, Hertz, andread more

July 2020
China Watching Leadership Tussle Within Japan’s Ruling Party for Policy Recalibration

With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s third term as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) expiring in September 2021, China will be keeping a close eye on the political machinations that could determine whether his successor recalibrates Japan’s approachread more

June 2020
Sovereign Asset Tracing: A Whole New World

Finding and successfully attaching sovereign assets often seems impossibly daunting. With seemingly endless resources and the protections of legal concepts like sovereign immunity, sovereign states and their leaders are well–insulated from monetary judgments. Now, however, new transparency policies, recent legalread more

June 2020
Global Realities: How to Intelligently Rethink Supply Chains

The COVID–19 pandemic has made real for many US companies a concern long held by US national security experts: for industries dependent on key materials solely manufactured in China, the country is a single point of failure, where any breakdownread more

May 2020
Hong Kong’s Summer of Discontent 2.0

Last week’s opening of the annual plenary meetings of the National People’s Congress (“NPC”) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference included an unwelcome surprise for Hong Kong: the announcement that the NPC will enact national security legislation in theread more

May 2020
Private Investigators and the GDPR: Be Careful What You Ask For—You May Get It

Two years after the implementation of the most ambitious privacy regime in history, data protection agencies remain woefully understaffed, with referrals growing and resources lagging far behind, according to a complaint filed recently with the European Commission. Yet, while theyread more

May 2020
ESG: Activists’ New BFF

For 33 years, Lee Raymond has served on the board of directors of JPMorgan Chase & Co. But, according to a recent op–ed in The New York Times by environmentalist Bill McKibben, it’s time for him to go. His re–electionread more

May 2020
Heads Up: Short Sellers Are Not Quarantined

Having conducted numerous short seller investigations over the past 20 years, I was interested in the recent Wall Street Journal report that short sales hit their highest level since 2016 despite the fact that—as the market sustained large losses fromread more

April 2020
China Plus 10? In the Wake of COVID–19, Manufacturers Will Face an Ever More Diffuse World

Within the lexicon of global business, few expressions have gained as much currency in recent years as “China Plus One.” Often employed as a catch–all distillation of the tectonic shifts occurring in global manufacturing, the term fares less well asread more

April 2020
The Cyber Threat Epidemic

As organizations struggle to meet the challenges of the COVID–19 pandemic, they should be clear–eyed in evaluating the cyber risks facing them. In the rush to implement widespread remote working, IT teams are being stretched thin. Anxious for accurate informationread more

April 2020
What Do Gumshoes Do When They Can’t Pound the Pavement?

The film noir image of the hard–bitten private eye does not feature him (and it is always a him) sitting at his desk looking through documents. He is out and about, whether following the bad guysread more

April 2020
Nardello & Co.’s Checklist for Using Zoom Securely

As businesses shift to widespread remote–working arrangements, they rely heavily on online meeting platforms, like Zoom™. Nardello & Co.’s Digital Investigations and Cyber Defense Practice has put together a checklist to help you reduce the risk of Zoom meeting compromisesread more

October 2019
The Gloves Are Coming Off as Shareholder Activists Look Towards Europe: How Companies Can Prepare to Fight Back

While shareholder activism has historically been a US affair, it is starting to put down deep roots in Europe. In recent years, hedge funds’ underperformance relative to equities, combined with their contested fee structure and institutional investors’ increasing acceptance forread more

August 2019
Batten Down the Hatches: The “Perfect Storm” for White Collar Crime is About to Hit China

After breaking up a fraud ring inside his US company’s operations in China, “Peter” (as I shall refer to him here) hardly had the chance to draw breath before discovering a separate group of coworkers engaged in the same scheme—fakingreadread more

April 2019
Defending Against Shareholder Activist Attacks: Identifying Their Vulnerabilities (And Yours, Too)

Activist investors typically target a company due to perceived performance issues, questioning the merits of a company’s business strategy and lamenting weak shareholder returns. Such criticism is certainly fair game for any shareholder, and all companies should be prepared toread more

March 2019
Finding the Skeletons in Your Closet—Before the Media Does

Front pages across America lit up in early February with the revelation that Virginia governor Ralph Northam was indeed one of those in a college yearbook photo showing one white person dressed in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan regalia.1 Justreadread more

February 2019
On the Brink of Regime Change in Venezuela, Here’s Why Creditors Should Still Worry

With regime change in Venezuela appearing imminent, international creditors and companies seeking compensation for government expropriations may feel more hopeful about their chances of recovery than at any time in recent memory. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, these hopesread more

January 2019
Japan’s Attempts to Help Banks Vet Yakuza Links Fall Short

When Japan’s National Police Agency (NPA) announced last January that it would allow Japanese banks to vet potential customers against its closely held database of organized crime or yakuza members, the news was met with cautious optimism. The yakuza – officially referredread more

October 2018
My firm conducts global investigations. Here’s what needs to happen for Khashoggi.

Chairman & CEO Daniel Nardello contributes an opinion piece to The Washington Post.read more

August 2018
Hot Topics and Current Trends in Public Corruption Investigations

Investigating and charging public officials for corruption is not new, but the number of arrests, charges, and convictions of public officials has increased rapidly over the last few years. With an eye to what is prevalent, this article will exploreread more

July 2018
“Safeguarding” Aid Workers: The Importance of Rooting Out Bad Actors

A recent series of alarming revelations of widespread sexual misconduct by international aid workers – both against other workers and aid recipients – and attempts to cover up the scandals are fueling unprecedented pressure on aid organizations to step upread more

March 2018
What China’s New Anti-Corruption Agency Means for Foreign Firms

China’s creation of a National Supervisory Commission, passed into law on 20 March 2018, marks the birth of a powerful new state body with broad powers to tackle bribery and abuse of office throughout the public sector. This potentially spellsread more

January 2018
Keeping Predators Out of the Corner Office

Not every noxious cloud has a silver lining, but the recent rash of sexual misconduct allegations and scandals, catalyzed by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein, has had several. In addition to exposing and hopefully uprooting a culture of silence, itread more

September 2017
The New Cyber Reality: A Perpetual State of Breach

Just as individuals and organizations were digesting the implications of the massive Equifax data breach, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped another cyber-bombshell last week, announcing a serious compromise in 2016 of “EDGAR,” the Commission’s system for housing documentsread more

September 2017
The Equifax Data Breach – What You Need To Know

In the wake of Equifax Inc.’s recent data breach announcement, inpiduals and corporations around the world are asking “What does this mean for me?” and, more importantly, “What should I do about it?” What Happened On Sept. 7, 2017, Equifaxread more

June 2017
The Case for Lateral Partner Due Diligence

A law firm’s reputation is built on the conduct of its partners. Firms have traditionally promoted from within, a thoughtful and incremental process. Today, however, it has become much more common to recruit partner-level candidates from competitors. Lateral recruiting canread more

February 2017
Conducting Corporate Investigations in Africa

With some exceptions, corporate investigations in Africa present greater challenges and complexities than typically found in North America or Western Europe. While generalisation is dangerous in a continent of 55 jurisdictions with varying economic, political, social and linguistic characteristics, thereread more

August 2016
Uber’s Rogue Investigators Cause Federal Judge’s Temper to Surge

Judge Jed Rakoff’s decision issued on July 25th in the Meyer v. Kalanick case pending in the Southern District of New York serves as a reminder of the ethical rule that as an attorney, the actions of your investigator areread more

August 2016
Corporate Spies Must Toe the Line

Private investigators don’t do what Hollywood would have you think they do. Not legally, at least. They can’t smack people around, like Sam Spade did in The Maltese Falcon, or sneak into crime scenes, like Philip Marlowe did in theread more

July 2016
Two Cheers for the Modern Slavery Act?

Though more than 150 years have passed since the abolition of slavery in the United Kingdom, there are an estimated 21 to 35 million people working under slave-like conditions globally. In a recent attempt to address this shameful statistic, theread more

June 2016
Murky Waters: Navigating Business & Politics in Asia

Politics and business intertwine in a unique way in Asia, where state-run economies, crony capitalism and social networks prevail. These three forces are present across the region, though they manifest differently from country to country; understanding their influence is essentialread more

May 2016
Implications of the Panama Papers for Panama and Beyond

When the Panama Papers were first revealed last month, the country of Panama found itself at the center of a world-wide storm of financial disclosures. The largest data leak in history, the Panama Papers encompass 11.5 million documents from aread more

December 2015
Investigative Due Diligence: Beyond Google

Due diligence has become a standard component of most major business transactions. Anti-corruption laws, such as the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act, and anti-money laundering laws, such as the US Patriot Act, place an onusread more

April 2015
Independent Investigation into NYU Abu Dhabi Campus Allegations

As you may have seen, on April 16th we issued our report summarizing the results of our investigation into allegations made by several news organizations and NGOs about abusive labor practices for the thousands of migrant workers involved in buildingread more

April 2014
Wasta: Connections or Corruption in the Arab World

In the wake of the Arab Spring, corruption has become one of the Arab World’s most talked about problems. Islam strictly prohibits corruption and there are undoubtedly many in the Arab World who take the Quran’s injunction seriously: “And doread more