Here, Effie Lounta shares an article based on a presentation she delivered in November 2024 about open-source intelligence (OSINT) at Quantuma’s Navigating the unique structures and stakeholder interests in insolvency and restructuring in Asia-Pacific seminar, which was held in London.
Imagine the scenario - money that rightfully belongs to you, or your client has gone. The funds might have been misappropriated as a result of fraud. The person you want to track down might also be withholding alimony payments or claiming that they don’t have the funds to pay back what they owe.
There can be multiple obstacles on the road to recovery. Someone who knows what they are doing can easily conceal the missing assets or disperse them amongst family and friends. They might also go into hiding by using false identities or moving from address to address. The advent of cryptocurrencies has made it even easier for stealthy people to cover their tracks.
Calling the bad actors to account
As a forensic investigator, tracking down misappropriated funds and the people responsible has been my job for more than 13 years. Some of the work I do has a lot in common with being an investigative journalist. You need to be able to cut through the veil of secrecy to locate fraudsters, find the hidden assets and assemble the evidence needed to force them to pay up.
So how do you begin the hunt? As much as people try to hide, they (or their close associates) always leave some kind of trail, from social media posts to more covert communications and transactions on the ‘dark web’. This vast array of publicly available information is the primary source for open-source intelligence (OSINT).
As forensic investigators, we can deploy OSINT across a wide range of assignments. In litigation matters, one way that OSINT can help is to identify and recover assets and establish the connections between networks of individuals and entities. We can also preserve crucial electronic evidence that targets might seek to destroy.
In matrimonial cases, OSINT can help to locate individuals, establish sources of wealth and identify assets to be targeted in the resolution process. Here at Quantuma, we also use OSINT to advise clients on potential claims to ensure that there are assets to proceed and support the litigation. Further uses for OSINT include non-financial due diligence in areas such as mapping associations and shedding light on any adverse press.
Cutting through to what counts
The big challenge is cutting through the noise when there is such a huge volume of information to analyse. People around the world generate a staggering 400 million terabytes of data every day, the bulk of which falls into the various OSINT domains. Sifting through the communication and transaction trails can take weeks and at times even months. Now, however, next-gen OSINT analysis tools mean that we can set up a search and locate relevant data in a matter of minutes. The searches are not only faster and more effective, but also cheaper, as less investigative time is needed. This makes it possible to carry out investigations that might not have been feasible or affordable before.
But the OSINT data coming from searching these databases is still raw. Without experience, analysers can find themselves going down a lot of rabbit holes with no meaningful results at the end of them. For example, the OSINT databases might come up with an address for a number of companies related to the target. But rather than revealing the individual’s location, this is more likely to show that the companies are registered at the office of an accountant or other ‘post box’ addresses.
The most experienced investigators have the ability to sort real insights from false leads. Crucially, they also have a professional ‘sixth sense’ that enables them to connect seemingly unrelated parties and find the weak links in an otherwise sophisticated armoury of concealment. This is the forensic investigator’s equivalent of a journalist’s nose for a story.
Often the best way in is to think outside the box, rather than going straight after the target. For example, the person we are tracking might have very few if any assets in their own name. He or she may also be very careful about how they communicate. But a family member or close associate might be less guarded. In a recent asset tracing case, we were able to show that the target owned a fleet of expensive sports cars after his son started to post on social media about racing them.
In other cases, we deploy ‘boots on the ground’ to back up the OSINT with human intelligence (HUMINT). This approach might reveal a luxury lifestyle, concealed wealth and/or other intermediaries that should be investigated further. That wealth could be demonstrated when the target is travelling around in a luxury yacht or regularly dining in fine restaurants, for example.
Further options include tracing targets and misappropriated assets onto the dark web. Although the dark web can seem impenetrable to the uninitiated and scary, an experienced investigator can still unlock many of the secrets.
Art and science
So, forensic investigation is still very much a mix of art and science. The tech tools used to mine OSINT and related developments in e-discovery can get us to ‘base camp’ quicker. But reaching the summit of identification, ownership and recovery still requires an experienced investigator’s eye.
Here to help
We are working with creditors and their legal representatives around the world to uncover and recover misappropriated assets. OSINT is an important part of our armoury of investigation. But what really marks us out is the expertise to turn raw intelligence into actions and positive results.
All our investigations are fully tailored to client needs and budgets. We can offer clients a realistic upfront assessment of what the investigation entails, the work required and its chances of success, and then determine our projected fees accordingly.
If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this article or how we could help you trace and reclaim missing assets, please get in touch.
