Forensic Investigations and Intelligence
Overview
Astraea’s team of investigators, lawyers, certified fraud examiners, and forensic accountants helps clients manage complex legal, regulatory, commercial and reputational risks.
Our multidisciplinary team of investigators and lawyers work together seamlessly, which provides distinct benefits compared to hiring an investigations firm and a law firm separately.
This approach enhances quality and efficiency and ensures protection under legal privilege, where appropriate. It also means that investigative efforts are fully aligned with legal objectives, minimising both time and costs.
Forensic Investigations
Astraea helps clients identify and respond to allegations or instances of fraud, corruption, bribery and other acts of wrongdoing, including regulatory or professional misconduct.
Our forensic investigations team includes lawyers, regulatory and compliance SMEs, certified fraud examiners, forensic accountants, financial crime and forensic investigators, and intelligence analysts. We have extensive cross border experience of undertaking the full range of forensic investigations, including in relation to non-financial misconduct, financial wrongdoing and regulatory or compliance breaches.
We are appointed by individuals, companies, national and supranational organisations, and governments to carry out independent investigations and fact-finding reviews, in a range of situations. This includes in relation to complex cross-border civil disputes, to investigate known or suspected wrongdoing in an organisation or in response to heightened scrutiny by regulators or law enforcement.
We investigate issues that have civil, criminal and regulatory repercussions. This can involve suspicion of fraud, bribery, corruption, cartel activity, sanctions or money laundering breaches, or non-financial misconduct (such as bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct).
Astraea is also instructed to undertake investigations on behalf of regulators.
Our Focus Areas
Non-Financial Misconduct
Astraea undertakes conduct-related investigations in relation to complaints and disciplinary processes, whistleblowing reports and as part of wider fact-finding investigations. Issues investigated include allegations of bullying, harassment, sexual misconduct, abuse of office, and breaches of an organisation’s policies and procedures.
Regulatory Investigations
Astraea is instructed to undertake investigations on behalf of financial and professional regulators. We also act for regulated businesses that are facing heightened regulatory scrutiny or intervention.
Financial Wrongdoing
We undertake investigations into allegations or instances of known or suspected fraud (including asset misappropriation schemes and financial statement fraud), bribery and corruption, and complex money laundering and sanctions evasion.
Representative Experience
Non-financial misconduct
Investigating the conduct of a senior employee in a regulated professional services firm, in support of an internal disciplinary process.
Financial wrongdoing
Investigating suspicious transactions exceeding US$300M on behalf of an oil major.
Regulatory Investigations
Leading a range of complex financial crime investigations on behalf of a UK headquartered bank in order to comply with its legal and regulatory obligations.
Intelligence
We leverage expertise in multi-domain, human-led intelligence gathering and advanced digital forensic investigations tools to deliver better outcomes for our clients.
Astraea’s multidisciplinary team of investigators, lawyers, certified fraud examiners, and forensic accountants provides a range of human-led intelligence capabilities to give our clients the advantage in legal proceedings, high-stakes business decisions and transactions, as well as protect their assets, brands, and value.
Our Focus Areas
Litigation Support
We provide intelligence and admissible evidence to support creative dispute resolution, enforcement, and asset recovery strategies. We help clients at every stage of a dispute, from conducting early pre-action investigations, through case preparation and the collection of evidence to support interim applications, to post judgment enforcement. Our multidisciplinary team excels at tracing hidden offshore assets and identifying obscured connections, networks and associations. We locate targets and other persons of interest such as witnesses and confidential sources, and identify intelligence that can be deployed to apply calibrated pressure or leverage.
Online Threat Investigations
We use cutting-edge digital investigations capabilities and open-source intelligence techniques to investigate hostile actors who use the digital domain to target people, businesses and brands. We analyse online activities and trace digital footprints to help clients identify the source of the threat, and to take the necessary action to combat it.
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR)
We obtain and analyse real-time information, conduct multi-domain surveillance and carry out targeted monitoring of activities, resources and locations allowing clients to make data-driven decisions. Leveraging our in-country network of sources and experienced field operators, we carry out ground truth reporting and conduct situational assessments of evolving risks, threats, and vulnerabilities that may impact operational security of high-profile assets, investments and commercial interests. We specialise in identifying intelligence and collecting legally admissible evidence through on-the-ground deployment, to support litigation, arbitration and enforcement proceedings.
Strategic Intelligence
We provide clients with actionable insights to enable them to make informed high-stakes decisions and mitigate complex threats. We fill crucial knowledge gaps and identify, acquire, and deploy intelligence to help clients gain the upper hand in commercial negotiations. We undertake pre-transactional due diligence, high-risk market entry assessments and holistic risk evaluations of target organisations.
Regulatory Compliance
We help clients identify and mitigate key regulatory and compliance risks by undertaking comprehensive due diligence on their customers, counterparties, business partners, suppliers and other third parties. We undertake investigations to assess compliance with international regulations including sanctions, anti-bribery and anti-money laundering legislation, as well as in relation to supply chain risks and compliance with human rights and modern slavery laws, and environmental regulation.
