SPECTRUM OSO CASE STUDIES

 “It won’t happen to us” -

Confidentiality is all in our business.  We do not identify our clients to third parties.  We will not compromise our sources.  We do not believe in publicizing exactly what we can do, or have done, for clients.

What we will say, with complete honesty, is that it is extremely rare for us to turn down an assignment because the scope of work is beyond our capabilities.

A flavour of the work that we have done -    

In 2006, we undertook due diligence investigations (DDI) into more than 300 companies and individuals across Asia, in countries including Australia, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Our typical DDI product combines extensive public and subscription database analysis with comment from informed sources familiar with the subject company or individual.

Some specific examples -  

Our client, a private bank, was considering a relationship with a Politically Exposed Person (PEP) , a prominent Asian political figure from a jurisdiction with relatively weak AML and corruption controls. Recognising the higher money laundering risks associated with individuals who, by virtue of their position in public life, are vulnerable to corruption, the client required an independent analysis of the source of wealth of the individual concerned, together with a risk assessment of any relationship with the individual. Our report allowed the client to act in accordance with the Wolfsberg AML Principles for Private Banking and the United Kingdom’s JMLSG Guidance and the Third Money Laundering Directive , which came into force last year and which the UK will have to implement by December 2007.

Our client was seeking to make an eight-figure dollar investment in a joint venture in a Southeast Asian country and asked for a thorough background investigation to be undertaken into the proposed JV partner.  Our investigations established that the potential partner had extensive criminal connections and, although never formally charged with any crime, was viewed by local law enforcement authorities as a preeminent figure in the local criminal underworld …

A US-based company had won a lucrative US government contract to manufacture bulk quantities of certain items.  The contract stipulated that manufacture had to take place in the United States.  Suspicions arose that the company in question was in fact out-sourcing production to a factory in a Southeast Asian country.  We identified the factory in question and, through a variety of covert measures, obtained incontrovertible physical proof that production was indeed out-sourced …

Our client, a major insurance company, asked us to investigate the circumstances behind the apparently accidental shooting death of a policyholder in Laos.  Our enquiries on the ground established that the policyholder had in fact murdered his partner with a handgun before turning the weapon on himself …

An executive at a high-profile listed company in Europe had embezzled a large quantity of money from his former employer and had fled to Southeast Asia.  We were retained to establish the fugitive’s current whereabouts.  Our investigations established that he was living in a country from which extradition was not possible. We were, however, able to legally engineer a situation in which the suspect fled to another country.  Although extradition from the final destination was also not possible, the fugitive had to transit a third country from where this was possible.  He was arrested by local law enforcement officers while in transit and subsequently extradited …

Our client, a multi-national corporation that imports goods into the United States, developed and implemented a supply chain security regime for its US operations, applied for C-TPAT membership.  Wanting to take full advantage of the US import benefits received from Customs and Border Protection, procured Spectrum’s experts to assist their foreign manufacturers with implementing a supply chain security regime.

We first conducted an assessment of the manufacturers’ facilities to determine what vulnerabilities existed.  We also meet with company representatives to determine what security initiatives were currently in place.  Based on our analysis, we were able to develop and recommend simple company-specific solutions to address the remaining vulnerable areas that were easy to implement and meet the C-TPAT standards.

Spectrum’s experts provided training to the employees of the companies to explain why new security features were required, what the new features were, how the new features affected their job and what their individual responsibilities were for the overall security regime.

Subsequently, CBP conducted validations of several of the manufacturers.  We explained to CBP the security system that the manufacturers were utilizing and walked them through the security processes.  Ultimately, CBP determined that the manufacturers implemented adequate security regimes.