Wednesday, 13th May 2020

Trident Manor has been involved in several due diligence enquiries for a wide range of clients. This case study relates to an enquiry undertaken that related to a potential business transaction involving Pakistani businesses.

(Names, dates and locations have been generalised in order to protect parties.)

Trident Manor was engaged by a London based organisation who had been asked by a humanitarian organisation to conduct due diligence on a Lahore based manufacturer from whom they were about to place a $1 million order for protective anti-malarial equipment.

Trident Manor was given the name of the company, their manufacturing location in Pakistan and details about the product that was to be purchased. A 2 day deadline was given as the manufacturer had requested a 30% up front payment and the client did not want to lose, what appeared to be excellent value.

Using our in-country assets research was conducted in Lahore with the business community and it was very quickly established that the manufacturer was an unknown entity. The Trident Manor personnel then deployed to the address of the alleged manufacturing location. There was no building at the site, only a pile of rubble where a building had been located. Local enquiries established that there had not been a business at the site for 10 years.

having received these updates within 24 hours the client was contacted and requests for the contact person whom the humanitarian organisation had engaged and anything more specific about locations and company head offices. Details were then given to Trident Manor and enquiries with security contacts in Pakistan established that the person no longer resided in Pakistan and that the business HQ were in fact bogus.

Everything was reported back to the clients within 48 hours with the advice that the humanitarian organisation should seek separate suppliers and not pay the 30% advance fee as this was likely to be a fraudulent enterprise. The London client and humanitarian organisation were both extremely happy with the services provided by the Trident Manor corporate research team; so much so that additional enquiries have followed.

When operating internationally there are some great opportunities to engage and develop business connections. However, there are also lots of risks associated with doing business overseas, including:

• Corruption
• Fraud
• Organised Crime
• Con-artists
• Legal consequences (countries/individuals)
• Legislation
• Money laundering

The list in not exhaustive but gives the reader an idea about the range of risks that exist.

By understanding and proactively managing the risks that exist enables organisations to minimise their exposure to negative impacts whilst maximising the benefits that international trade can bring.

For further details about the range of due diligence and corporate research activities undertaken by Trident Manor around the world please feel free to Contact us.