Private Equity
Increasingly, Limited Partners are requesting background checks be employed as part of private equity investor’s due diligence process. In large part, background checks have become part of Private Equity & Venture Capital firm’s standard protocol. Although detecting fraud and its early warning signs are the primary purposes of our investigations, they also can serve the secondary value of sparing the private equity investor from the embarrassment of not knowing their management team well enough to have “boxed” all the issues prior to funding.
Over the past ten years, our investigative team has been involved in thousands of high level, complex investigations. Our research concentrates on a review of criminal, legal, regulatory, and media filings as well as confirming historical timelines of a manager’s education and employment history. We also routinely perform discreet and, or non-discreet interviews of industry peers and competitors who may have a first hand knowledge of management in order to round out the profile of the manager’s character, reputation, and integrity. FRM does make a certain degree of inquiries into the manager’s personal lifestyle. Our interest in the manager’s personal lifestyle is only insofar as lifestyle might affect the day-to-day ability to remain focused on business strategy.
FRM performs research in all major financial hubs throughout the world by way of an international network of investigators. We can easily stage assignments on multiple continents. Since many of FRM’s review processes are standardized, we can accomplish most assignments in less than fifteen (15) business days regardless as to geographic locale.
FRM performs research on a discreet or non-discreet basis. Our recommendation is to perform searches on a non-discreet basis as it provides management with a venue to make material disclosures. Obtaining the consent of management also allows FRM to complete a more thorough report. FRM always gathers information respectful of the privacy and data laws of each country we work in. When engaged to perform an investigation for a private equity investment firm, our report is uniquely created for that private equity investment firm alone and is not re-distributed or repackaged in any way to any other party. |
