Corporate Investigations and Due Diligence

Updated 5 October 2026 by Investigation Bureau

Before you sign, invest, appoint or acquire, know who you are dealing with. Investigation Bureau carries out discreet corporate investigations for UK businesses: executive due diligence, counterparty evaluation, internal fraud and corporate intelligence, reported as evidence your board and your lawyers can rely on.

A corporate instruction usually begins at a decision point. A senior hire whose CV does not quite reconcile. A supplier or distributor about to be given significant credit. An acquisition target whose figures look better than its reputation. A joint-venture partner in a jurisdiction you cannot read. The question underneath is always the same: what is true here, and what does the paperwork leave out?

The first conversation is free, confidential and without obligation. Send a confidential enquiry and an investigator will reply within one working day.

Executive and pre-appointment due diligence

For many boards a reference check is no longer enough before a senior appointment or an investment. We assemble a documented picture of the individual: career and qualifications verified, directorships and shareholdings at Companies House and on overseas registers, insolvency and disqualification records, litigation history, adverse media, regulatory findings, sanctions and PEP exposure, and open-source research into reputation.

The most useful finding is usually a discrepancy. The directorship that went unmentioned. The dissolved company. The tribunal finding. The overlapping role at a competitor. We report what the evidence shows and keep it clearly apart from what is only alleged. A corporate report that blurs the two is worse than no report at all.

Counterparty, supplier and company evaluation

Before you extend credit, sign a distribution agreement or commit to a contract, we examine the business itself and ask whether it is what it claims to be. That covers trading history and filing behaviour, group structure and ultimate beneficial ownership, the substance behind the registered address, county court judgments and enforcement history, the real relationships between the people running it, and whether the same officers have left a line of dissolved companies behind them.

On an acquisition, this work sits beside your financial and legal due diligence. It answers the questions those workstreams were never designed to ask: the ones about people, conduct and reputation.

Internal fraud and corporate investigations

When the problem is inside the organisation, an outside investigator brings two things your own staff cannot: independence and lawful investigative reach. We investigate procurement and invoice fraud, kickbacks and undisclosed conflicts of interest, theft of stock or data, misuse of company assets, and leaks to competitors.

Where an employee is under suspicion, our workplace investigations service handles the evidence to the standard an employment tribunal expects. Where money has moved, our fraud investigation service follows it.

Corporate intelligence and asset tracing

This is the work that supports a dispute or a commercial judgement:

Pre-litigation intelligence on what an opponent can realistically pay.
Asset tracing before you commit to enforcement.
Market and competitor intelligence, gathered lawfully from open sources.
Discreet enquiries where a name needs context that no database holds.

Bug sweeping and information security

If you believe boardroom conversations are reaching people who were not in the room, we carry out technical surveillance countermeasures (TSCM) sweeps of offices, meeting rooms and vehicles. See bespoke investigations and TSCM.

How we work with businesses

A confidential scoping conversation. You describe the decision in front of you. We tell you what can realistically be known, what it will cost and how long it will take. If your existing advisers can handle it, we tell you that.
A fixed quote in writing before any work begins.
Lawful investigation. All work is carried out within UK GDPR and the wider law. We are registered with the ICO as a data controller (ZC259849). We process each corporate instruction on a documented lawful basis, normally legitimate interests.
Board-ready reporting. A written report that separates evidence from inference, is legally defensible and goes only to the people you nominate.

Why businesses instruct Investigation Bureau

Investigation Bureau works UK-wide through its own investigators and vetted field operatives. Cross-border work is handled with trusted partners. Research runs on our in-house OSINT tooling, which we built and run ourselves. One named investigator is accountable for each corporate case, and inside the bureau your instruction is handled on a need-to-know basis. Investigation Bureau is a trading name of Bureau Nine Ltd, a registered UK company that you can look up at Companies House.

How to choose a corporate investigation firm in the UK

Most boards and general counsel instruct a corporate investigator once or twice in a career, so the choice deserves care. These are the questions that separate the field:

Will the work survive scrutiny? Ask how findings are sourced and cited, whether the investigators have given evidence, and whether reports keep established fact apart from inference. Every Investigation Bureau report states how each finding was obtained.
Can it be privileged? Where litigation is in prospect, instruct through your solicitors so that the work attracts legal privilege. Ask the investigator how they work under a solicitor's instruction. One who cannot explain it will not know how to preserve it.
Lawful method, plainly stated. A UK GDPR lawful basis and an ICO registration. No pretexting, no unauthorised access, no bought data. Intelligence on a competitor or counterparty is lawful from open sources and unlawful by deception, so ask which is on offer. We work from lawful sources only.
Fixed scope, fixed price. A written scope and a fixed fee for each phase, agreed before you approve it, not a retainer that keeps running.
Reach without spreading your secrets. Work across several jurisdictions needs vetted partners acting under the investigator's direction, with your matter kept need-to-know.
Technology that leaves an audit trail. Ask what the open-source research runs on, whether each query is logged to the case, and where your subject's name ends up once a search has been run. Our own tooling logs every query to the case file.

Frequently asked questions

What does a corporate investigator actually do?

A corporate investigator establishes verified fact where public records and self-declaration fall short. Who really owns and controls a business. Whether a person's history is as presented. Where money or assets have gone. Whether a fraud is under way inside an organisation. The work draws on licensed data sources, open-source intelligence, analysis of financial and corporate records and, where it is justified, lawful surveillance.

Is corporate due diligence on an individual legal under UK GDPR?

Yes, if it is done properly. A business has a recognised legitimate interest in verifying senior appointments, investments and counterparties. What matters is that the work is proportionate and accurate, uses lawful sources, and that the data is held securely for no longer than it is needed. We document the lawful basis for every corporate instruction, which is exactly what your DPO or legal counsel will ask about.

How long does a corporate investigation take?

A focused executive due diligence report typically takes a few working days, and a counterparty or company evaluation is similar. Internal fraud investigations and cross-border matters take longer, often two to six weeks, because they depend on gathering evidence and not on research alone. You get a realistic timeline before you commit.

What does a corporate investigation cost?

Corporate work is quoted per project once it has been scoped, not by the hour, so the price is fixed in writing before any work begins. Due diligence reports sit at the lower end. A multi-strand internal fraud investigation with surveillance is quoted against the operational days it needs. Set against the value of the decision, or the loss under investigation, the sum is usually a short one.

Will the subject know they are being investigated?

No. Due diligence and intelligence work is done discreetly, from records, open sources and lawful enquiry. If a case calls for an approach that could become visible, we tell you beforehand and the decision is yours.

A decision that needs facts. Talk it through with an investigator in confidence. It is free, carries no obligation, and we will tell you plainly what can be known: send a confidential enquiry.