Asset tracing is important to any corporate investigation, especially vital in corruption cases, and with Banks. Corruption offenses are typically money-driven.

• A CEO bribing an official in exchange for his help with a pending contract.
• A mid-level employee stealing money at work
• Promoters of a defrauding a bank post availing of commercial loans.
• Where previously banks would write off the loan, they are now hiring focusing to look for money trails that lead from those who have already defaulted or even look likely to do so.

All of these individuals are motivated by the money. To prove these crimes, one must figure out where the money came from; it’s also often quite helpful to show where the money went, particularly since the lengths corrupt officials will go to hide their ill-gotten gains can be powerful evidence in and of itself. Sometimes the important evidence revealed by a financial investigation is not an “asset” at all. For example, public corruption crimes sometimes involve bribes in the form of no-show jobs or fraudulent consulting agreements. In these type of cases, a lack of records normally seen in business will be valuable evidence.