A subsidiary of a leading US-listed company with substantial operations and businesses in Hong Kong.
Senior management of the company had observed abnormal long-term customer attrition to a few identified competitors, which triggered concern of probable corporate espionage operating inside the company. The severity of the loss was likely due to a conspiratorial and coordinated effort across ranks and departments.
VGM met the senior management to obtain a full picture of the corporate structure and conducted a site visit. Given the suspected company-wide espionage operation, VGM arranged a team to join the company as new hires working in various capacities and job functions. Our investigators firstly approached the suspected key personnel through personal interactions; after identifying the targets involved in espionage work, our team conducted in-depth investigations by communication monitoring and close surveillance of the suspected spies.
VGM’s team also performed a two-month surveillance operation for the purpose of evidence collection. We successfully uncovered suspicious meetings of the identified persons with other practitioners in the industry. Footage of the meetings was recorded. Further analyses and investigations provided concrete and conclusive evidence of corporate espionage.
VGM successfully identified 16 persons in the company engaging in corporate espionage operations. All cases were substantiated with intercepted messages, reconstructed documents, and/or audio/video footage of unwarranted meetings. Senior management of the company then took legal actions towards the corresponding persons with the evidence compiled by VGM and alleviated the loss with timely remedial work.
An established corporate services provider offering full-fledged professional accounting, bookkeeping and company secretarial services in Hong Kong
A few long-standing clients spoke to the senior management of the company, expressing their confusion over some recent unsolicited advertising campaigns targeting them from another service provider. The content of the letters and e-invitations comprised almost identical service offerings with very similar choices of diction. Such incidents triggered concern of probable corporate espionage operating inside the company.
VGM conducted a site visit and had a detailed interview with the senior management to obtain a clear understanding of the corporate structure, employee turnover information and client information handling protocols. Our team also devised a comprehensive investigation plan on that competing service provider, aiming to identify the key persons of the target, namely directors, shareholders, and management officers, as well as the source of funds, assets and occupying premises, in order to determine the influence and size of the competitor and thus the potential severity of the situation.
VGM successfully identified a former employee of our client. She appeared to be one of the shareholders of the competitor. Despite holding no managerial or working level positions in the company, the former employee held a significant shareholding in the dubious firm, with her spouse, a local banker, serving as one of the directors.
VGM’s investigation also revealed suspicious access to sensitive client information on the computer system had been started around three months before the said employee tendering her resignation, and had not stopped until 3 days before her eventual leave from our client.
After careful examination of the employment contracts signed between our client and the stealing employee, our professional team of experts across different domains, armed with the evidence discovered, provided litigation support and penned legal letters to the former employee and her firm, illustrating the damages, potential criminal liabilities and her breach of contracts.
The case was settled with the competitor agreeing to the destruction of, and the termination of the use of, all stolen client information and marketing materials, plus a monetary compensation of half a million to our client.
The founding members of a major Hong Kong financial institution recently acquired by a state-owned enterprise
Over the years the client has built a successful business with a reputation serving the community of Hong Kong. Despite covering chiefly the Hong Kong market, the local firm has attracted interest from quite a few strong global players owing to its long-term presence and sound portfolio risk management.
To further its growth strategy, a state-owned enterprise seeking to increase its exposure in Hong Kong was among the contenders eyeing our client’s promising business. After rounds of negotiation, the government-backed company successfully got the deal and acquired a controlling stake in the local financial institution.
Seemingly the transaction was smooth as reported in the news; in fact, only half of the deal was completed – the SOE claimed to have fully settled the payments to all involved parties, while the client failed to collect quite a large portion of the agreed upon amount. Normally, this would have been easily resolved, but the actual, mutually-accepted deal differs quite a lot from the contracts ‘arranged on paper’, thus drastically increasing the effort of tracing the whereabouts of the missing funds.
The client engaged the VGM forensic accounting experts of the commercial investigation team to evaluate the situation and estimate the flow of funds. Time was the most essential element. After a thorough discussion with the client on the whole transaction arrangement, the team concluded the meeting with prompt measures and a swift operation targeting both the owners and fund movements of all concerning bank accounts .
Employing VGM’s own intelligence, all operations, both large and small, of the bank accounts were under the radar. VGM also quickly mobilised multiple squads to closely monitor all highlighted individuals as the probability of them fleeing from Hong Kong was high given the sum involved.
The clock was ticking; and the stakes were high. After a non-stop hunt and endeavor of over 200 hours, VGM successfully identified and located two suspects – one at a pier in Hong Kong after midnight with the other in a third-tier city in China. With the odds on the client’s side, they were all caught red-handed with a large amount of cash directly related with the transaction.
A major industrial equipment and spare parts supplier in Hong Kong
Over the years the client has built a successful business catering to the needs of both the government and key construction companies in Hong Kong. With offices occupying multiple floors of one of the world-renowned skyscrapers in Central, the client has established itself as a prudent partner offering quality products with superb logistic arrangement at competitive prices.
In recent bidding exercises for procurement projects, however, the company failed to secure any government contracts consecutively. Of a mind to review any inadequacies in their business practice, the management conducted a thorough study of all relevant contract award notices made by corresponding government departments published on the Procurement and Contract Management System, and was shocked to find out that most of the winning bids were priced just slightly under their bids. It was thus sensible for the management to have the conjecture about potential confidential information leaks.
Suspecting information leaks within the company, the management engaged VGM for a comprehensive investigation. After a detailed walk-through with the client over staff responsibility and access authority to sensitive information, VGM mapped out a plan to target the key personnel and conducted scenario analyses on possible cases. Given the time-sensitive nature of the bidding process, it was likely the suspicious spying events only occurred very close to the tender closing dates through electronic means.
Just after another bid placed for government contracts, as a token of goodwill, the management invited all staff to a nearby restaurant for their work and effort, also to make room for the pest control team to conduct annual infestation prevention work.
VGM investigators, well disguised as pest control professionals, entered the offices and conducted all work necessary to identify the true culprit.
Employing proprietary technology designed to detect all unwarranted tapping and/or surveillance objects, VGM successfully unearthed several recording devices with network transmission capabilities in certain areas of the offices. VGM’s in-house computer forensic expert team then fetched all information processed by the hidden devices and identified the receiving end of the intercepted messages. Management of the company then took necessary legal actions with the evidence compiled by VGM.
Hong Kong newly-weds with their prized dog
As pet lovers, our clients had been very concerned about the best arrangements possible for their beloved dog when planning their honeymoon.
While it is feasible to take pets along to certain countries nowadays, the newly-weds had been always longing to see the Southern Cross in the south hemisphere and had thus chosen Australia as their destination, despite the fact that all pets are subjected to quarantine in the continent. Unsure about the quality of pet hotels, the couple finally decided to send their treasured four-legged to a pet sitter recommended by their close friend. When they were enjoying their intimate moments admiring the constellations, they received an unexpected message from Hong Kong that their dog was lost.
The emotional trauma of losing one’s best canine pal can far outweigh any monetary loss. Without a second thought, our clients decided to shorten their honeymoon and hurried back to Hong Kong once being informed about the shocking news. They immediately sought assistance from VGM as their trusted private investigation partner. After reviewing the correspondence between our clients and the pet sitter, plus insights collected from canine behavioural profiling, VGM’s team suspected that the dog did not run off on its own as said, i.e. there was a high possibility of an actual theft taking place. VGM therefore developed operational plans accordingly.
Employing the information provided by our clients along with VGM’s own intelligence, VGM’s investigators launched the surveillance campaigns with our tailor-made equipment to locate the venues frequented by the pet sitter and trace all the possible routes and persons involved in the incident.
VGM successfully identified a rural and remote premise where the pet sitter housed all the pets he obtained. Utilizing canine behavioral profiling, pet microchip analysis, as well as photos and videos provided by the clients, VGM confirmed the exact location of the stolen dog. Our investigators then orchestrated an event that the pet sitter had to take the dog outside so that our clients could confront the pet sitter in person. With the assistance of VGM investigators, the true dog lovers and their best friend were finally reunited.
One of the well-known lighting technologies companies in the world with significant businesses in Hong Kong
The company’s headquarters suspected some underhand dealings within its Hong Kong operations. The information obtained by the headquarters was however not sufficient and substantial enough to either prove any wrongdoing or identify any key persons that warrant any actions towards the regional office.
Given the alleged involvement of some of the most highly-ranked personnels, VGM utilised the information provided by the client and devised a sophisticated arrangement with operation plans to target the highlighted individuals. Closely monitoring their schedules and whereabouts, VGM’s team of investigators discovered one extremely suspicious lunch meeting of which the details had been intentionally and particularly omitted from the official schedules. VGM’s team conducted a surveillance operation and employed covert devices to record the whole conversation.
As predicted by the headquarters, the group of the attendees was comprised of the General Manager, the Chief Financial Officer, the Head of Sales, as well as some participants from outside.
In addition to these three key persons present at the unwarranted lunch meeting, two more employees were identified thanks to the footage as well as the intelligence gathered by VGM’s team throughout the operation. The identities of the other parties participated in the meeting were unearthed as well. Senior management of the headquarters confirmed the misconduct and malpractice of the employees and then took actions towards the corresponding persons with the evidence compiled by VGM.
