Straight Answers on Corporate Investigations
These are the questions businesses, attorneys, and executives actually ask before hiring an investigator, answered plainly by a licensed investigative firm (FL A-1400197). Every answer is the real one, not a pitch. When your question is not here, call (877) 732-6648. Contact us to have your case evaluated and quoted.
Wire Fraud and Business Email Compromise
Can wire fraud money be recovered?
Sometimes, and speed decides it. Within the first 72 hours, a bank recall, a SWIFT recall, and the FBI IC3 Recovery Asset Team can freeze funds before withdrawal. After that window, recovery depends on tracing the money through the mule accounts and identifying who received it, which is investigative work, not banking work.
Who investigates wire fraud, the FBI or a private firm?
Both, doing different jobs. The FBI takes the IC3 report and can freeze qualifying wires, but most individual cases never get an assigned agent. A licensed private firm traces your specific funds, identifies who is behind the accounts, and builds the evidence for recall, insurance, and civil recovery while the federal process runs.
What should I do in the first 72 hours after a business email compromise?
Five things, in order: demand a recall from your bank and the receiving bank, file at ic3.gov and flag the Recovery Asset Team, preserve every email with full headers, lock the compromised accounts and remove hidden forwarding rules, and call an investigator to trace the funds while the trail is fresh.
How much does a BEC investigation cost?
Flat fee, quoted in writing before work begins. As a framework, insurance claim evaluations start at 5,400 dollars and full BEC investigations typically run 12,500 to 25,000 dollars, with complex multinational matters quoted beyond that. These figures are frameworks, never final quotes. Contact us to have your case evaluated and quoted.
Crypto Asset Tracing
Can stolen cryptocurrency actually be traced?
Yes. Blockchain transactions are permanent public records, and stolen funds can be followed across wallets, mixers, and bridges to the exchanges where criminals cash out. Exchanges hold identity records that subpoenas can reach. Tracing does not promise recovery, but it turns an anonymous theft into named accounts at named institutions. Start by saving the records on our crypto scam evidence checklist.
How much does crypto tracing cost?
Flat fee, quoted in writing before work begins. As a framework, crypto tracing engagements start at 8,400 dollars and typically run 12,500 to 18,500 dollars, with complex matters quoted beyond that. These figures are frameworks, never final quotes. Contact us to have your case evaluated and quoted.
Finding People and Assets
How do I find hidden assets after winning a judgment?
A judgment enforcement asset search maps what the debtor actually owns: accounts, real property, vehicles, business interests, and transfers made to dodge collection. The findings feed directly into garnishment, levy, debtor examinations, and fraudulent transfer claims. A judgment is paper until the assets behind it are found and documented.
How do I find out who is behind a fake account or anonymous harassment?
Through investigation that connects the account to a real person: platform records reached by subpoena, technical artifacts in the messages, payment trails, and open source analysis of writing, timing, and connections. A licensed investigator documents the identification to a standard that supports a lawsuit, an injunction, or a law enforcement referral.
Can you sue someone when you do not know who they are?
Yes. Attorneys file John Doe suits against unidentified defendants, then use subpoenas to platforms, banks, and providers to force identification. The investigation supplies what the subpoena strategy needs: which accounts to target, what records exist, and the corroborating evidence that ties the responses to one real person.
What does an executive background investigation cover that a background check does not?
A database check returns records. An executive background investigation returns the truth about a person: verified history, litigation and regulatory exposure, undisclosed business interests, reputation among people who dealt with them, and the gaps between the resume and the record. It is the difference between screening a hire and vetting a leader.
How do I vet a business partner or investor before wiring money?
Independently verify everything they told you before funds move: identity, corporate registrations, litigation and regulatory history, actual ownership of what they claim to own, and what people who did business with them say. Most investment fraud survives on nobody checking. A due diligence investigation is cheaper than any recovery effort.
How much does a due diligence investigation cost?
Flat fee, quoted in writing before work begins, scaled to the depth the decision requires: a single counterparty check is priced differently than a multi-jurisdiction M&A target. The quote states exactly what will be examined and what you receive. Contact us to have your case evaluated and quoted.
Brand Protection and Counterfeits
How do I prove a product is counterfeit?
With a documented test buy: purchasing the suspect product under controlled conditions, preserving the chain of custody, and comparing it against a known genuine article for marks, packaging, construction, and security features. That documentation, tied to the specific seller, is what platforms, customs, and courts act on. Suspicion proves nothing; a test buy does.
What is a test buy investigation?
An investigator purchases the suspect product the way a real customer would, documents every step from order to delivery, preserves the packaging, payment trail, and seller details, and examines the item against a genuine reference. The result is court-ready evidence connecting a specific seller to a specific infringing product.
How do I stop unauthorized sellers from diverting my product into the gray market?
First find the leak, then close it. Diverted product enters through someone with legitimate access: a distributor, a wholesale customer, a regional partner. Test buys, lot and serial tracking, and supply chain analysis identify which authorized account the goods flow through. With the source proven, enforcement runs on contracts and courts rather than whack-a-mole takedowns.
Who investigates cargo theft for a business?
For a specific stolen shipment, a licensed investigative firm working alongside law enforcement. Police reports open files; an investigator works your loss: how the thieves knew the load, whether it was an inside job or a fictitious pickup, where the freight went, and who is behind it, documented for insurers, civil claims, and prosecutors.
Amazon Seller Defense
My Amazon listing was hijacked. What do I actually do?
Document the hijacker before anything else: test buy their product, preserve screenshots and seller details, then report through Brand Registry with that evidence. Takedowns without evidence bounce; takedowns built on a documented counterfeit test buy stick. If the hijacker returns under new accounts, identifying who is actually behind them is what ends it.
Can fake reviews on my Amazon listing be traced to a competitor?
Often, yes. Review attacks leave patterns: timing clusters, reviewer account behavior, reused language, and connections among the attacking accounts. An investigation documents the pattern and works to identify who is behind it, which turns a platform complaint into a legal claim for the sellers and attorneys who want it stopped for good.
Political Intelligence
What does opposition research actually include?
The verified public record of a candidate or measure: litigation, financial and business history, regulatory issues, past statements, votes, and conduct, documented to a standard the campaign can stand behind if challenged. Professional opposition research is fact discipline, not dirt digging: everything sourced, everything defensible, nothing invented.
Why do campaigns vet their own candidate?
Because the other side will. Self-vetting finds everything an opponent could find, before the opponent does, so the campaign decides how to handle it on its own timing instead of during a news cycle. The deliverable is the complete defensible record of the candidate's history, built by investigators, reviewed with counsel.
The Question That Is Not on This Page
Every case starts the same way: you describe the situation, we tell you plainly whether investigation can help, what it would examine, and exactly what it would cost, flat fee, in writing. Contact us to have your case evaluated and quoted. Call (877) 732-6648. E3 Legacy Intel, 805 E Bloomingdale Ave #680, Brandon FL 33511. Licensed. National. Built for Court.
Your Examiner
Matt Aubin, CDFE, FBCI
Managing Partner, E3 Legacy Intel · FL Licensed Investigator A-1400197
Every matter on this page is worked under a named, licensed examiner. Matt Aubin brings seventeen years in cybercrime and open source intelligence. He is a Certified Digital Forensics Examiner (CDFE), a Florida Board Certified Investigator (FBCI), and a Certified AI Agent Developer, and he has investigated cases jointly with the FBI, the SEC, the U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Marshals.
His work has been featured on ABC News, Spectrum News, and The Daily Beast, and in a television pilot for Netflix and MAC Pictures as a cybercrime expert. He keynotes nationally and serves on the Board of Directors of the Florida Association of Licensed Investigators (FALI). About Matt Aubin
LET’S TALK
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