Due Diligence Investigations
A due diligence investigation is the independent verification of who you are really dealing with before you commit capital, your name, or your company. A database report tells you what a subject has already been caught doing under the exact name you searched. An investigation tells you what they have not disclosed. E3 Legacy Intel runs due diligence investigations nationwide for corporations, law firms, family offices, and investors. Licensed Florida investigators, FL A-1400197, a division of Southern Recon Agency.
What a Database Pull Will Never Tell You
Most of what is sold as due diligence is a database report: aggregated public records, run under one spelling of one name, returned in minutes. Those reports have a place, and they share a limitation: a database only holds what was filed, indexed, and matched under the exact identity you searched.
The facts that decide deals rarely sit in that index. They live under prior entity names, in ventures that never made the biography, in ownership layered behind holding companies and trusts, and in the reputation a subject carries among the people who actually did business with them, which no database has ever held.
A due diligence investigation starts where the database stops. Licensed investigators verify every material claim against source records, unwind entities to the people who control them, develop what was never volunteered, and resolve discrepancies instead of listing them. And the file states plainly what could not be verified, because in a deal an unverifiable claim is itself a finding.
Four Engagements, One Question
Every due diligence matter turns on the same question: who are you really dealing with? Most matters route into one of four engagements, and complex matters combine them under a single scope.
You are buying or investing in a company
Before an acquisition, merger, or investment closes, the sellers and their business get investigated, not just data-checked: undisclosed litigation, adverse history, failed ventures, and the ownership behind the entity. M&A and pre-transaction due diligence
You are taking money, lending it, or signing with a partner
Before you accept an investor's capital, fund a borrower, or bind your company to a counterparty, we establish who is actually on the other side of the table, and who owns and controls the entity you are about to trust. Investor and counterparty due diligence Finance teams can run the first checks on any new payee themselves with our business email compromise prevention and vetting guide.
You are hiring or seating a leader
Before a C-suite hire, board appointment, or key partnership, the candidate's litigation history, conduct, credentials, and undisclosed ventures get investigated beyond what any screening service returns. Executive background investigations When the concern is someone already inside the company, the work moves to our internal and corporate investigations for general counsel.
You need to know what someone actually owns
When the question is wealth, solvency, or collectibility, we locate the property, business interests, and holdings behind the claims, including what was deliberately placed out of view. Asset intelligence and financial investigations
The Red Flags Only Investigative Work Surfaces
Litigation under another name
Suits, judgments, and liens filed against a prior entity, a dissolved company, a former name, or in a jurisdiction nobody thought to search.
The venture that vanished
Businesses that failed, partners who were left holding the loss, and roles that quietly disappeared from the biography. What a subject omits is usually more revealing than anything they disclose.
Ownership you cannot see
Layered entities, nominee officers, and trusts that separate the name on the paperwork from the person in control.
A track record that only exists in their own materials
Claimed exits, credentials, clients, and results that verify nowhere outside the subject's own deck.
Reputation off the record
What former partners, employees, and counterparties say when asked is evidence no database holds, and it is frequently the finding that changes the decision.
The wealth that does not add up
Claimed net worth with no verifiable holdings behind it, or new liens, pledged assets, and quiet selloffs that contradict the picture being presented.
How a Due Diligence Engagement Runs
Scope
We evaluate the matter with you: the subjects, entities, jurisdictions, and the decision the findings must support. You receive a written flat fee quote before any work begins.
Investigate
Public records, corporate filings, litigation and regulatory histories, media and open sources, and licensed investigative resources, worked by investigators rather than run as a batch query.
Verify
Every material finding is corroborated against its source, discrepancies are run to ground, and claims that cannot be verified are flagged as exactly that.
Deliver
A written report that leads with the conclusions, ties each finding to its evidence, and gives the decision maker what they need before the commitment, not after it.
The File You Walk Away With
A due diligence report earns its keep in front of skeptical audiences: an investment committee, a board, opposing counsel, a lender's credit team. So it is built for that audience from the first day: it leads with the answer, not a data dump. Each finding is tied to the record behind it. The report distinguishes what is established, what is indicated, and what could not be verified, because an overstated finding collapses exactly when you need it most. Findings are delivered privately to the decision makers who engaged us, and our investigators can speak to the methodology behind the file when the matter requires it.
The buyers who cannot afford to be wrong
How These Cases Are Priced
Every due diligence engagement is a flat fee, quoted in writing before work begins, so a critical decision never turns into an open-ended bill. The quote follows a detailed evaluation of your matter, because your facts, not a rate card, determine the work. Any figure discussed before that evaluation is a framework, never a final quote. Your quote comes from your facts. Contact us to have your case evaluated and quoted.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a due diligence investigation, and how is it different from a background check?
What do due diligence investigators actually look for?
When should a company order a due diligence investigation?
Will the subject know they are being investigated?
How long does a due diligence investigation take?
How much does a due diligence investigation cost?
Can I rely on the findings in a dispute or in court?
Results
When a battleground state campaign needed to know who it was really up against, our vetting of a sitting mayor with a carefully maintained public image surfaced an affair, drug use and indicators of misuse of government resources, and federal authorities later charged him with conspiracy, wire fraud and making false statements. When a court-appointed chief executive suspected his own senior people, we found that suspect financial transactions and the shutdown of the company's age-verification application, required for federal regulatory compliance, both traced to one originating IP address, and named the head of global IT operations.
Read how our vetting found what a polished candidate for governor was hiding; federal charges followed.
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
Bring us the problem. We will tell you plainly whether investigation can help.
Fill out this form and set up a discovery call with us. From there we will analyze the issues you are having and determine your intelligence needs. Then we will develop a custom, no-obligation quote for our services, delivered in writing before you commit to anything.
Companies that run diligence continuously rather than deal by deal use us as their standing due diligence partner.
Tell us what happened
A licensed examiner reads every inquiry. You get a written, flat fee quote before any work starts. Or call (877) 732-6648.