Uncovering Corruption in National Elections

During national elections in Africa, we were tasked to locate evidence confirming that one of the running parties was receiving foreign donations for their electoral campaign, which is considered illegal in most countries and specifically in this country as well.

We began by conducting extensive research using open source intelligence (OSINT) on each member of the party and created a network map to generate solid leads.

Once completed, we found connections to a few wealthy businessmen in Europe.

Research shows that there are three main motives for providing political funding:

1. Ideological or idealistic reasons
2. Social honours or access
3. Striving for material benefits

In order to find concrete evidence of donations being transferred to the running party, we sent our professional field agents to get involved in the campaign as well as to document proof.

After a few weeks of becoming acquainted with these European businessmen and gaining their trust, our agents managed to get both documentation and recordings confirming their donations to the African electoral campaign. Recordings in which they stated that their incentive to do so was to ensure that the given party was elected in order to propel personal agendas and projects using African resources for their own benefit. 

Lesson Learned

Corrupt political financing during elections is just one of the unlawful methods used to boost a given party or a candidate’s reputation within an election.

That said, there are many intelligence methods and techniques that can be used to assist a given party to better position themselves to win the election by legal and ethical means. 

Studying and gathering information about another party provides a great competitive advantage within the election, as in any race.

Using active gathering methods, which includes, amongst other things, recruitment of reliable sources related to their surrounding circles  can provide great insight into the competition.

At Gabriel Intelligence, we utilize these tools and more on a daily basis, assisting our clients to make educated, strategic decisions to maintain a strong, sustainable competitive advantage.

To learn more about the customized, competitive intelligence plans we offer as well as our multi-layered campaigning services simply contact us.