We solve complex business challenges
using out-of-the-box solutions

A Singapore conglomerate received a purchase proposal for a small Jordanian startup valued at $90M, but found it difficult to locate enough information about the company. However, they were aware that other global competitors were showing an interest in the startup. The company approached Gabriel in order to thoroughly examine the company, its founders and the interest of its competitors. In addition to the complexity of the international research needed, the timeline was extremely short – three weeks. Because it was a new company, uncovering information through open sources and unique databases proved difficult. However, Gabriel’s team was able to locate its intellectual assets (patents of the company) and map the business and employment past of the entrepreneurs, including partners and former employers. After examining the depths of the patent, our team found that it was only in the filing stages and not yet approved. Our experts then compared the patent application to existing patents of a major competitor in the field, finding that the chances of this startup’s patent application being accepted was less than 50%, and that the technology they offer is ineffective and already included in a competitor’s patent. In addition, our field agents met with former employers, as well as former and current partners, of the startup founders. During these conversations they uncovered that the two founders were serial patent developers in various fields (i.e., they lack specific field expertise) and that their method of operation is simply patent registration followed by attempts to sell to companies in the field for millions of dollars. As a final stage of the project, we uncovered that our client’s main competitor was in the process of formal negotiations with the Jordanian startup. In addition to determining for our client that this startup was not a viable investment, this information also helped them build an effective strategy for another project they were working on. Ultimately, Gabriel’s report and research saved our client an unnecessary $90M acquisition and helped the company concentrate its efforts on more qualified startups.

A court ruling determined that our client was to be paid by a Russian individual, who in his defense, claimed to have no assets and therefore could not pay. Our client tasked us with identifying any tangible and recoverable assets and assessing their value. Thorough research conducted by our team revealed several bank trust accounts of significant value in Eastern Europe, belonging to the subject. In addition, Gabriel created a map of all first and second-degree relationships of the subject (family, friends, colleagues, partners, etc.) to identify potential sources of essential information on the assets in question. After identifying the wife of the subject as the most efficient way to retrieve information, our undercover female agent began attending the yoga classes she frequented, befriending her in the process. After a reasonable amount of time, our agent suggested that they go on a double date with the subject and the agent’s “husband,” who posed as a real estate investor. The four met for dinner at an exclusive restaurant, where the subject revealed that he was working on several real estate projects and stated which companies he was using to run said projects. After the dinner, Gabriel was able to confirm the information shared and established in court that the subject held previously unknown and well-hidden real estate properties in four different countries across Europe, totaling $200M. With this information in hand, our client was able to appeal to the court and seize the subject’s assets.

The director of a leading international group of companies in the cyber security field acquired a new company for the group. Two years later, he received anonymous tips from two unrelated individuals stating that the VP of Marketing at the newly-acquired company had received bribes from some of the recently-acquired company’s suppliers in order to renew the contract between the company and the supplier. The client hired Gabriel to look into the allegations and uncover whether or not these were truthful accusations and if so, provide a solution to efficiently handle the situation. Due to the sensitivity of the situation, the case was handled with extreme caution. If the tips were true, concrete proof had to be obtained in order to confront the VP and carry out any action quietly and with minimal damage to the company. On the other hand, if the tips were baseless, it was crucial that no one knew comprehensive research took place. ​Following the client’s request, our team listed all possible suppliers the subject came in contact with in the last two years, including those which the company no longer works with. Following extensive research by our analysts using several intelligence collection methods, our undercover agents reached out to four of the listed suppliers which our analysts determined as most valuable. We were told by two of the companies that the subject asked them for a bribe in order to renew the contract. When they refused to cooperate, their contracts were not renewed and were given to a different supplier. In addition, a representative from one of these suppliers revealed to our agent that the subject received $50K in cash from the company in order to renew a $1.5M contract. ​As a result of these findings, and after our client played the recordings from the conversation to the subject, he agreed to leave the company quietly and without any severance pay, thus saving the company financially and from any external PR crisis which could have left their trustworthiness in question.

Our client, a medium-sized French company, was assisting a multibillion-dollar Chinese firm penetrate the French market. After a couple of years, the Chinese company decided to cancel the contract, claiming that the French company violated a material clause. This led to a series of lawsuits between the two parties, whereby the Chinese company sought damages of over €500M.

During arbitration in the case, our client began suspecting that the judge ruled for several unbalanced resolutions and hired our firm to find evidentiary support.
Our team first approached the task through deep social media research which ultimately unearthed a social relationship between the CEO of the Chinese company and the arbitrator. Following these findings, one of our undercover agents contacted the CEO’s cousin (whom was previously his business partner) posing as a friendly, young, clever and attractive woman. Our agent became close with the cousin, spent time with him, and gained his trust. After a few meetings, the cousin bragged to our agent that the CEO managed to bribe the arbitrator thanks to his close friendship with him. Our agent saw an opportunity to excel the operation and asked the cousin if he could help her dad in a case he was involved in by going to the same arbitrator. The cousin agreed and set up the meeting. During the meeting between our agent and the arbitrator, the arbitrator stated that if needed, he can guarantee a favorable outcome to a given party.
All meetings had been recorded and were later used as evidence in court, resulting in a drastic change in balance of power in the case – in our client’s favor. Our client swiftly filed several lawsuits against the Chinese company, the CEO and the arbitrator, resulting in a fast compromise in their favor.

 The owner of one of the largest banks in western Europe was hit by a massive, well planned, slandering campaign, executed by an unknown source, harming his reputation and of his bank. The campaign included a successful operation to steal confidential information from our clients’ bank, publication of negative stories in the media against him and his family, as well as the filing of many false claims and complaints against him all across the country. 

In order to help our client out, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of all the slanderous campaign happenings and managed to identify the parties whom may have an interest in harming our client. By cross-checking the intelligence collected, we were able to assess with high probability who was the sponsor of the campaign. Simultaneously, we investigated the information leaks from our client’s bank using complex cyber capabilities and an international Human Intelligence operation, which enabled us to successfully identify the source of the leak. Using Open Source, Human Intelligence and our deep web technology practices, we managed to link  the person ordering the leak from the bank to the person found to be behind the campaign against our client who ended up being the owner of a competing bank. We found that the reasons for the competitor’s actions against our client were an attempt to divert the authorities attention away from his own bank that was being investigated in relation to money laundering and tax evasion; as well as an attempt to harm the reputation of our client’s bank, hence its activity, for the sole purpose of getting their customers to switch to the competing bank. 

The evidence we provided cleared our clients name and provided grounds to open an investigation against the guilty competitor, all in the nick of time before any active involvement of the authorities. This was accompanied by the removal of all negative stories published in the media and the launch of a positive campaign to strengthen our client’s public persona and bank.