Services

KMG Research provides timely solutions for wide ranging issues no matter how unique the situation may be.

Cases requiring our services typically arise from complicated situations involving privately or publicly held companies, corporations, trusts, limited partnership etc. and span multiple jurisdiction.

Whether the case involves equity, real estate titles, digital asset retrieval, intricate estate issues or ownership links in holdings that have ceased reporting KMG Research works diligently to arrive at the necessary solution.

Our services include

International Asset Tracing

In many jurisdictions owners & directors are either not a matter of public record or easily accessible. Establishing beneficial control of these companies and therefore their assets requires physical viewing and verification of paper records. This frequently involves direct interaction with government registrars in their offices and record depositories. Either you would have to have someone there already or have to arrange one. Over the years KMG Research has established a network of such intermediaries.

Forensic Accounting

When assets pass through layers of holding companies and from one country to the next, many of which may no longer be incumbent corporations, great expertise are required to follow the chain of custody. Financial assets whether they be equities, monetary instruments or cash can require even greater efforts.

There are very few public accessible means of following transfers of financial assets. KMG Research’s contacts throughout banking networks can have from time to time obtained these details.

Chain of Custody Related Enquiries

An asset’s provenance often needs to be traced through a series of vehicles. Assets can be held in layers of holding companies which are in turn passed through a series of such entities. Electronically held assets such as equities or financial instruments can pass from transparent data entries to opaque records. Quite often this is done to obscure scrutiny. Through the determined use of traditional investigative techniques KMG Research identifies, locates and reinstates the proper claim to its rightful owner.

Financial investigations

Sometimes financial investigations involve detailed transaction analysis. In some case when it is suspected corporate assets maybe conveyed to non-arm’s length parties. In other cases it is important to determine the transactions took place in the time lines reported in order to verify invoices are not back dated to justify an outcome..

Asset Valuation and Claims

Quite often in cases of corporate malfeasance valuations and claims are deliberately skewd to either usurp company assets or inflate their value as collateral. Independent valuation is often needed to determine the validity of claims.

Transfer Document Auditing and Tracing

While there is a move towards all digital record keeping quite often companies are legally required to be held for a specified time period. In order to save space corporations will often keep records at third party facilities. Once a company ceases activity and stops honoring its obligations it loses its rights to what has been left in storage. Obtaining records held in this manner can be quite arduous especially when they are held in offshore jurisdictions. Another source of records are company registrars and transfer agents in different counties. These can range from readily accessible records in common wealth jurisdictions such as the British West Indies to more difficult inquiries in the far east where there are language barriers and multiple government departments.

Block chain & Digital Asset Dispersal Audits

The understanding most people have of crypto currencies and digital assets is that an entry in a distributed ledger they cannot simply vanish. People understand that the value of these assets rise or fall dramatically. However, people believe the assets remain intact regardless how much their value may be change or be transferred.

Some attempts to conceal where the money has gone take place while the assets are still in the traceable electronic realm. Crypto currencies transaction trails can be complicated by being transferred into many different wallets, tokens may be repeatedly tumbled, one crypto currencies can be exchanged into a series of other via multiple exchanges, but ultimately these transactions are all digital and anything digital is traceable. It can also be turned into any other physical assets such as real estate or some other fungible property like commodities for that matter. Sometimes the value remains in these forms while other times these properties may be sold onwards. Ultimately these efforts are to remove the money from the digital realm.

As everyone is aware money can be placed into crypto and can be lost through market fluctuations however funds can be lost by other means as well. Quite often money that goes into Crypto in legitimately lost. However, there are many cases money sent in this direction is misplaced or waylaid.

It is absolutely critical to discern the point at which the money goes from being in a digital form to that of some otherwise denominated asset. This could either be the result of subterfuge or an unintended consequence.

If for example, a mutual fund was investing in alternative assets, they might shift some holdings from crypto to precious metals. Most commonly, precious metals are held in allocated storage. In such cases, ownership of the asset would go from a traceable digital ledger entry to a warehouse receipt. Over time assets of this nature can be lost track of. The skillsets KMG Research draw upon allows us to connect the rightful owners to their estranged holdings.

People in this situation run may into a brick wall when they attempt to have their local band or professionals find the answers. Further attempts to make such requests to officials overseas can be as futile and more frustrating. KMG Research has a network of contacts to draw upon so we can reduce each step in this sequence to a discrete and manageable task and solve these problems.

Corporate ownership analysis

If you want to know who owns something in the common wealth it is not very hard; most of the information in readily available on line. It can become challenging where it is not so clear; for example in places where it not obligatory to disclose, not online or not a matter of public record.

In many cases this information is being purposely hidden. Additional levels of investigative skill are needed for matters of malicious intent. Typically complex layers of corporate ownership and nominee share structures have been used to obfuscate beneficial ownership.

For instance, during the Covid 19 response, many Governments desperately attempted to purchase medical supplies often through purported overseas suppliers. Tens of Billions of Dollars were invoiced through such entities for supplies that went undelivered. For the most part these funds have yet to be recovered. By simply invoicing through layers of nominees in companies domiciled in multiple jurisdictions, a vast of misappropriation of funds was made possible.

The only way retrieval will ever become possible will be to do the hard work necessary to peel the onion. KMG Research specializes in going through all the various corporate registries, even where beneficial ownership is not a matter of public record, to prove that the underlying assets controlled by such structures were the legitimate property of our clients.

Transaction Completion Guarantees

Sometimes large scale quasi institutional deals are unable to be completed owing to procedural reasons. Frequently the use of large amounts of leveraged capital can cause the collapse of the organizations bearing the brunt of the delay. In certain cases clients have been unable to realize the payouts due to them for disposing of pooled assets when the administrative arrangements encounter procedural obstacles. Funds may sit in escrow for years in the absence of the intermediary whose job it was to complete this arrangement.  By taking the time necessary to correct and obviate these difficulties KMG Research can complete these arrangements.

Financial Service Provider Liaison

In situations where financial services are involved in the resolution or completion of a transaction KMG Research will act as a liaison between the parties involved.

Estate Solutions

When the affairs of the departed are unclear the result may create confusion and potential dispute amongst the beneficiaries or heirs. If for example a relative passed away and their family opened up a desk drawer to find a stack of share certificates there may be a question of the value of these certificates especially if the companies in question in a foreign country. A bank or brokerage can only tell what the value is once the current status of these holding is traced. When the shares in question have undergone take overs, share swaps, changes to the name, exchange, share structure it gets it hard for them to do this. However, when buy outs, divestitures, and overseas domiciliation are involved these parties can often be of no use at all. KMG Research can plot the corporate lineage needed to determine the value of these holding.

Quite often there is significant underlying value in these hard to identify shareholdings that KMG Research pleased to disperse to the legitimate owner.