Dowling Intelligence - corporate intelligence firm

Lobby Defence

We investigate the lobbyists influencing the evolving attitudes of policy makers and legislators towards your products and services. While most lobbying activity is legitimate, and its practitioners perform a crucial role in bringing the views and expertise of stakeholders to bear on policy development, the process is frequently abused.

On occasion, lobbying can result in the ‘capture’ of politicians or civil servants advancing the commercial concerns of one group and against the interests of others. It can also be abused by bad actors as part of a sophisticated influencing campaign.

We leverage our established network of media and political sources to identify those behind such lobbying campaigns and harness advanced open-source techniques to uncover evidence of inappropriate relationships, activity, and funding.

Lobbying behind draft legislation threatening our client’s products

A global consumer goods manufacturer was facing the introduction of onerous new legislation in a key market. Leveraging our established in-country network of political and media contacts, we identified improper relationships between lobbyists and key parliamentarians, and funding for the campaign from a rival industry. The dossier helped secure key changes to the proposed bill and headed off similar legislation being mooted in other markets.

Countering billionaire fraudster’s political lobbying campaign

Our client, a major financial institution, was embroiled in a lengthy multi-jurisdictional effort to recover a large sum stolen by a former senior executive. Its efforts were hampered by the fraudster’s sophisticated political lobbying campaign, depicting him as a victim and political exile. Leveraging our established network of political, legal and media contacts, we uncovered a lobby group, masquerading as a human rights group, which was spearheading the subject’s lobbying and media campaign. Supported by advanced open-source investigative techniques, our team created a compelling dossier of evidence which was used to cut through the misinformation campaign, identify the source of funds behind the fake human rights group and undermine the credibility of the politicians, lawyers and journalists supporting the subject.

Reputation Defence

Reputation is your key asset and the foundation on which everything else is built, so when it is under attack there is no room for error.

A focused investigation is the key to understanding, dismantling, and countering the reputational assault, whether perpetrated through traditional media, lobbying, fake news, social media, or any other channel.

We pinpoint the sources and drivers behind a reputational attack and devise an effective strategic response including creating and implementing effective messaging and influencing campaigns.

Countering a black PR campaign which threatened a major fund-raising project

Our client was the subject of a deliberate and long-running reputational attack which had inflicted serious damage on his personal reputation and severely impacted his perceived credit worthiness. We identified the business rival behind the campaign and then found evidence of their previously unknown improper business practices. The evidence we gathered strengthened our client’s legal case but ultimately was used to force a cessation of the reputational attack.

Halting a campaign to damage the reputation of a director of a publicly listed business

Our client was the victim of a bitter campaign spreading damaging information about their early career through direct approaches to senior management and investors in a publicly listed company in which they held an interest. The campaign also included sustained online attacks on our client’s reputation and attempts to place damaging stories about them in the traditional media. We gathered evidence which identified the perpetrator and uncovered information about this person’s wider activities which we successfully used to halt the campaign.

Patent Litigation

Victory or defeat in a high stakes patent dispute rests on the right intelligence and evidence, often hinging on a single key fact. For example, a single piece of evidence invalidating claimed patent rights or a detail enabling accurate monetary valuation of infringing activity can prove decisive.

Combining creativity and precision, our team employs advanced open-source investigation and focused intelligence gathering techniques to unearth evidence of prior disclosure and infringing activity. We have a proven track record in uncovering evidence – often hidden through obfuscation or complexity - which has fundamentally altered the trajectory of multi-billion-dollar patent litigation cases.

Invalidating claimed patent rights

Using targeted foreign language research, we identified documentation indicating that our subject had publicly disclosed inventive features of its new product design prior to filing patent applications. Targeted enquiries with key individuals confirmed this and demonstrated that disclosure had taken place in the absence of a confidentiality agreement. The findings became the central plank of our client’s multi-million-dollar legal strategy.

Identifying multi-million-dollar infringement activity

Targeted investigation and analysis based on unique technical features of the subject’s equipment led to identification of a shortlist of locations where suspected patent infringement activity was taking place. Human intelligence enquiries confirmed this and uncovered tens of millions of dollars’ worth of infringing activity which had been obscured by the complexity of the supply chain and through deliberate action by the subject.

Brand Protection

We protect global brands facing persistent threats from counterfeiting, grey market diversion, illicit trade, and other risks. Our investigators deploy advanced open-source techniques and leverage established local human source networks in multiple jurisdictions to identify bad actors and their hidden assets. From pharmaceuticals to medical devices, consumer goods to chemical formulas, we uncover the evidence to curtail the risk to consumer health posed by such activity and the related damage to the reputations of our clients and their brands.

Identifying the criminal network behind a sophisticated counterfeit business

We were asked to identify the individuals behind a persistent and evolving network of front companies engaged in the illicit manufacture and distribution of a counterfeit consumer product. Our client had been investigating the network for more than a year and the counterfeit products posed significant risks to human health and consequently a very significant threat to our client’s brand.

Using advanced open-source techniques, we provided a dossier which revealed a network of front companies registered in a jurisdiction well known for counterfeit activity which was controlled through a series of proxies by a well-known Central Asian business family. We also uncovered evidence that this business family was secretly working in partnership with another wealthy family from the same jurisdiction.

Our work identified several valuable assets which these two families owned in Europe and the United States. We also identified two additional front companies – later shut down – which were being operated as part of the same criminal network which our client was not previously aware of. Ultimately, our client shared our report with several international law enforcement agencies.

Investment Support

We find the critical information to enable you to invest in the right businesses, on the right terms, and with the right people.

Enhanced due diligence

We were engaged by a sovereign wealth fund to support their due diligence into the acquisition of a minority stake in an oil field services business in the CIS region. We uncovered several key risks including close links to political figures and opaque corporate structures suggesting potential conflicts of interest stemming from apparent connections to suppliers to the core business. Our report informed the client’s negotiation strategy and led to several key procedural enhancements post-investment.

Strategic intelligence

A manufacturing company involved in a sensitive business area asked us to the examine the background of the founder and chief executive of a company they were considering partnering with in an overseas market. Our investigation revealed that the subject was a serial fraudster who had lied about his background and career.

Investigating a sensitive key hire

Our client, a high-profile technology company, was interested in hiring a key individual who worked at a company with whom the client had a close commercial relationship. We identified a shortlist of individuals who knew the potential hire well but were no longer employed by the subject’s employer. We were then able to have a series of discreet and frank conversations about the person’s qualities prior to our client making the decision to headhunt the individual.

Vetting a candidate seeking political office

We carried out detailed investigation into the career and online activity of a candidate seeking nomination for political office. Amongst the more than five thousand deleted Tweets examined as part of the wider investigation, we identified serious antisemitic and racist material published by the candidate, including content which had evaded automated software-based investigative processes.

Dispute Resolution

We provide the insight at the heart of successful litigation, negotiation, communications, and asset recovery strategies.

Litigation support

We were engaged by lawyers preparing for a complex arbitration case involving a claim for US$30 million against the client. Through a lengthy multi-jurisdictional investigation, we uncovered evidence revealing how the subject had repeatedly made highly exaggerated claims and left numerous disgruntled investors and unpaid creditors in their wake. The evidence and intelligence gathered informed key questions advanced by the legal team during the hearing, significantly undermining the claim, and leading to a ten-fold reduction in the award.

Identifying and deploying an eye-catching counternarrative

We found and documented detailed evidence demonstrating how our subject was behind a sophisticated but deceptive campaign pushing false information about a dangerous consumer product and creating manufactured public support for its continued use. The material revealed business practices at odds with the public image of the businessman suing our client and proved instrumental in the settlement of the case.

Asset tracing

We were engaged by a French industrial group which was considering legal action to recover a non-performing loan to a strategic partner based in an African state. We identified a series of valuable assets held through offshore entities by the principals of the subject business, including prestigious properties and other luxurious assets located across six jurisdictions. Our detailed evidence was used by the client’s legal team to negotiate an early settlement of the debt.