The Infortal Blog

The Costs of Skipping Due Diligence: Understanding the Potential Consequences for Your Business

When hiring a new executive, considering a merger, purchasing another company, or even contracting a vendor, you need to know who you’re about to be working with. [...]

April 12th, 2023|Categories: Due Diligence|Tags: , |

The Impact of Geopolitical Risk on Businesses

  Any business that deals with other businesses, including vendors, in other countries must be aware of the various geopolitical risks they’re opening themselves up to. While [...]

March 13th, 2023|Categories: Geopolitical Risk|Tags: , , |

Honeywell’s $160m+ Resolution (Part I)- Brazil and FCPA Failure

Bribery Schemes in Brazil to Win Exclusive Business Demonstrate Lack of Strong Due Diligence and Compliance Program. At the close of 2022, when some were paying for [...]

February 3rd, 2023|Categories: Due Diligence|Tags: , , |

How to Conduct a Business Risk Assessment to Avoid the Consequences of Money Laundering

When preparing to acquire another company, hire an executive, form a partnership, or even hire a third party vendor, you need to conduct a full risk assessment [...]

February 2nd, 2023|Categories: Risk Mitigation|Tags: , , |

What Every Executive Team Must Know About Sanctions and Supply Chain Due Diligence

One of the key parts of any larger business is its supply chain. A supply chain is made up of various vendors that supply raw materials and [...]

February 1st, 2023|Categories: Due Diligence|Tags: , , |

George Santos and Political Due Diligence

Lessons from George Santos Background Misrepresentations  The New York Times dropped a bombshell article purporting that representative-elect George Santos lied about his education, work history, family background, [...]

January 25th, 2023|Categories: Due Diligence|Tags: , , |

How M&A Due Diligence Can Protect the Outcome of Your Deal

Businesses merge together or outright acquire one another on a regular basis. Two companies that have enjoyed a partnership for several years may decide to fully merge [...]

The Sentencing of Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani

Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny Balwani” of Theranos fame, or infamy, were sentenced after receiving convictions earlier this year.    Holmes, founder and ex-chief executive officer (CEO) [...]

January 16th, 2023|Categories: Featured|Tags: |

What Every Executive Team Must Know About Sanctions and Supply Chain Due Diligence

One of the key parts of any business is its supply chain. A supply chain is made up of various vendors that supply raw materials and transport [...]

How to Conduct a Risk Assessment to Avoid the Consequences of Money Laundering

When preparing to hire an executive, form a partnership, acquire another company, or even hire a vendor, you need to do a full risk assessment so you [...]

What is the Difference Between Basic and Deep Dive Due Diligence?

Imagine hiring a new executive only to find out that they were involved in a serious crime, have a major conflict of interest, or have a history [...]

The Importance of Due Diligence in Executive Search

When an executive leaves a company, it creates a vacuum. Often, an entire division of the company is left without executive leadership. The CEO or board [...]

Identifying the Three Main Levels of Due Diligence

On May 9, 2022, Jorge Gomez joined Moderna, maker of the COVID-19 vaccine, as their new CFO. Gomez was fired just one day later when it [...]

The Most Significant Consequences of Insufficient Executive Due Diligence

According to common practice, a strong compliance program focuses on policies, employee training, books and records and internal controls, onboarding questionnaires and risk ranking of third parties, [...]

FCPA Recidivists and Due Diligence Investigations

According to FCPA tracker data, there are around 100 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigations ongoing as of August 2022, with 20 new investigations disclosed since the [...]

Protecting the Board

 Board Risks and How to Mitigate Them The board of directors play a critical role in a company. They represent the company and have a fiduciary duty [...]

“Heroes and Monsters”

An Artistic Dive into Due Diligence Through the Brush of Art Fraud Art. The word has spawned the question: “What is art?” It is a fairly modern [...]

Uber: A Legacy of Reputational Damage

Showcasing the Need for Due Diligence Investigations Reputation is critical in business. Warren Buffet once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes [...]

Assessing Character: The Indispensable CEO Quality

A number of interesting C Suite “characters” have been in the spotlight in recent years in the area of business corruption, fraud, and other acts of misconduct. [...]

Spotlight on FCPA Violations – Q2 2022

Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA) enforcements so far in 2022 total $112.3 million in settlements with three companies: South Korea’s KT Corporation, Stericycle, Inc. headquartered in Illinois, [...]

Glencore’s $1.18 Billion FCPA and CFTC Violations: What this Means for Businesses

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced last Tuesday a $1.18 billion dollar agreement was reached by Glencore International A.G. and Glencore Ltd. (collectively Glencore), part of [...]

Why Due Diligence Background Checks Should be Conducted on Executives and Business Partners

Times are particularly litigious and reputation can rise or fall with a new scandal or questionable behaviors by key executives. The global economy has opened up a [...]

Disregarding M&A Due Diligence – Is It Worth the Risk?

Stericycle’s Rapid Global Expansion with Lack of Due Diligence and Compliance Program Cost $90M in FCPA Violation Fines Global markets continue to be the domain of the [...]

Protecting the Board: Board Risks and How to Mitigate Them

The board of directors play a critical role in a company. They represent the company and have a fiduciary duty to its shareholders and assets. While they [...]

Mentoring and Entrepreneurship in Challenging Times – An Interview with Candice Tal (Part 2)

This is part two of Mentoring and Entrepreneurship in Challenging Times. To listen to part one, click here. Candice Tal, CEO of Infortal Worldwide, a leading global [...]

March 4th, 2022|Categories: Due Diligence|Tags: , , |

Mentoring and Entrepreneurship in Challenging Times – An Interview with Candice Tal (Part 1)

Starting and growing a business is challenging, but can prove even more difficult during tumultuous times. Business formation requires bringing numerous elements together successfully: dedication, specialization, skill [...]

February 22nd, 2022|Categories: Due Diligence|Tags: , , , |

Spotlight on FCPA Violations – Q2 2021

Ongoing global business connections provide great benefits, but also conceal great risks. This has led to increased cooperation between corporations and multi-national government agencies to uncover FCPA violations.

Top 5 Things You Should Know About Protecting Investors

Investors play a key role in the success of many businesses. They invest their capital into your business to provide the money necessary to fund your [...]

The Top 5 Things You Should Know About Supply-Chain Risk Mitigation

Global supply chains are often taken for granted when businesses expand nationally and internationally. Supply-chain vendors are often selected as quickly as possible to keep the movement of goods and supplies or manufacturing capabilities moving rapidly and at a reasonable cost. So, what does a company need to do to mitigate risk in its supply chain?

June 1st, 2021|Categories: Risk Mitigation|Tags: , , , , |

Spotlight on FCPA Violations – Q1 2021

Doing business is an increasingly global endeavor, from establishing international locations, sourcing, manufacturing and global supply-chains to mergers and acquisitions of international entities, plus increasing foreign investments. However, these benefits come with a wide range of potential and even substantial risks...

May 31st, 2021|Categories: FCPA|Tags: , , , , , |

Due Diligence for Non-Profits

There are times when non-profits fail to live up to their mission statement and stray into unethical or illegal activity such as mismanagement, fraud, or embezzlement. Additionally, non-profit executives may have a history of financial crimes, abuse or sexual harassment, amongst other harmful characteristics...

Infortal Celebrates 35 Years!

We’re so excited to celebrate our 35th anniversary of helping customers succeed in business by protecting them from bad actors. It has been an amazing journey, meeting incredible people along the way. Much of our growth and success over the years has been connected to the wonderful clients, coworkers, and colleagues that we’ve worked with...

Checkmate: 5 Most Overlooked Background Moves

We don’t know exactly when chess was created, but its history can be traced back at least 1500 years. Background checks may be newer than chess, but often involve just as much strategy and are no game. Businesses strive to create win-win situations by hiring teammates that empower them, while avoiding those that could cause harm.

An Interesting Case of Mistaken Identity

Cases of mistaken identity are nothing new. They have existed throughout history and persist to the present day. Some people are mistaken for someone else because [...]

Best Practices in Executive Due Diligence

With so many recent scandals at senior executive levels, often resulting in dismissals and resignations, more companies are becoming proactive in checking the backgrounds of their [...]

Spotlight on FCPA Violations

Doing business globally can increase the risk of FCPA violations Doing business globally is increasingly complex, from establishing international locations, establishing and maintaining intricate sourcing, [...]

International Due Diligence Investigations Episode 5 – Global Investigations and Innovation

Innovations-in-Global-Due-Diligence-Investigations We have considered aspects of international due diligence investigations. In many ways this can be viewed as finding a needle in the corporate haystack [...]

International Due Diligence Investigations – Episode 4 Innovation and Continuity

Unlocking the secrets in M&A transactions for greater transparency and risk mitigation   I recently had the honor of speaking about various aspects of due diligence [...]

International Due Diligence Investigations – Episode 3, What Is and Is Not Working

In this 5 part series, I am visiting with Tom Fox, the Compliance Evangelist. We consider various aspects of international due diligence investigations. In many ways this [...]

International Due Diligence Investigations – Episode 2, Insights from Recent FCPA Enforcement Actions

Incomplete due diligence results lead to a fragmented view of risks   I recently spoke with Tom Fox, The Compliance Evangelist on The Compliance Podcast Network [...]

International Due Diligence Investigations: Episode 1 When Basic Due Diligence Is No Longer Enough

It was an honor to be discussing due diligence investigations this week with Tom Fox, The Compliance Evangelist. The following is excerpted from a series of 5 [...]

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