How To Solve Geopolitical Business Crisis Before It Starts

Geopolitical Risk

In a world of risk and untapped opportunity, knowledge is power.  With boots on the ground investigators and open-sources intelligence (OSINT) collectors in over 160 countries, we can assist you in safeguarding your investments, operations, and M&A activity with intelligence so you can see what others do not. 

 

Why Work with Infortal Worldwide?

At Infortal Worldwide, you will work with a dedicated core team of professionals with years of experience in intelligence, law, academia, and investigation who have a worldwide reach to help solve the crisis you face.  With Infortal, you won’t get empty advice, but hands-on assistance in solving crisis before it starts and actionable recommendations.  

 

CLE Accredited Courses

Infortal’s Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses are designed to equip executives, attorneys and risk managers with strategic insights to navigate the complex landscape of geopolitical risk. We cover topics such as international sanctions, regulatory risks, corporate espionage, AML, global warfare, anti-terrorist financing and corruption.

We can help you make informed decisions and mitigate potential risks for your business.
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How do we help you manage Geopolitical Risk? 

At Infortal Worldwide, we break down the geopolitical country risks and opportunities so you and your executive team avoid liability and your investors avoid losses.  Geopolitical risks come in various forms, but we work with you to mitigate crisis and solve crisis before it starts. 

With us, you will not get intelligence from basic news sources.  We specialize in OSINT Open Source Intelligence gathering to identify hidden and undisclosed key risks. We work with your executive team and legal counsel to identify liabilities using our in-country assets and expert analysts to give you a crystal-clear view of the threats to your profits and reputation.  

 

Supply Chain Analysis

Supply chains link you to the global economy. Supply chains are more than just your suppliers, but include your access to capital, customers in your target markets, and the companies and workers who supply you with the goods and services you provide.  Supply chains are fragile to disruption from war, inefficiency due to macroeconomic conditions, higher costs due to crime and corruption, and can threaten your profitability if they are not reliable and efficient. 

With our personnel in over 160 countries, we can identify weak points and risk exposure in your supply chains.  In the case of war, crisis, or political pressure, we help you find new suppliers and markets to ensure a continuity and profitability of operations. In your M&A transactions, we go beyond traditional valuation to find the hidden risks and opportunities in your target. 

We offer you leverage to negotiate prices beneficial to you and mitigate risks in integration.  We harden your supply chains to help ensure your interests weather the storm. 

 
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Sanctions Screening

We ensure you avoid sanctions and other regulatory violations through screening new partners, clients and customers. 

Sanctions regimes around the world are growing increasingly complex and it is important to make sure you have an adequate screening and due diligence process in place.  

Infortal’s rigorous approach to Sanctions Due Diligence coupled with in-country intelligence will make certain your sanctions risk is minimized at every level of your business. You’ll know how to manage emerging sanctions compliance requirements.  

 

Country Risk Analysis

Every country is an ecosystem of risk and opportunity.  

Infortal’s country risk reports are not cookie cutter reports. They synthesize your business strategy into the analysis providing your company with actionable steps to move ahead with confidence. 

With our assets on the ground and our network of experts around the world, we identify your interests in your country of operation and assess the risks to your business from bad actors, instability, and market conditions.  

We offer tailored monitoring, threat assessments, and in-country assistance to your business to give advanced warning of crisis, and mitigation once it occurs.

 

Entering New Markets

New markets are more than just numbers.  Every economy is embedded in culture and carries its own pitfalls and possibilities. We offer you cutting-edge business intelligence powered by the best OSINT analysis available and supported by our boots-on-the-ground assets to verify facts, collect information, and monitor threats.  

Our business intelligence gives you the edge you need to outpace your competitors when you enter into a new market. 

 

Screening New Partners Overseas

Geopolitical risks are people risks.  Our executive deep-dive due diligence screens your personnel, partners, suppliers, and executives for political exposure, corruption, criminal risks, and lurking threats to your reputation.  

With boots on the ground in over 160 countries, executive protection, and analytical techniques, we help protect your business from threats ranging from crime to terrorism, corruption, and corporate espionage. 

You do not want to unknowingly provide material support to terrorist groups or malicious state owned enterprises (SOEs) through your business dealings or third party contracts. 

 

Physical Security – Risk of Conflict, War, or Terrorism

Instability is the norm in many countries.  Political polarization, ethnic political tension, criminal gangs, and conflicts in the form of civil war, terrorism, and interstate war all create risks and threats to business. 

Using Infortal’s in-country investigators, who speak the native language and are familiar with the local political climate, can give you the knowledge you need well in advance to mitigate such a risk.

Infortal offers you a spectrum of services to safeguard your personnel. We offer armed protection services and executive travel protection to ensure that your leadership team and assets are safe.   We not only help solve the crisis before it starts; we get you out of it. 

In addition contingency planning is key. With our geopolitical risk intelligence, you can establish backup plans for your supply chains in the event of a conflict so you can quickly shift your operational strategies in time to reduce your losses.

 

Social Unrest Risk

Social unrest can halt business operations and pull at your bottom line. However, predicting social movements is complicated and requires on the ground intelligence. 

At Infortal, we have expertise in assessing local conditions to provide real time analysis on the likelihood of riots, protests, or even boycotts. Social unrest can also lead to open conflict. 

When entering a new market it is critical to get a pulse on the social dynamics that may impact your operations down the road. In depth investigative due diligence combined with business intelligence and boots on the ground investigations will help identify these issues well in advance.

 

Avoiding Reputational Damage

Reputation takes years to develop and carries your brand farther than any ad or marketing campaign.  Reputation can also be destroyed in a day, so protecting it is protecting your investment and hard work.  

An executive scandal, bad product reviews, or even a targeted campaign by activists or a deepfake by AI can destroy your image. 

At Infortal, we help you protect your reputation and business image.  We can screen your executives, workers, and corporate partners to ensure best hiring practices and business risk due diligence practices are followed, and your good name is upheld.  

We can also assist you in avoiding costly marketing mistakes by screening new products and initiatives in safe focus groups conditioned to market conditions.  If you are repairing your reputation, we can give accurate information on the state of your image and how it affects your business by monitoring how your customers and investors view you. 

Real time business intelligence from Infortal can identify possible Public Relations risks and scenarios that may harm your company as well as define the likelihood of each risk such as activist groups operating in a country and/or region.

Our advisory services and real-time risk monitoring can protect you from the very worst blows to your reputation before they occur.

 

Managing ESG related Risks

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) risks are more than a fad.  ESG involves environmental laws, relations between your business and corporate social responsibility, and internal corporate governance. 

When you work with Infortal to address your ESG risks, we can assess your supply chains and suppliers for environmental standards, conduct internal audits to identify and rectify shortfalls in governance and compliance, and assist you in crafting and executing plans for good corporate social responsibility.  

 

International Litigation

If your business is involved in international litigation, our intelligence and investigation services will help you win.  Not all legal systems ensure good protection of property rights or fair trials.  Evidence can be difficult to locate, and certain jurisdictions can place you at an inherent disadvantage.  Additionally, you may find that similar prior litigation has occurred or that your reputation or your products are under attack by unidentified parties; we can determine who is causing damage to your reputation.  With our expertise, you will be better armed to navigate your crisis and succeed through it. 

 

 

A detailed report is provided with Executive Summary, conclusions, recommendations and complete attachments. Updates are provided: Two levels of Executive Due Diligence are available, depending on the number of components searched.

Multiple Key Executive checks may be priced at a discounted rate depending on the number of executives included, and whether international components are involved.

Please contact us for more information and pricing.

Argentina – Economic Risk
Africa – Geopolitical and Economic Risk
UAE: Opportunity and Risk
Conflict Risk: Ukraine and East Europe
Conflict Risk: Israel and the Middle East
Conflict Risk: Taiwan and East Asia
Argentina faced increases in poverty and ongoing economic crisis in 2022. Protests, the assassination attempt of Argentina’s Vice President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, corruption trials, and incidents of police brutality highlight Argentina’s socioeconomic instability. Companies operating in Argentina face heightened risks of corruption, FCPA violations, and inflation.

Argentina’s economy contracted every year since 2018, highlighting the country’s economic risk even prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Argentina’s historic inflation crisis continues at a rate of 138% in 2023, with over 39% of the country living in poverty. Argentina’s risk of civil unrest is increasing, with inflation projected to continue rising into 2024.

Argentina’s upcoming presidential election highlights greater instability in Argentina for 2024. The country’s rising far-right looks set to take power in Argentina’s upcoming election, with structural reforms threatening economic predictability in the country. Should Argentina’s new government adopt the US dollar, US companies face new opportunities for investing in the country.

Companies operating in Argentina must maintain an up-to-date economic advisory, maintain robust due-diligence screenings for individuals to minimize corruption risks, and conduct regular geopolitical risk intelligence forecasting to protect assets and company interests from geopolitical shock.
In 2023, Sub-Saharan Africa is a primary source of critical minerals needed for green energy transition and represents a large emerging market. Companies operating in Africa also face unprecedented risks from corruption, terrorism, ethnic violence, human rights violations, property rights violations. As the center for geopolitical competition for minerals between Chinese state-owned enterprises and US companies, and a center for jihadist groups and Russian influence, Africa has one of the highest geopolitical risk profiles for 2023. These risks will continue in 2024.

US companies operating in Africa require careful due diligence investigations of partners, new hires, and investors, alongside close intelligence monitoring of security and geopolitical risks. Due to poor internal governance and external major powers operating in Africa’s economic arena, risks facing private Western companies are complex and multilayered. Recent operations in Africa by the Russian mercenary firm, the Wagner Group, and the recent coup in Niger highlight Africa’s condition as an ongoing conflict zone. Jihadist activity in East Africa and Nigeria, as well as high crime rates in South Africa also show internal security threats facing companies investing in the region.

Economically, companies face increased ESG risks. Mining operations and mineral extraction reliant upon forced or child labor open companies to regulatory and reputation risks. Conducting ESG-driven due diligence investigation and intelligence monitoring can mitigate risks for companies seeking to operate in Africa’s emerging market.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) offers one of the brightest opportunities in the Middle East for 2023. Two years after the signing of the Abraham Accords that normalized ties between the UAE and Israel, the Emirates offers a high-growth business environment central to the global energy and high-tech markets. In 2022, the UAE’s economy grew at 8%. Greater collaboration between the UAE and Israel offers emerging opportunities for companies looking to the Middle East for investment.

The recent war that was started by Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel poses geopolitical risks for the wider Middle East, including the UAE. Ties between jihadist groups operating in the region and Iran place the UAE at the center for heightened risks of both conflict and compliance violations. Sanctions violations remain a risk as terrorist groups and Iran attempt to use Emirati banks and financial institutions to finance terrorism and bypass trade restrictions. A wider regional war involving Iran also threatens Emirati growth prospects and potentially poses an existential threat to the country. Iran’s nuclear program heightens this risk.

Companies operating in the UAE require robust KYC programs in order to safeguard operations from compliance violations related to sanctions and terrorist financing. Additionally, companies seeking tax advantages of operating in the UAE should retain close consultation with financial professionals in order to avoid violations.
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine is the single-largest driver of geopolitical risk in 2023 to date. Russia’s invasion added to inflationary pressure as countries worldwide faced increased costs from defense spending and risks from disruption of energy and food imports. Europe’s economic vulnerability for its historic reliance on Russian energy emerged as a macroeconomic risk for Europe. In the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, disruptions in food and energy imports from both Ukraine and Russia raised the risks for famine and the risk of economic collapse.

Within Europe, the risk outlook for 2023 and 2024 facing Western companies depends on the duration of the war. Europe’s ambitions to reach a full green energy transition have faltered, just as demands for increased defense spending are increasing. The Russia-Ukraine war similarly is polarizing European domestic politics over questions of expanding the European Union.

Companies operating in Europe face overlapping risks from misinformation, macroeconomic uncertainty, and inflationary pressures as the result of the Ukraine war. Should Russia make advances in Ukraine, the risk of war spreading westward in Europe raises risks of terrorism, and operating costs. Russian aggression also increases the risk of cyberattacks for European companies.
Terrorist attacks on Israel in the form of rocket attacks, kidnappings, and human rights violations are currently opening a new war in the Middle East. Unlike previous terrorist attacks, Israel’s coming incursion into the Gaza Strip to eradicate Hamas and threats of retaliation from Iran increase the risk of a regional war affecting Israel, Lebanon, Syria, the Gulf, and Iran. Iran’s nuclear program and support for terrorism are reshaping the Middle East’s risk environment.

Companies operating in the Middle East face multiple overlapping risks that include terrorism, sanctions violation, security risks, reputational risks, and macroeconomic collapse.

Operating in the Middle East in 2023 and 2024 requires companies to develop accurate and ongoing geopolitical risk monitoring and intelligence to detect risks to personnel and assets in the region. Sanctions and terrorist financing compliance violations also pose risks exposed to the Middle East but not operating there. Employing enhanced due diligence investigations alongside geopolitical risk intelligence monitoring offers companies needed information and advance time to detect and insulate themselves from risk.
Conflicts unfolding in East Europe and the Middle East involve Iran and Russia, and both countries are closely aligned with China. The risk of world war is increasing. In East Asia, the main catalyst for the region’s entry into what would become a global conflict is centered on Taiwan. China’s reopening since the Covid-19 pandemic includes a retrofitting of its economy for weapons production. China’s economic reorientation alongside ongoing violations of Taiwan’s airspace by the People’s Liberation Army are advanced warning indicators of impending war. China’s sanctioning of US companies, police raids of the offices of Western companies operating within China, and events such as China’s spy balloon over US airspace all indicate the potential for an impending war in the near future.

While war is not guaranteed, companies operating in China and Taiwan have opportunities to re-shore supply chains away from China in order to minimize losses if conflict erupts. Companies exposed to China face overlapping risks in the form of sanctions violations, corporate and economic espionage, asset confiscation, and loss of market access as latent conflict continues in 2023.
Country Risk Assessments

Are you prepared to deal with cartels in Mexico or threats to your intellectual property in China

Monitoring Corruption

What happens if you intend to do business with a company in a country like China, only to find out after the fact that bribery is simply the standard cost of conducting business?

Avoiding Criminal Charges

Did you know that your foreign investments as a company could lead you to commit an actual crime inadvertently?

Sanctions Violations

It’s one thing to familiarize yourself with major international business sanctions such as sanctions against Russia’s energy imports…

Avoiding Damage To Your Reputation

What do you do when your business is struck by a public relations crisis that’s entirely NOT your fault?

Get Ahead of ESG Risks

Whether it’s severe flooding in Thailand that disrupts your technology supply chain network…

Preventing Disruptions From Social Unrest

If your company was located in the Middle East in 2010 or 2011, you most likely had no idea the Arab Spring revolutions were coming.

Terrorist Attacks

It seems unlikely you could ever predict the next terrorist attack unless you have all the resources of the CIA at your disposal.

Going Into Business With A State Owned Enterprise (SOE)

How do you know if doing business with a State Owned Enterprise (SOE) like China (with its global holding companies) is really safe?

How can war impact your business?

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the perfect, tragic example of what can happen to businesses if you don’t see a war coming long before it actually arrives.

Our team is available to assist

CLE Accredited Courses

Infortal’s Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses are designed to equip executives, attorneys and risk managers with strategic insights to navigate the complex landscape of geopolitical risk. We cover topics such as international sanctions, regulatory risks, corporate espionage, AML, global warfare, anti-terrorist financing and corruption.

We can help you make informed decisions and mitigate potential risks for your business.
LEARN MORE   
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