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The Diligence ReviewCorporate investigations, explained

An independent English magazine on corporate investigations

Corporate investigations, due diligence and compliance

An independent magazine on corporate investigations, due diligence and compliance, explained in plain English.

Start with due diligenceDigital evidence

Two open manila folders of printed documents on a wooden desk with reading glasses and brass paperclips in soft window light
A corporate check begins with records that exist independently of the person making the claim.

Start with the sections

Four guides, from the record to the proof

Each section opens with an index of its guides. Pick the verification before a deal, the investigation of an incident, the compliance and evidence rules, or the vocabulary of the field.

  1. Two open folders of printed company records on a plain desk beside a pair of reading glasses under soft office light.
    01

    Due Diligence

    Verifying a counterparty before a deal: company records, ownership, litigation history, reputation and the handling of red flags.

    5 guides inside

  2. A wall map of linked companies and arrows pinned with red thread in a quiet meeting room.
    02

    Fraud and Investigations

    The response to an incident: forensic accounting, asset tracing, interviews and the evidence file a court will read.

    6 guides inside

  3. A compliance officer reading a printed regulation at a desk with a laptop and a stack of signed forms.
    03

    Compliance and Regulation

    The rules and the records: KYC and anti-money-laundering duties, monitorships and the handling of digital evidence.

    4 guides inside

  4. A single open notebook of handwritten definitions on a desk beside a mug of tea in morning light.
    04

    Reference

    The working vocabulary of the field, defined plainly and grouped by initial letter.

    0 guides inside

Section 1 of 4

Due Diligence

Verifying a counterparty before a deal: company records, ownership, litigation history, reputation and the handling of red flags.

  • An analyst comparing a printed company filing with a screen of registry data in a small office.

    Due Diligence

    What Corporate Due Diligence Covers

    What a corporate due diligence check actually covers, from company records and ownership to litigation history and reputation, and how the findings are used.

    Registers, filings and ownership: the scope of a check, step by step.

  • A researcher scanning a spread of newspapers and printouts on a table with a highlighter in hand.

    Due Diligence

    The Reputation Audit Before a Deal

    How a reputation audit works before a deal: media and court records, public roles, political exposure and the limits of what public sources can show.

    Media, court records and public roles, and the limits of each.

  • A market-day stall on a stone-paved square in a north-east Wales town, folding table with hand-lettered price cards, low morning light raking across the shopfronts behind.

    Due Diligence

    First Checks Before a Small Business Starts

    How a new small business tests its idea, chooses between sole trader and limited company, and writes a business plan a funder will read.

  • A nonprofit developer's conference table covered with a financing stack: a printed pro forma, a tax credit allocation letter, a bank term sheet and a site plan, lit by late afternoon window light from a Washington DC street, shot at a slight angle from above.

    Due Diligence

    How Community Development Is Financed

    Community development explained: what the work involves, the stages of neighborhood revitalization, who funds each stage, and how money reaches underserved

  • A parcel sorting bench at dusk under fluorescent light, a handheld scanner resting on a stack of labelled boxes, shot from a low angle with the conveyor receding out of focus.

    Due Diligence

    How an Online Sale Is Completed Today

    From checkout to last mile and returns: the chain behind an online sale, what the pandemic changed for good, and what a diligence team checks.

Open the Due Diligence index

Section 2 of 4

Fraud and Investigations

The response to an incident: forensic accounting, asset tracing, interviews and the evidence file a court will read.

  • A forensic accountant working through printed ledgers and bank statements under a desk lamp at night.

    Fraud and Investigations

    Internal and External Fraud Investigation

    How an internal or external fraud investigation is run: the first 48 hours, evidence control, forensic accounting, interviews and the final report.

    The first 48 hours, forensic accounting, interviews, the report.

  • A table covered with bank statements, a property deed and a hand-drawn chain of company boxes.

    Fraud and Investigations

    Asset Tracing: Following the Money

    How asset tracing follows money through banks, companies and property: public registers, corporate filings, court orders and the limits of each method.

    Banks, company layers and land registers, and where a trace stops.

  • Rows of boxed and labelled files on metal shelving in a document room.

    Fraud and Investigations

    Litigation Support and the Evidence File

    What litigation support covers: collecting and numbering documents, preserving evidence, building a chronology and presenting complex facts to a court.

    Document control, chronologies and presenting facts to a court.

  • A kitchen table under a warm lamp at night, a printed hospital bill spread flat with a highlighter and a pen resting on it, a laptop open beside it showing a patient portal, shot from slightly above.

    Fraud and Investigations

    Reading a Detailed Hospital Bill Line by Line

    A detailed hospital bill lists every charge with codes and dates. This guide explains what each line contains and how to verify it against the care received.

  • A plating shop bench at eye level: a rack of small steel valve bodies lowered into a steel tank of amber nickel bath, faint steam above the liquid, cool overhead fluorescent light and a digital temperature readout in the foreground.

    Fraud and Investigations

    How Electroless Nickel Plating Works

    Electroless nickel plating explained: bath chemistry, surface activation steps, and the 1946 origin of the process at the National Bureau of Standards.

  • A clerk's counter in a county courthouse in Maine, late morning light through tall windows, a stack of paper case files and a computer terminal on the desk, photographed from a few steps back at eye level.

    Fraud and Investigations

    Maine Courts and Docket Records

    Maine's court system explained: what a docket is, how the Law Court, Superior Court and District Court differ, and how to obtain court docket records.

Open the Fraud and Investigations index

From the archive

Guides that keep their historical addresses

This domain published a corporate and financial investigations firm's pages for years. These guides answer the same subjects at the same addresses, rewritten as a neutral magazine.

Section 3 of 4

Compliance and Regulation

The rules and the records: KYC and anti-money-laundering duties, monitorships and the handling of digital evidence.

  • A laptop, a sealed evidence bag and a labelled hard drive arranged on a clean examination bench.

    Compliance and Regulation

    Cyber Crime and Digital Evidence

    How digital evidence is handled in a cyber crime case: identifying devices and logs, preserving them without change, and the chain of custody a court expects.

    Devices, logs and the chain of custody a court expects.

  • A monitor reviewing compliance files with two company officers across a boardroom table.

    Compliance and Regulation

    Compliance Monitoring and Monitorships

    How a compliance monitor or monitorship works after a settlement: what the monitor tests, who it reports to, and how the arrangement ends.

    What a monitor tests, who it reports to, how it ends.

  • A compliance analyst checking an identity document against an online register at a bright desk.

    Compliance and Regulation

    KYC and AML: What Due Diligence Asks

    What know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering checks require of a firm, from identity and ownership to source of funds and ongoing monitoring.

    Identity, beneficial ownership, source of funds and monitoring.

  • A government single-window clearance office in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, mid-morning: a clerk at a desk with a computer terminal, a stack of application files beside the keyboard, and a queue of plastic chairs visible through the open door behind, shot at eye level in available light.

    Compliance and Regulation

    Odisha Industrial Approvals: Policy, Portal, Timelines

    How Odisha's Industrial Policy Resolution 2022 incentives, the GO SWIFT single-window portal, and approval timelines and fees work for industrial projects.

Open the Compliance and Regulation index

Elsewhere in the field

Desks kept in adjacent trades

  • The Greenock Ledger, an independent business journal for Greenock and Inverclyde, tracks small business grants in Scotland alongside local trade, port traffic and the Clyde's industrial record.

  • For buyers who need to clear images before publication, a UK guide covers copyright and image licensing, from rights-managed and royalty-free terms to model releases, editorial versus commercial use, and provenance checks such as IPTC metadata and C2PA identifiers.

  • For the mechanics behind a state-level records check, the Georgia Records Desk walks through Georgia open records request timelines, copying fees, open meetings rules and the office that actually holds each document.

  • For readers weighing how Iowa law treats wills versus living trusts, the practice pages at wills vs living trusts iowa set out the vocabulary and the documents that decide which instrument fits a given estate.

  • A working portfolio on editorial and documentary photography, Claire Schneider Light Table sets out brief reading, licensing, consent and caption practice for photographers, students and picture editors.

  • For readers tracking how professional records survive displacement, Syrian Talent gathers reporting on Syrian careers across Syria and exile, covering software work, freelance contracts and design portfolios, at Syrian talent and mobility.

  • For readers who need to act within the first hour after a suspicious login, a lost phone or a ransomware alert, Security, Applied sets out the immediate steps for accounts, devices and small teams without a dedicated specialist.

  • Pour les équipes qui doivent fixer des règles de design tenables, Sites To Use traite des icônes sous licence et accessibles , des échelles typographiques fluides et de la lisibilité du texte courant.

The reading room

Public records and standards worth a bookmark

The Diligence Review sells nothing and answers to no firm. These independent sources publish the registers, investigations and standards this magazine cites, so a reader can check an original document.

  • Outside this site

    OpenCorporates

    An open database that aggregates company registers from many jurisdictions, a practical first stop when the country of registration is not known.

    Company registers, aggregated.

  • Outside this site

    OCCRP

    Cross-border investigations into corporate structures, money flows and the people behind them, published by a network of journalists.

    Investigative reporting across borders.

  • Outside this site

    ICIJ Offshore Leaks

    A searchable public database of companies, trusts and foundations drawn from large sets of leaked records.

    Offshore structures, searchable by name.

  • Outside this site

    ACFE

    Research on how occupational fraud is committed and detected, drawn from cases reported by fraud examiners.

    How fraud happens and how it is found.

  • Outside this site

    The Sedona Conference

    Widely cited principles on electronic discovery and the handling of documents in litigation.

    Evidence and disclosure principles.

  • Outside this site

    NIST CFTT

    A programme that tests and publishes specifications for digital forensic tools, used by laboratories and practitioners.

    Standards for forensic tools.

The file in pictures

Five scenes from the guides

Five photographs from the guides below, each with the page that explains the scene in full.