Cases
Investigations based on well-known cases, played as a text adventure: you talk to people, collect documents in a folder, make requests and run checks. The names, countries, companies and numbers are invented, so knowing the real story does not give you the answers. Each case has several endings and no single right path: you have to trade time, evidence and legal risk against one another. Auditors, journalists, analysts and procurement specialists work the same way: they compare what is claimed with what independent sources confirm and check a counterparty through open data.
How investigations work
Most large financial cases are cracked not by a confession or a single document but by a discrepancy: the money in the reports does not match the money in the accounts, a partner with a turnover of millions has no office, a car wash “washes” more cars than it can hold. An investigation is the step-by-step checking of such discrepancies and the collection of evidence that will stand up in court.
Forensic accounting compares what a company says with what can be confirmed independently. Reported profit is compared with the actual movement of cash. An account balance is confirmed by asking the bank directly, not by a letter from the company. Purchases are matched against three documents: the order, the delivery note, the payment. Related parties are checked separately: companies owned by the same people can move money in a circle and create the appearance of revenue.
OSINT is intelligence from open sources: registries (in Ukrainian), court decisions, website archives, photos and maps, domains, publications. No source proves anything on its own; evidence is the agreement of several independent sources about the same identifier (in Ukrainian).
Legal limits matter as much as the findings. A court may refuse evidence that was collected unlawfully. An accusation without enough evidence leads to a defamation suit. A lawyer, an auditor and a bank employee have a duty of client confidentiality and, in the financial sector, a duty to report suspicious transactions without warning the client.
More: discrepancies to look for first
| Discrepancy | What it looks like | How it is checked |
|---|---|---|
| Profit without cash | The report shows a large profit, while operating cash flow is weak or negative. | The cash flow statement next to the income statement over several years. |
| Unconfirmed balance | Large sums “in special accounts” held by third parties. | Direct confirmation from the bank, obtained independently of the company. |
| Empty partner | A partner with a large turnover, but no staff, office or website older than a few months. | Registries, the address on a map, domain age, website archive, court cases. |
| Impossible turnover | The business declares more than it can physically do. | Capacity: the number of places, hours, employees, purchases of materials. |
| Circle of related parties | Money moves between companies of the same owners or nominee directors. | Beneficial ownership register, shared addresses, phone numbers, signatories. |
The Lion and the Escrow
An investor asks you to assess, within five days, the allegations against a fast-growing payments company: its profit comes through partners abroad, and the money is supposedly held by a trustee. A short seller’s report, a man with a flash drive in a café outside town, a CFO who threatens to sue, and a regulator that takes the company’s side.
Start the case →The Laundry
A bank’s financial monitoring system notices odd cash deposits from a chain of car washes. You need to work out whether this is money laundering, trace the related parties and collect evidence so that the case does not fall apart in court and the client does not find out too early. There will be pressure from above, too.
Start the case →