Enhanced Due Diligence Blog Posts

“Fraud and deceit are anxious for your money. Be informed and prudent”. – John A. Widtsoe   International Fraud Awareness Week Neotas have joined the global effort to minimise the impact of fraud by being a supporter of International Fraud Awareness Week (IFAW). IFAW, or Fraud Week, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and … Read more

Pre-employment Checks, What Should You be Doing in 2021? “83% of hiring individuals have found candidate discrepancies on both CVs and job applications”. Hire Right, 2020   With Covid-19 still prominent and our country facing a looming recession, businesses are facing unprecedented times. It’s more important than ever as we near 2021 that for those … Read more

5 Industries that Should be Doing More than a DBS Check A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is a common way for employers to assess the background of a potential employee. Many jobs ask that employees undertake a DBS check to ensure they have a clean criminal record and will not be putting people … Read more

Neotas use OSINT For Good to Support Environmental Investigation Agency Neotas are proud to use OSINT for good (#OSINTForGood) to support and assist Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in their efforts to investigate environmental crime. The recent report published by EIA highlights the threat towards Asia’s leopard population due to illegal killings in aid to meet … Read more

Over the Easter weekend a team of Neotas Analysts participated in the Tracelabs Global Missing Persons Capture The Flag competition. The aim of the competition is to use Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) to help locate missing people around the world. Information identified ranges from social media profiles to deep web documents and dark web databases, … Read more

Online Reputation Screening Avoid the cost of a bad hire with online reputation screening Over 80% of HR decision-makers admit their organisation has made a bad hire and the cost of a bad hire being anything up to 23 times their starting salary1. Using the full breadth and power of online reputation screening, we help … Read more

OSINT Due Diligence: the new litmus test for investors Private equity firms and investors are increasingly placing focus on management due diligence and the importance of understanding people, cultural fit and capability. Due diligence that harnesses open source intelligence (OSINT Due Diligence) unlocks more meaningful insights into teams and companies, informing business decisions and protecting … Read more

Pep Guardiola’s emails hacked : Last week, it was reported that a man is being questioned by Greater Manchester Police for his alleged involvement in hacking Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s emails. A contractor employed by the club through an IT firm two years ago, he has claimed that the hack was “the easiest thing I’ve ever … Read more

Regulators now require OSINT – what next for AML and CDD? The regulators have called for the use of open source internet and social media checks (OSINT) in anti-money laundering (AML), enhanced customer due diligence (CDD) and conduct surveillance measures. So, if the regulators require OSINT – what are financial institutions doing to meet these … Read more

Locating Missing People: A Crowdsourced and Global Use of OSINT At the beginning of February, Neotas Analysts took part in a global competition in which they contributed to active global missing persons investigations. They joined a community of 140 teams of OSINT practitioners from around the world, ranging from law enforcement officers to threat intelligence … Read more

Social media screening in the spotlight after government controversy Social media background screening is again in the spotlight after the latest controversy involving a UK government official. The UK Government is once again under scrutiny for its hiring and vetting process, following the “reprehensible” and “racist” comments online of Downing Street adviser Andrew Sabisky. Online … Read more

Guide for SRA-regulated firms: Offensive Communications Online: As our online and offline personas increasingly converge, the spotlight is being shone on law firms and the online behaviour of their members. The SRA has recently updated its guidance, warning “the same ethical obligations of professional conduct apply in an online environment”. We take a look at what … Read more

Bad hires: Don’t become another victim We all know that bad hires can have detrimental effects on your business. The cost is significantly higher than just their salary as the negative impact on reputation or team moral can be challenging to say the least. A high turnover of staff creates instability within a business and can affect its day to day functioning of a business, slowing everything down.  … Read more

The Campaign Crisis: MPs and their Mishaps : As election day looms, we look back at what has been a tumultuous campaign for MP candidates from all parties. As is becoming the norm in British politics, online blunders and revelations have once again ended several political careers. In a previous blog post we highlighted the mistakes made by Change … Read more

Sharing is Caring. Right? The emergence of sharing economy companies, such as Uber, Airbnb, and Bolt has brought a question mark around the level of due diligence conducted on service providers. Does the very nature of the sharing economy, which has called into question the regulatory system surrounding it, provide a platform for crimes to … Read more

Assurance for the Insurance Sector: SMCR and beyond Today the Bank of England tells insurance companies to improve their working cultures after revelations about sexual harassment and bullying in the industry. The Prudential Regulation Authority has flagged recent instances of alleged abuse as of “deep concern” and said bad behaviour could result in senior managers being banned … Read more

From our vision to traction, Planet Compliance shine the spotlight on Neotas. What can you tell us about your company and your products & services? Neotas is an online due diligence company. We provide deep insight on risk by interrogating social media, the deep and the dark web. We help our clients reduce fraud, avoid bad hires and … Read more

As a recruiter, how often do you question a candidate’s accolades and accomplishments? In the case of Ms. Antoniadou, it seems this all happened too late. The story hit the press earlier this year and the case raised a few important points for hiring managers and recruiters when screening candidates. Exaggerating credentials and overinflating accolades is … Read more

Putting the “Intelligence” back into AI : Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed our daily lives to drive better customer experiences, from connected home devices to retail experiences. But what will it take to unlock the power of AI in the commercial due diligence process? | 1 in 3 said the ability to harness the information with … Read more

Passport programme in the Pacific faces criticism The citizenship programme in Vanuatu was launched in 2016 and since then, it has raised more than $200 million in government revenue. 1,800 passports were handed out in 2018 alone and the scheme generated a THIRD of government revenues last year. But what has the fallout been? Concerns … Read more

Data Driven FCA As we approach the anniversary of the FCA’s first published set of aggregated results, it is a good time to review what that means for risk managers across the UK and Europe. Based on its annual financial crime survey of over 2,000 firms, firms may find the insights helpful as the data enables a comparison … Read more

A Stewards Enquiry for Investment Due Diligence? On Wednesday 22 May, Neotas hosted a networking evening with clients, peers and partners from across the Investment and M&A world. The evening began with an engaging panel discussion led by guest panellists, Dr. Mike Hicks of Catalysis Advisory, Carrie Osman of Cruxy & Company, and Nicholas Nicolaides … Read more

Public Faux Pas One of the longest standing traditions in British politics is public faux pas, often in the form of controversial, ignorant or downright outrageous statements made by Members of Parliament. In the past, apart from the most egregious of quotes, MPs only had to survive the embarrassment of the weekly news cycle before … Read more

Modern Slavery and human trafficking are some of the most widespread crimes in the world. An estimated 40.3 million people are victims of human trafficking, with 24.9m of these estimated to have been exploited for labour and 15.4m in forced marriage (according to the International Labour Organisation). STOP THE TRAFFIK plays a central role in spreading … Read more

Is it time to get your act together online? Recent news has covered a string of incidents involving public figures in relation to their activity online. Yesterday, an actress was fired by a TV soap series due to historic and offensive tweets. What she had shared on a computer screen led to the producers taking … Read more

Abuse of children A recent story highlighted the need to constantly maintain and review safeguarding controls.  An associate head teacher admitted to the crimes of gathering over 2000 images showing the sexual abuse of children, as well as owning Class A drugs. It is reported that the recruitment process at the time acted in accordance … Read more

In PART 2 of the Courage, Culture and Conduct series, Patrick Butler shared his views on courage as the foundation of a value-focused culture  >> READ HERE The question we are most often asked at the Conduct and Culture Academy (CCA) is, “how do you measure behaviour, given it is subjective and nebulous?” Delegates often comment that this … Read more

In PART 1 of the Courage, Culture and Conduct series, Patrick Butler shared his views on overcoming the fear factor to drive success.  >> READ HERE PART 2: Courage as the foundation of a value-focused culture Cognitive bias can cause fear of new ideas and new ways. We see examples of specific behavioural models (Confirmation bias, … Read more

At the end of 2018, a £13.8m contract was awarded to a ferry company, Seaborne Freight, in preparation for the potential consequences of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit. The company is expected to run ferry services between Ramsgate and Ostend from March onwards. However, in a very public outing, it was revealed that there was a string … Read more

The behavioural theories that underpin the regulators’ approach to mitigate misconduct, are also fundamental to driving success. If we focus on the behaviours that drive value in the long term, this will align interests of employees, managers, boards and shareholders with those of customers and simultaneously crowd out misconduct. This long-term focus critically changes leaders’ priorities. It … Read more

How OSINT and AML Synergize in the Evolving Banking Landscape Between 2-5% of the global GDP is laundered globally in one year, amounting to approximately $2 trillion in current US dollars, according to an estimate by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. In the UK alone it is estimated that British banks spend £5bn … Read more

Facebook’s meteoric rise as the social media platform of choice in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s paved the way for the integration of social media into modern life. Suddenly the online world wasn’t just for you and your friends but your parents and grandparents too. For many, Facebook was the perfect vessel to share … Read more

For many students across the country (including myself), an exciting new chapter of our life is about to begin as we head off to University. Anticipation builds as the day’s countdown to the infamous “freshers’ week”, and we are constantly reminded of the dangers that could arise once at University. But, while still in the … Read more

In the news this week: ‘NASA Intern loses job after accidental profanity-laced tweet to space council fellow’  In the never-ending series of social-media faux pas affecting an individual’s employment opportunities, the news which broke this week from NASA is perhaps the most bizarre yet. After receiving an offer of an internship at the space agency, a woman … Read more

The Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) market has grown significantly in recent years and is anticipated to grow over the forecast period 2018-2023, according to a recent study by Crystal Market Research. OSINT’s interoperability across various markets allows clients from all over the world to apply it flexibly. It has been predominantly used in human intelligence … Read more

We were lucky enough to have our Neotas Summer party at Sandown races last night and with this came the realisation of the difficulties in backing the right horse. But how can horse racing be linked to the world of investment and due diligence?   When the horses are walked round the paddock, there isn’t … Read more

With my office circling for a blog this week, I decided to bite and to put a different kind of fin in fintech. So here it is, a blog that I can really get my teeth into. No fin can stop me now. Oh this is about to be so bad… This week is Shark … Read more

After 2 months of grafting, heart break, doing bits, questionable loyalty and copious amounts of sun burn, Love Island is now drawing to a close. As the remaining couples fight to reach the final, they remain oblivious to the month-long heat wave, England reaching the World Cup Semi-Finals and the extra juicy information the whole … Read more

News broke last Friday of the arrest of a senior programmer from Israeli security firm, NSO Group, the company behind the infamous mobile spyware Pegasus. Allegedly faced with termination, he attempted to sell stolen source and development code valued at hundreds of millions of dollars on the Dark Web. He was caught after a potential … Read more

Supply Chain Transparency using OSINT In February 2017, Michael Endsor of King’s College London demonstrated how Open Sources can be used in investigations into organised crime. In particular, he noted the use of social media in criminal investigations. By studying hashtags on Twitter and Instagram he was able to discover key individuals within a London … Read more

It has been 3 years since the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act in the United Kingdom, and so far it has produced mixed results. Whilst the percentage of businesses unmasking slavery in their supply chains has risen, the act is still struggling to apply serious pressure to the global companies most at risk from modern slavery. … Read more

An England team picked by Neotas would win the football World Cup. It’s a bold claim, I know, but considering recent tournament attempts, you might as well hear us out. England have suffered from a team that never seems to gel. We have had plenty of brilliant players. The “golden generation” included some of the … Read more

To many, slavery is a problem of the past. The unfortunate truth is that it’s still a global problem. Latest estimates from the UN rank modern slavery as the second-largest criminal activity in the world. In 2015, the UK introduced the Modern Slavery Act. It was the first of its kind to specifically address slavery … Read more

Like much of the world, the Neotas team is eagerly awaiting the kick off to the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Millions of fans from countries all around the world will be pouring into Russia to watch thirty-two teams battle it out for the most prized trophy in football. Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat feeds will soon … Read more

In an increasing trend in British football, players are being reprimanded by the press and FA alike for historical activity on social media. In the most recent cases, the dubious online activity of a player has come to light only when they have made the news headlines for another reason – be it Shane Duffy dating Katie Price or Andre Gray’s first premier league goal – but has … Read more

Since before Neotas was Neotas, social responsibility has been central to our team. As such, we’ve developed relationships with several charities and volunteer groups. Of note, is our relationship with STOP THE TRAFFIK; a coalition which aims to bring an end to human trafficking worldwide. Three years ago, I started working for them as a … Read more

From the 22nd to 24th May, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for the United Kingdom held their 5th TechSprint at Canary Wharf. The theme of the TechSprint was Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Financial Crime and following an emotive launch, the event kicked off with gusto and excitement. The event sought to increase understanding surrounding the … Read more

‘Trust is the currency of the future’, said Stuart Lacey, founder of Trunomi, at the ‘Let’s talk about RegTech’ event at Rise last night. The panel discussion centered on RegTech’s place in the world, how regulators function and meeting the challenges posed by regulation. Whilst trust in institutions was at the core of the discussion, … Read more

AML Compliance The 5th Pillar of AML Compliance – is there more data? On May 11th, the four pillars of AML were joined by a 5th. The long-awaited legislation introduces the need to identify the beneficial ownership of legal entities for consumer due-diligence. As such, US financial institutions have introduced enhanced internal customer checks and additional … Read more

The National Crime Agency released their National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime recently, and they found that Fraud continues to be the most common form of crime in the UK, with over 3.4 million incidents recorded in the last financial year. The 2017 Annual Fraud Indicator (AFI) estimated that fraud cost the UK … Read more