An international law firm recently engaged DDC on behalf of a client to conduct a large-scale search of assets owned by a large, closely-held, private company. Regrettably, the client had already engaged several law firms, two forensic accountants and multiple investigation firms before turning to DDC for assistance at the recommendation of its new counsel. The client had little to show in terms of concrete results from those other firms despite spending more than $1 million in fees.
After reviewing approximately 30 percent of past material, the client’s new counsel suggested that DDC and the law firm could best serve the client by starting from scratch, due to the unreliable data produced by other professionals. DDC and the client’s new counsel both determined that the data was improperly sourced and poorly analyzed, which led to incorrect results.
Using advanced data analysis techniques, DDC obtained large-scale data sets and created a proprietary in-house database to utilize in its asset search for the client. With advanced mapping and proprietary techniques, DDC was able to identify more than $50 million in assets missed by other professionals and identify more than a dozen potential joint ventures and related entities for additional research. In less than 10 weeks’ time, and under budget, DDC was able to locate almost triple the dollar amount of assets previously identified, all with proper sourcing appropriate for litigation, as needed.
The cross-border transaction was subject to approval by various government agencies, and a final order approving the previously announced plan of arrangement was issued in September. The deal closed in the fourth quarter.