Fraud Against Business Partners (Case Study)

Mr Combecher, a client of Kurtz Investigations Saarbrücken and Saarland, and Mr Merzig had jointly built up a craft business over the course of three years, employing a large workforce and operating an entire fleet of company vehicles. For a long time, the cooperation was fruitful and for both partners a lifelong dream seemed to have come true – apparently. For it soon became clear that Mr Merzig was pursuing different objectives from his partner. Just as the company had reached a point at which the founders could have said, “Now the structure is in place, now we can finally take things a little easier, perhaps even go on holiday,” Mr Merzig undertook a number of absurd actions that drove the business into insolvency within a few weeks. The partners had trusted each other so completely that each was authorised to sign independently. In this case, Mr Merzig failed to inform the client of our detectives in Saarbrücken of his planned actions.

Suddenly, Mr Combecher was faced with a pile of ruins that had previously seemed like a fairy tale and now resembled a tragedy. At first, his partner could not explain why Mr Merzig had acted in this way. But when the dubious partner could not be reached for a discussion for weeks on end, it gradually dawned on the injured party that this might have been a deliberate intent to commit fraud. He subsequently engages Kurtz Investigations Saarland to carry out investigations in the environment of his former business partner.

Operating Assets Sold at Forced Auction at the Target Person’s Premises

After providing the client with detailed advice on the possibilities of personal surveillance and carrying out preliminary research, our private detectives in Saarland commence surveillance of the target person, Merzig. The preliminary investigations provided no indication as to the reason for the ruination of the business: Mr Merzig had neither recently come into wealth nor founded a new company. The latter, however, cannot be completely ruled out, as several weeks can sometimes pass between notifying the trade office, commercial register etc. of a company formation and the actual entry being made.

Mr Merzig lives in Völklingen, where the business had also gone insolvent. Kurtz Commercial Investigations Saarbrücken and Saarland can summarise the description of the personal surveillance at this point quite briefly: the target person hardly moves for days on end. That the entrepreneur takes the dog out once a day for ten minutes is already the height of activity. Thus, nothing can be determined by this route – or can it? While the behaviour of the target person gives us no direct indication of the events surrounding the company of our detectives’ client in Saarland, transport vehicles bearing the lettering of the insolvent company are parked in front of Mr Combecher’s house on two different days. These vehicles had been sold at forced auction to an unknown company from Baden-Württemberg. Why are they still in Saarland and why do they still carry the advertising livery of the former owner?

Our investigators want to find out, which is why two of them follow the first vehicle. Unfortunately, the surveillance has to be aborted because the inconspicuousness of the observers is jeopardised by repeated traffic violations and strange detours by the transport driver into small side streets and cul-de-sacs. In consultation with Mr Combecher, Kurtz Investigations Saarland then decides to deploy two additional observers who can alternate during the vehicle tracking and thus drastically minimise the risk of detection.

Former Employees Working for a New Company

With the correspondingly increased deployment, the surveillance succeeds on the second attempt all the way to the transport driver’s destination. It is a shell construction site in Völklingen, in front of which various other vans of the no longer existing company are parked. Inside, craft work is visibly being carried out. Our private detectives from Saarbrücken photograph the individual workers in order to attempt identification with Mr Combecher afterwards. As it turns out, he knows every single one of the craftsmen, as all of them had worked for his company until recently. Apparently, a plot had been devised by the target person to buy up Mr Combecher’s shares for little money and then continue operating the same company – with only one shareholder and thus without sharing profits.

On the next day of surveillance, the focus shifts away from Mr Combecher and towards the construction site. The detectives from Saarland discover not only the company vehicles and former employees there, but also deliveries on pallets which, according to the labelling, had originally been intended for the old company. Using a suitable legend, one of our commercial detectives enters the shell building. The craftsmen working there are wearing overalls bearing the lettering of the insolvent company.

The Icing on the Cake: Client Takeover

Further surveillance of the former employees leads to the discovery of the physical headquarters of the new company in Völklingen. The entire vehicle fleet is parked here, which the same craftsmen had previously used for their journeys. Furthermore, our detectives from Saarbrücken document various machines and tools from the company assets that had been sold at forced auction.

After evaluating the facts established up to this point, Mr Combecher names several of his former employees whose commuting routes are subsequently to be monitored. On the one hand, this is intended to prove the regularity of their employment for the new company; on the other hand, the client of Kurtz Investigations Saarbrücken strongly suspects that, in addition to the workers and the economic assets, customers were also part of this unlawful restructuring and takeover of his company. At the final case discussion a few days later, this suspicion is fully confirmed, and he is now able to take legal action against Mr Merzig and his newly founded company by means of the court-admissible investigation report prepared by our commercial detectives from Saarland.

Note

To preserve discretion and the personal rights of clients and subjects, all names and locations in this case report have been altered beyond recognition.