Our Practices

Commercial disputes with other companies and government regulatory inquiries into your business are unfortunate facts of life in the corporate world these days. They can be very disruptive, distracting you from your main task of running your business. 

Our seasoned investigators can provide you with the information you need to achieve the best resolutions of these situations. We are experts at combing through companies’ internal data and communications for clues about strategies for dealing with these issues. We are equally adept at finding clues in legal and government documents. And no one can beat us at using intelligence techniques to gather external information that turns out to be crucial to a commercial dispute or regulatory proceeding. 

One reason that we’re leaders in investigative work is our experience: All of our investigators have been at this for years, and some for decades, at heralded military, government or private organizations. Another reason we’re good at investigations is that we use the latest technology.

A lot of our clients end up with a silver lining from our work. Our investigations are so thorough that they often find unexpected opportunities for protecting clients’ interests, such as ways to improve their physical and cyber security. 

Complying with the thousands of regulations that the government throws at you these days is daunting. This is particularly true in the financial world — a key part of our regulatory compliance expertise — where mistakes can lead not just to huge fines and other civil penalties but also to criminal changes.

We help commercial, retail and investment banks, financial services companies, and virtual currency exchanges around the world comply with regulations that govern their industries. These include the financial-crime-prevention provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, and the law that established the Office of Foreign Assets Control.   

A tricky compliance challenge that corporations face these days is abiding by sanctions. The United States, the European Union and other governments often order companies at home and abroad not to do business with certain countries or individuals — and these restrictions often change. Sanctions violators face civil and criminal penalties — so a mistake can be very costly. We can keep an eye on the sanctions landscape for you, so you’re always in compliance.  

Another important compliance area where we’ve got your back is ensuring that you abide by anti-money-laundering laws, which, like sanctions regulations, are rapidly changing.

We can also ensure that you comply with anti-fraud and anti-bribery laws, and do risk assessments that show where you might be compliance-vulnerable. In addition, we can perform customer due-diligence and historical-transactions reviews for you.    

The number of threats that corporations, business executives, and others with high profiles face these days is unprecedented. Whether it’s someone opposed to the way your company does business, to your personal outlook on life, someone with a fixation on you, or an out-and-out nut case, if you or your corporation are in the limelight, you’re vulnerable.

As we know from all too many news reports, those who pose the threats have a variety of weapons at their disposal — from guns, to bombs, to arson materials and beyond.

S3 team members are experts at identifying threats and creating plans to protect you from them. This includes one of the greatest risks to business today — cyber threats. 

We start with risk assessment. This includes identifying security soft spots at company facilities, in their electronic and communications networks, and at executives’ residences. With the theft of intellectual property a growing concern, we can even protect the confidentiality of boardroom proceedings with techniques such as checking for listening devices.  

We can also assess your risk of traveling overseas, and protect you when you do, particularly when you are headings for frontier markets with dubious security.

Think of us as your security partner. We will not only identify your security risks, but work with, and train, your security team. In addition to being protected, you will have the peace of mind you need to do your best. 

Some cyber attacks inflict instantaneous damage by crippling a company’s operations for hours or days at a time. Others involve death by a thousand cuts, with unseen viruses vacuuming up trade secrets, client data, and other information for weeks, months or years.

Online attacks also invade privacy by gathering sensitive information about executives and other high-profile individuals that can be used to damage their reputations or blackmail them.

Whatever the mode of a cyber attack, and the perpetrators’ main intention, one thing is clear: Online security breaches pose one of the biggest threats to business today, causing billions of dollars in damage a year and incalculable loss of reputation.    

S3’s cyber experts can protect you against attacks and — because cyber criminals are always probing for the next way to compromise your system — limit the damage when an attack occurs. 

Our team includes hardware and software engineers, computer techs, anti-hacking specialists and others who can provide you with the best possible protection against online attacks. 

It starts with a cyber-health check-up — our team looking for vulnerabilities in your system. We then work with you on ways to eliminate the soft spots. After that, we give you a computer-network health-maintenance plan aimed at warding off new viruses and other cyber bugs. And, finally, we put together a response plan to help you limit damage if a cyber intruder does breach your system.   

Our team has honed its cyber-threat prevention and response skills in military, security, intelligence, government and private-sector jobs. This means we can provide you with better cyber protection than anybody around.

High-profile and high-net-worth individuals can’t be too careful these days. Not only do they need physical and cyber security. They also need to protect themselves against ne’er-do-wells who want to cozy up to them to steal business or other secrets, or to defraud them. 

The security packages we create for high-profile individuals are tailored to meet clients’ exact circumstances.   

Our team of former law enforcement agents, forensics and cyber experts, accounting specialists, and others can reduce your risk of being a victim of kidnapping, fraud, extortion, blackmail, cyber theft, the loss of art and other valuables, and other crimes.   

An increasingly important service we offer is inner-circle due diligence. This involves checking the backgrounds of those you are considering bringing into your inner circle for questionable ethical or moral activity, criminal charges or convictions.

Of course, high-profile individuals and their families need infallible physical security to protect them from kidnapping, extortion, assaults, and worse. We do risk assessments of their offices, homes, country clubs and other locations they frequent, then draw up a plan to keep them safe at each venue. We also create  plans for places they travel that could pose a threat.

Violations of privacy are not only disconcerting to high-profile individuals, but can also open the door to physical or financial risks, including identity theft. So we go all-out to protect their privacy, using both investigative and high-tech approaches.     

Our cyber experts use the latest technology and electronic counter-measures to protect clients from online theft of their financial assets or damage to their reputations. This involves continuous monitoring to eliminate vulnerabilities in their mobile phones, computers and other electronic devices. It also involves creating ways to lock down their devices, email, and online financial accounts at a moment’s notice.