A software company, headquartered in the US, had an office in China. The founder was ousted from his role as the head of the company due to a sexual harassment claim, and the China operations were disbanded. The founder was a dual citizen of both Pakistan and the USA, and three of the team members in China were also of Pakistani origin.
The current leadership at the software company suspected that some of the former team members in China, including the three Pakistanis, had stolen critical aspects of the company’s intellectual property and allegedly rebranded it to start their own company in Pakistan, and compete with our client for the same customer business.
Our client believed that the Pakistani entity was being funded by the former founder, who had been ousted from his role. Their objective was to gather concrete evidence as to whether the company in Pakistan had any links to the ex-founder.
To solve the client’s problem, we suggested a three-tiered approach.
First, we undertook an exercise to identify all the current and historic shareholders of the new company in Pakistan.
Then, we analyzed the information to gauge whether the founder had any business links or shared interests with the three Pakistani nationals who had worked as part of the original team in China.
Finally, we sent an investigator to the address of the new entity in Pakistan to learn more about its presence and its operations.
Our initial research revealed that there were a few connections between the three Pakistani nationals and the ex-founder, but there was no concrete evidence to connect the ex-founder with the new Pakistani entity.
However, when our investigator went to the address in Pakistan where the new entity was based, he discovered that there was a second company, let’s call it ‘company B’, established there.
Our investigator took discreet photos and gathered information about ‘Company B’, which directly proved that the founder was linked to ‘Company B’ and was often seen on its premises. Having gathered this evidence and confirming the presence of the ex-founder at ‘Company B’, our investigator dug up the corporate records of ‘Company B’. The documents revealed that the ex-founder was both a shareholder and a director in ‘Company B’.
Based on the investigator’s evidence, our team was able to establish a link between the ex-founder and the former team members of the original China office, thus meeting our client’s objective, and allowing them to take the necessary legal steps.
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