The story
The complaint arrived through the parent company's hotline and said, in essence, one thing: that the head of procurement at the Indian operation of a US-listed automotive OEM 'controls' a tooling supplier. It was the kind of allegation that is easy to dismiss and dangerous to ignore.
The parent could not afford to dismiss it. Because it was US-listed, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act's books-and-records and internal-controls provisions were live from the first hour, whether or not anything had yet been proved. An unreliable procurement record in an Indian subsidiary was a question for the parent's counsel before it was a question for anyone else.
There was also a practical problem. The person under suspicion ran the function in which the evidence sat. Any conventional enquiry, an audit request, a supplier questionnaire, a review of RFQ files, would pass across his desk. If the allegation was true, the record would start to change the moment anyone asked for it.
Counsel needed the facts established quietly, forensically and in a form that could later be placed before US authorities if the parent chose to self-disclose. Working at counsel's direction, NARADism was brought in to do that.
How we approached it
- 1
Imaged covertly
Mailboxes and shared drives were forensically imaged without alerting the subject; personal devices were imaged with consent and under DPDP safeguards.
- 2
Recovered what had been deleted
Deleted chats were recovered, and the backdating of two sanction notes was proved through metadata and system logs rather than assertion.
- 3
Unwound the layering
The flow of 'engineering fees' to a UAE entity and onward to a Singapore holding company was reconstructed step by step.
- 4
Tied the structure to the individual
Link analysis connected the Singapore holdco's ultimate beneficial owner to the procurement head's family.
- 5
Transferred lawfully to US counsel
The review set was transferred cross-border to the parent's US counsel in a lawful, privacy-compliant manner.
The supplier had won 70% of the OEM's tooling RFQs, and bids had been edited after technical close. Margins were routed onward as 'engineering / consultancy fees' to a UAE entity and from there to a Singapore holdco whose ultimate beneficial owner was tied to the procurement head's family.
Deal terms had been negotiated over WhatsApp and a personal Gmail account, off the corporate system, and two sanction notes had been backdated to fit quarter-end approvals.
Leakage of roughly 31 cr was quantified and documented. The executive resigned, and a recovery claim and criminal complaint were filed. The parent was able to weigh an FCPA voluntary self-disclosure on a fully evidenced record, assembled at its counsel's direction, rather than on rumour.
Illustrative composite built from sector-typical fact patterns encountered in practice. Names, figures and timelines are indicative; no client is identifiable.