The attempted bribery

A client handed us two files involving three different international traders from multiple countries, failing to pay each of these two exporters a large sum owed for shipments of received consumer goods.

After conducting initial research to know who we were dealing with, IA’s investigation team contacted the buyers. Foreign nationals residing in Mexico. During our investigation, our team found that the buyers were behind several other transactions that were part of another group of cases assigned to IA years earlier.

Having made an appointment with the debtor company, the owners tried to impress IA’s legal team with stories about their friendships with artists, demonstrating that they were well connected. Already on the first occasion, but also repeatedly after that, the owners attempted to bribe IA’s team members. They did not realize that IA’s employees are trained in handling bribery situations, which unfortunately occur in some parts of the world. As IA enforces a strict policy of registering bribery attempts, it was made clear to the debtor that every attempt would fail and that debtor risked being blacklisted internationally.

When the owners realized that they would not successfully bribe IA’s team members, they proceeded to take an even more offensive approach. They challenged IA’s lawyers by stating that there was no adverse information about them and their company and that it would be impossible to file a lawsuit against them. Thanks to our well-maintained archives, we were able to demonstrate that some of our clients had dealt with them several years before. There was no shortage of information about their questionable practices in our internal database.

In a face-to-face meeting, IA’s legal team showed the owners part of our information on them. Just as we planned, the debtors got scared because they did not realize that our team would find any information about them. After further negotiations, we made the debtors sign an enforceable repayment plan that IA could use later if the debtors decided not to pay.

Fortunately, and thanks to our efforts as a team, the collection process proceeded smoothly.