Case study: advance-fee fraud

A Bay Area financial services firm wanted to help its start-up company clients establish and obtain business credit. The firm sourced a local broker on the Internet who was offering seasoned credit trade lines. The broker demanded advanced fees of nearly $100,000, which the firm and its clients paid. Then the broker disappeared without delivering what he had promised. JPHI was retained to locate the broker and the misappropriated funds. After tracing multiple businesses, people, and illicit transactions across the U.S., JPHI discovered that the broker and his partner in North Carolina had been defrauded by a third perpetrator in Las Vegas, who had promised to supply them with cheap trade lines but instead absconded with their ill-gotten cash.