Longtime resident of Bangkok Aaron Le Boutillier has teamed up with Simon Goddard to offer businesses in Thailand increased protection for their day-to-day business and brand identity. Liz Smailes hears how their partnership began and the services they offer.

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention and research from the UK and USA has cited the economic downturn as a key factor in increasing disclosures of fraud, with answers to various questionnaires citing difficulty in achieving business targets and fear of losing jobs as main causes.

With over 30 years of combined security and investigative experience in Asia, Australia and the UK, LBG Le Boutillier Group Co Ltd has joined forces with Global Insight Ltd to offer investigative services in Thailand.

Aaron founded LBG Le Boutillier Group Co., Ltd in 2009. Aaron’s expertise is in assessing and mitigating risks from threats to security. Simon founded Global Insight in Hong Kong and Singapore in 1998.  His expertise is in corporate investigations and business intelligence research.

As Aaron says, “The LBG / Global Insight relationship in Thailand is the culmination of seven years of business partnership between Simon and myself and it provides for a close working relationship that we feel will benefit clients both in Thailand and elsewhere with our world class standards.”

Simon has over 24 years experience in the investigations business in Asia and has built up an impressive profile as one of the leading corporate investigation professionals in Asia. Before founding Global Insight, he was Managing Director of the Asian operations of Kroll Associates and then the head of Asian operations for Decision Strategies / Fairfax International. He began his career with the Australian Security Intelligence Organization and then moved on to the Strategic Intelligence Unit of the Australian Government’s National Crime Authority where he designed intelligence operations into organized crime.

Global Insight offers areas of expertise in due diligence services related to business acquisition, joint venture or investment, asset and fraud-related investigations and intellectual property protection.

Aaron and Simon are not The Ghostbusters nor are they the Men In Black, despite black being their favorite color. But detecting ghost workers on paper and getting rid of the bad guys working within the system is all part of their work.

“During the current Asian economic crisis, many financial institutions and corporations have asked us to undertake fraud-related and asset searching assignments to help them recover problem loans and reduce losses,” Simon notes.

“The global economic downturn has heightened the pressures and incentives to commit fraud. Economic crime is persistent. No organization or industry is immune from the threat of fraud,” says Aaron.

“Bribery used to be thought of as necessary to doing business in certain markets. Its particularly prevalent in developing countries but now governments all over the world are cracking down on corruption with serious consequences for both companies and executives,” elaborates Simon. “Doing business in emerging markets is the norm in today’s global economy, but the rules of engagement have changed significantly over the past few years. Governments around the world are taking tougher stances on corrupt business practices like bribery and money laundering,” he continues.

“What company leaders don’t know can hurt them. They are being held accountable even when they have no specific knowledge of the wrongdoing. What are CEOs most concerned about? The company’s managers, shareholders, and suppliers probably run through this guessing game regularly. But there’s one serious risk that many may be overlooking: being unprepared for a new era of international anticorruption enforcement.

Many organizations take reactive approaches to situations; that is, only when a problem and ‘the money has gone’ or when someone sends an anonymous letter to the company or, worse, when an enforcement body calls to inform them of an inquiry do they mobilize resources and begin to address potential corruption issues.

“While many companies have anticorruption compliance programs in place, the programs are often outdated or merely ‘paper’ programs that are not effectively implemented throughout the company,” explains Aaron.

“We are excited about this new alignment of our services and bringing them together in Thailand. The global market is forever changing and Thailand is no exception, especially at the moment, and security levels need to be set in place from different angles. It’s a challenge we relish”.

Observing the corporate future in Asia as being positive, Simon adds,  “As Asia starts recovering from the crisis, we are seeing our core due diligence capabilities being in high demand as returning investors look to mitigate the risks of doing business in Asia. At the same time, there are always fraudsters out there to work on.

For more information on their services, please visit -

www.leboutilliergroup.com

www.globalinsight-group.com