Aakash Brahmachari

Aakash has advised a wide range of sectors and geographies through the entire investment lifecycle: from pre-investment due diligence and political risk assessments to mid-course correction investigations and post-investment dispute support, including asset-tracing and recovery in both commercial and investor-state disputes.

His extensive experience managing international asset recovery assignments includes sovereign asset traces, litigation support on complex multinational disputes, and investigative pre-investment due diligence.

Examples of Aakash’s professional experience include:

Dispute Support:

• Supporting the board of a listed company in fending off a hostile takeover by former shareholders. This involved an investigation into the company’s ultimate beneficial ownership to determine which parties had significant control over the business and whether their ownership could lead to a change in management in the near term.
• Strategic intelligence to support the leadership of a major telecoms company involved in a dispute with its joint venture partner relating to its operations in India. The exercise involved ongoing monitoring of social media and press coverage and regular source interviews to help the client understand their opponent’s strategy and help arrive at a settlement.

Asset Tracing:

• Asset-tracing and recovery on behalf of the board of a multinational energy company investigating former executives who allegedly diverted USD $30 million. The investigation ― which included forensic accounting and intelligence-led investigations in Africa, India, the Middle East, North America, and offshore jurisdictions such as the Maldives ― identified assets over USD $90 million that had been diverted from the company over the course of a decade. The company was able to use the report in asset recovery proceedings.
• Acted for a sovereign to trace and recover USD $4 billion that had been misappropriated from a state financial institution by a former senior executive. The asset-trace included tracing funds that had been diverted to the UK and the U.S. using offshore companies in St Kitts & Nevis, Bermuda, and the British Virgin Islands.
• Asset-tracing and recovery of USD $220 million against a sovereign in the Middle East for a litigation funder. The asset trace identified funds in Switzerland that were held directly by the state via a newly established sovereign wealth fund. The exercise also included an ownership and control test to support recovery proceedings.
• Sovereign asset trace against a state in South Asia that identified real estate and aviation assets worth USD $1.2 billion held via an offshore company. The asset trace was commissioned by a litigation funder to monetize an arbitration award.
• Asset trace against an American businessman who had declared bankruptcy to allegedly avoid paying creditors USD $200 million. The asset trace was commissioned by a U.S. law firm after two other investigations firms failed to identify assets. The new approach included a thorough review of U.S. documents that had been obtained via discovery, along with complementary public records research to understand the ownership structures of various companies, funds, and trusts. The investigation identified USD $400 million held by the subject in Bermuda.

Corporate Intelligence:

• Pre-investment investigative due diligence held by various private equity firms identifies undisclosed risk in upcoming deals in the U.S., Canada, Bangladesh, India, Russia, and across various countries in Africa and the Middle East. Examples of risk identified included obfuscated land ownership and rental agreements, long-term contracts with undisclosed related entities owned by close family members, and senior managers who had undisclosed conflicts of interest (such as ownership of vendors and control over key suppliers).
• Political risk assessment across five states in India for a major data center company. The exercise supported the clients’ USD $2 billion investment in the Indian data center market by mapping the key market risks and opportunities in five key states and included reputational background checks on JV partners.

Investigations

• Leading over 20 whistle-blower investigations in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka on behalf of international organizations and multinational corporations. Many of these investigations were in the healthcare, infrastructure, and education sectors and concerned allegations pertaining to internal fraud, corruption, and other compliance failures. The investigations included face-to-face interviews with witnesses and suspects, as well as on-ground intelligence gathering supported by online research, and site visits and inspections. The findings from these investigations led to updates in internal compliance and reporting frameworks.
• Managing an investigation into allegations of corruption in Bangladesh’s infrastructure sector concerning the construction of a highway funded by an international organization. The investigation included on-ground source interviews with over 120 individuals, as well as a comprehensive document review and site visits in Dhaka and Mymensingh, supported by online research. The investigation indicated that nearly USD $10 million had been diverted through inflated invoices and undisclosed related parties acting as subcontractors. The report helped to reform the organization’s internal controls and compliance processes and identified individuals who were responsible for the losses.