Who we serve · five client types
Different clients. The same standard of proof.
Blackthorn adapts its investigation design, communication and reporting to the client’s environment and the decision the findings must support — never the standard applied to the evidence.
When an internal suspicion becomes a decision the board must defend.
Blackthorn works to the standard an internal process cannot always reach: independent, documented and separable from the people who may be implicated.
- A whistleblower report that internal audit cannot close
- Procurement patterns that suggest an undisclosed interest
- A senior appointment where the record does not quite reconcile
- Stock, cash or data loss with no identified cause
- Under scrutiny from
- Board, audit committee, CCMA or a regulator
- Report format
- Findings report with annexure index and limitations
- Engagement
- Fixed-scope mandate, phased on findings
- 01Corporate fraud & integrity
- 04Due diligence
- 05Digital & OSINT
What we decline
Being selective is part of the service.
A firm that accepts every instruction cannot credibly claim objectivity on any of them. These are declined at intake, before any work is discussed.
- Instructions with a predetermined outcome
A client who requires a specific finding is asking for something other than investigation.
- Surveillance intended to control or intimidate
Including monitoring of a partner or family member under the description of concern.
- Requests for protected records
Banking, medical, telephone or state records obtained outside lawful process.
- Matters with an undisclosed unlawful purpose
Where the apparent aim is extortion, evasion of process or concealment of an offence.
- Conflicted instructions
Where Blackthorn holds information from a related matter that cannot be set aside.
- Work properly belonging to the police
Immediate danger and active crime are referred, not privately investigated.
Confidential enquiries
Tell us the decision, not the service.
Most clients begin with a problem rather than a service name. Describe what needs to be established and what turns on the answer.
Request a confidential consultation