Adding an investigative partner to my practice
My office has entered into a formal cooperation with Bakun Group Ltd, and with its intelligence and investigations division, Bakun Intelligence. The purpose is to bring investigative work and legal work together under one roof, openly, and to a standard a court will accept.
In Cyprus that is an unusual thing to state plainly. Where investigation and law meet here, they tend to meet informally, and quietly. I have decided to make it a declared part of how the practice works, because a client is better served when the question of fact and the question of law are handled together from the start, by the same person who will later draft the agreement or argue the case.
A declared capability, not a back channel
An investigator can be engaged by anyone. What is rare is a practice that names that capability, builds it into its instructions, and stands behind the result in its own legal work. A client who needs a person found, an asset traced, or a counterparty checked usually has to commission the work elsewhere and then hope the output can be used. Here the investigative question is framed alongside the legal one and answered to the same standard, which in this market is close to unique.
It also says something about the office itself. The work is no longer confined to the courtroom and the contract. It now reaches the facts that decide whether a case is worth bringing and whether an agreement is safe to sign.
How a matter runs
Every engagement follows the same discipline, whatever the subject.
Finding the answer is only part of the work. The answer has to be obtained in a way that protects the matter and the people inside it.
The partner
Bakun Intelligence, the intelligence and investigations division of Bakun Group Ltd, a Cyprus company working across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
For the matters I take on with it, the division traces people and assets lawfully and records how each search was carried out, drawing on open sources and trusted contacts across jurisdictions. Its work sits close to the legal questions it supports:
- Counterparty and background intelligence
- Asset tracing and exposure mapping across jurisdictions
- Discreet enquiries and on-the-ground verification
- Geopolitical and operational risk assessment
In one enforcement matter the office located a debtor's interests held behind a chain of intermediary companies. In another, it carried out discreet international verification on a counterparty before a client committed to a transaction. In every matter the office works to my instruction and under my supervision, so the result reaches the court in a form it will accept.
Matters are described in general terms. Past work is not a guarantee of any future result.
The wider group
Intelligence is one division of several. Beyond it, Bakun Group Ltd advises on security and risk, on investment in premium real estate, yachting and private aviation, and on hospitality and lifestyle projects. The cooperation here belongs to the intelligence division, but the rest gives a fair sense of the company behind it: international, discreet, and accustomed to private clients who value judgement over noise.
Security advisory, risk assessment, and protection planning for individuals, corporations and institutions.
Advisory across premium real estate, yachting and private aviation, structured around the client's interest.
Hospitality and lifestyle concepts, from private retreats to boutique destinations.
Headquartered in Cyprus, the company works across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, with a presence in:
The three lines of work
Three areas come up most often. Each has a page of its own, with the law and the procedure set out in full.
Tracing missing persons
Locating a person whose whereabouts are unknown, to a standard the proceedings can rely on. Absence is a ground for divorce, and it bears on succession, the service of documents, and other family and civil matters.
View the page →Asset and property tracing
Identifying assets and the people who control them, including holdings placed behind companies and across borders, to support recovery, freezing and enforcement.
View the page →Due diligence
Checking a counterparty, a target company, or a transaction before anything is signed, so the agreement rests on verified facts rather than on what the other side chose to disclose.
View the page →