1. Pre-investigative phase

An investigator will receive information from a source about a crime and/or particular stolen assets, and will work to gather further intelligence to verify the authenticity of this information. 

Financial intelligence in particular plays a critical role at this stage in ascertaining the preliminary information required to confirm the actual theft and movement of assets, and their potential locations.

Key questions

The questions to be addressed in this phase are: 

• whether or not an offence has taken place; 
• who has committed it.