Integrity due diligence on the people behind the business
Integrity due diligence asks whether you can trust who you are about to do business with. Sapiensu answers it from the record: the promoters, directors and owners, and the entities around them, every finding graded and sourced.
What an integrity check is for
Financial diligence asks whether the numbers are right. Integrity due diligence asks about conduct and connections: who controls the business, how they have behaved before, and who they are tied to.
It matters before an investment, a joint venture, a distribution or supply agreement, or a loan. It also matters for compliance: anti-corruption laws with reach into India, such as the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act, expect the companies they cover to know the third parties who act for them.
Red flags it looks for
- Hidden ownership
- Beneficial owners who are not disclosed, or directors who appear to act for someone else.
- A trail of failed companies
- Promoters or directors whose earlier companies were struck off, wound up or taken into insolvency.
- Allegations of fraud
- Proceedings alleging cheating, breach of trust or diversion of funds.
- Regulatory history
- Orders, penalties and debarments against the company or its people.
- Political exposure
- Links, direct or through family and intermediaries, to politically exposed persons.
- Sanctions
- The entity, its owners or its connected parties on a sanctions list.
- Churn
- Frequent changes of registered office, auditors or directors, often without explanation.
An allegation is not a finding
Integrity work turns on the difference between what has been said and what is established. Sapiensu grades every finding on the same four levels, so a press allegation is never presented with the weight of a court order.
- Confirmed
- Independently established: we hold the official record itself (a court order, a statutory filing), or two records that do not depend on one another agree. The highest confidence.
- Corroborated
- Two or more separate sources that do not depend on one another report the same thing, though we do not hold the primary document itself. Strong evidence.
- Reported
- One reputable secondary source reports it, such as a named news outlet or a court cause list, and no independent record confirms it yet. Treat with some caution.
- Unverified
- Not yet substantiated. We flag it in line and hold its severity at Medium until a second source confirms it.
Checks at volume, and after onboarding
Compliance and procurement teams screen many vendors and partners, not one. Sapiensu runs the same check each time, so results can be compared and nothing depends on which analyst picked up the file.
An integrity check is a snapshot of the day it was run. Surveillance keeps watching the people and entities in it, against that baseline, and tells you what changed and why it matters.
Questions
Is integrity due diligence the same as a background check?
They overlap. A background check establishes the facts about a company and its people; integrity due diligence asks what those facts say about whether you should trust them. Sapiensu does both for businesses, not for job candidates.
Can I see Sapiensu in action?
Yes. Sapiensu is available to demo. Request one below and we will reach out to schedule it.