# Fortaris Capital Advisors — Full Reference

## About
Fortaris Capital Advisors is an independent corporate intelligence and investigations firm headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, serving law firms, private equity, family offices, corporations, and international principals nationwide. Leadership is drawn from senior service at the DHS Office of Inspector General, US Treasury, INS/Border Patrol, and state attorney offices, with CPA forensic-accounting and ACFE Certified Fraud Examiner depth. Every engagement is led by a Managing Director. Michigan Private Investigator License #3701207862. Phone (313) 612-4990. Email info@fortariscapital.com.

## Practice Areas

### International Due Diligence (https://www.fortariscapital.com/services/international-due-diligence)
For international firms, sovereign funds, foreign counsel, and offshore counterparties evaluating American targets, Fortaris Capital Advisors delivers the independent, US-licensed verification, due diligence, and investigative support that protects cross-border decisions before contracts are signed, before capital is deployed, and before reputational exposure is taken. This is one of the few US investigations practices positioned specifically for inbound work — foreign principals verifying American companies — rather than for domestic US clients doing outbound diligence.
Capabilities: US Company Background Investigations; American Executive Background Investigations; US Distributor + Supplier Verification; Cross-Border Fraud Investigation; Investigative Due Diligence for Inbound M&A + Capital Deployment; US Litigation + Regulatory + Sanctions Screening; Beneficial-Ownership Investigations on US Entities; US Reputational Due Diligence + Profiles; Pre-Contract Verification + Verification of Asserted Credentials; Cross-Border Asset Tracing + Recovery Support.

### Corporate Intelligence (https://www.fortariscapital.com/services/corporate-intelligence)
Fortaris Capital Advisors delivers the independent read on companies, executives, counterparties, and market entrants that boards, investment committees, and senior counsel rely on before they commit. Every engagement is led by a Managing Director, supported by specialists drawn from federal investigative service and forensic accounting, and structured around the decision in front of you — not around a one-size process.
Capabilities: Investigative Due Diligence; Executive Vetting Services; Reputational Due Diligence; Beneficial Ownership Investigations; Competitive + Market Intelligence; Strategic Intelligence Consulting.

### Investigative Services (https://www.fortariscapital.com/services/investigative-services)
When corporations, audit committees, counsel, and boards need an independent investigation — into employee misconduct, financial irregularities, fraud, asset diversion, or regulatory exposure — Fortaris delivers the evidentiary, discreet, defensible work product the matter requires. Our team draws from the US Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, US Treasury, and state-level investigative service, paired with ACFE-credentialed fraud examination capacity and forensic accounting depth.
Capabilities: Internal Investigations; Certified Fraud Examination (ACFE-standard); Financial Forensics + Asset Tracing; Corporate Investigations — Broader Scope; Regulatory + Compliance Investigations; Insurance Investigations; Surveillance + Counter-Surveillance; High-Risk Personnel Matters.

### Litigation Support & Economic Damages (https://www.fortariscapital.com/services/litigation-support)
Fortaris quantifies economic damages and financial loss for personal-injury and commercial disputes alike — lost earnings, future earning capacity, lost profits, and fraud-driven loss — and delivers the forensic-accounting work, expert reports, and expert witness testimony that decide matters at trial and in arbitration. We are engaged plaintiff- and defense-side by law firms, corporate legal departments, insurers, businesses, trustees, and regulators throughout the United States. Grounded in decades of federal financial-investigative experience and CPA and forensic-accounting expertise, our conclusions are defensible, independent, and built to withstand scrutiny.
Capabilities: Economic Damages & Financial Loss Analysis; Lost-Wage & Lost-Earnings Analysis; Future Earning-Capacity Assessments; Self-Employment & Business-Income Reconstruction; Tax-Return & Financial-Record Analysis; Fraud & Misrepresentation Detection; Asset Tracing & Financial Investigations; Economic Damages Calculations; Business-Interruption & Lost-Profit Analysis; Commercial Damage Calculations; Partnership & Shareholder-Dispute Support; Expert Witness & Litigation Support; Case Assessment; eDiscovery & Digital Investigations; Forensic Interviews; ADR & Arbitration Support; Internal Investigations for Litigation Posture.

### Security Services (https://www.fortariscapital.com/services/security-services)
Fortaris delivers the security risk advisory work that boards, audit committees, and senior corporate leadership require: vulnerability and threat assessments, executive protection (domestic and international), travel risk briefings, geopolitical analysis, business continuity, crisis management, and — for select clients — the Ad-Hoc Outsourced Chief Security Officer engagement. Our practice draws from senior federal investigative service, corporate VP-level security leadership, and decades of multi-jurisdictional emergency response experience.
Capabilities: Executive Protection (domestic + international); Threat Response Protection; Vulnerability + Threat Assessments; Geopolitical + Country Risk Analysis; Crisis Management + Business Continuity; Background Investigations + Hiring Support; Loss Prevention + Asset Protection.

## Insights Articles

### Due Diligence for Family Offices: Protecting Capital and Reputation (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/due-diligence-for-family-offices)
For a family office, due diligence is broader than deciding whether an investment is sound. The harder question is who you are trusting — a manager, a co-investor, a member of staff with deep access — and what happens to the family's capital and reputation if you are wrong. The largest losses come not from strangers but from the people closest to the assets, which makes independent, investigative diligence the protection financial analysis cannot provide.

### Source of Wealth & Source of Funds: How the Money Is Verified (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/source-of-wealth-source-of-funds-verification)
Source of funds and source of wealth are two different questions, and conflating them is the most common mistake in wealth verification. Source of funds is the origin of the specific money used in a given transaction; source of wealth is how a person became wealthy in the first place. Establishing both, through independent corroboration rather than the client's word, is a core requirement of enhanced due diligence.

### Due Diligence for Private Equity: A Deal Team's Playbook (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/private-equity-due-diligence-playbook)
Private-equity due diligence usually covers the numbers, the contracts, and the market thoroughly — and the people only lightly. The integrity layer — establishing who management really is, who ultimately owns the target, and what sanctions, corruption, or reputational risk travels with the deal — is where funds are most exposed and least systematic. It is investigative work, worth the most before signing.

### The Corporate Transparency Act in 2026: What the Rollback Means for Beneficial-Ownership Diligence (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/corporate-transparency-act-2026-beneficial-ownership-diligence)
The Corporate Transparency Act still exists — it was upheld as constitutional in December 2025 — but it has been narrowed by regulation rather than repealed. FinCEN's March 2025 interim rule exempted every U.S.-formed company and every U.S. person, cutting the beneficial-ownership registry from an expected 32.6 million filers to roughly 20,000. In 2026, no public registry is a reliable primary source on who owns a company.

### Due Diligence in Miami: Why South Florida Deals Demand a Deeper Look (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/due-diligence-miami-south-florida)
Due diligence in Miami carries risks a standard check misses. South Florida concentrates international and Latin-American capital, all-cash and shell-company real estate, and the nation's highest per-capita fraud — a convergence that makes verifying who you are actually dealing with both harder and more necessary than almost anywhere else in the country. It calls for cross-border, ownership-piercing diligence, not a name-and-registration search.

### Inside a Cross-Border Asset Trace: An Anonymized Methodology (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/inside-a-cross-border-asset-trace-methodology)
A cross-border asset trace is the structured investigation that reconstructs where money or value has gone once it moves across national borders — through shell companies, nominees, trusts, and foreign accounts — and converts that reconstruction into evidence a court can act on. It runs in disciplined phases: triage and scoping, subject mapping, registry and financial-flow analysis, beneficial-ownership piercing, and the legal instruments that freeze and recover the assets.

### Litigation Support Services: Economic Damages, Asset Tracing, and Testimony That Holds Up (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/litigation-support-services-economic-damages-asset-tracing)
Litigation support services are the financial and investigative work counsel engages to build or rebut a case: quantifying economic damages, reconstructing income and fund flows through forensic accounting, tracing assets for enforcement or recovery, and delivering expert testimony that withstands scrutiny under Federal Rule of Evidence 702. They are used from pre-suit through verdict, on both plaintiff and defense sides.

### Executive Protection for Corporate Leaders: When to Engage It and What It Costs (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/executive-protection-for-corporate-leaders)
Executive protection is a risk-based, intelligence-led security program that safeguards a company's leaders — and often their families — from targeted threats, harassment, and violence. It ranges from a protective threat assessment and secure travel to full-time close protection, and it is engaged when a leader's visibility, a specific threat, a high-risk event, or a sensitive corporate situation elevates their personal risk beyond what ordinary security addresses.

### Due Diligence for Foreign Investors Entering the U.S. Market (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/due-diligence-for-foreign-investors-us-market)
A foreign investor entering the U.S. market performs due diligence by independently verifying the target company's legal registration and good standing, identifying its ultimate beneficial owners, searching federal and state litigation and liens, confirming regulatory and licensing standing, screening all parties against OFAC sanctions, assessing any CFIUS national-security exposure, and — where stakes are high — corroborating that the business physically operates as represented before capital crosses the border.

### Reputational Due Diligence: Your Questions Answered (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/reputational-due-diligence-faq)
Reputational due diligence is a structured investigation into the integrity, conduct, and reputation of the people and entities behind a transaction or relationship. It combines adverse-media review, litigation and regulatory records, sanctions and association screening, and discreet source inquiry into a sourced assessment of who a counterparty really is — used by private equity funds, family offices, boards, and counsel before they invest, partner, or appoint.

### Corporate Intelligence Services: Frequently Asked Questions (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/corporate-intelligence-services-faq)
Corporate intelligence services are the professional gathering, verification, and analysis of information about companies and the people behind them — ownership, background, litigation, regulatory standing, reputation, and risk — to support a specific decision. Commissioned by private equity funds, law firms, family offices, corporations, and insurers, they turn fragmented public records and discreet human inquiry into a defensible assessment a board or deal team can act on.

### Enhanced Due Diligence Before an Acquisition: A Buyer's Checklist (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/enhanced-due-diligence-before-acquisition-checklist)
Enhanced due diligence before an acquisition is the deeper, investigative layer of pre-deal vetting that goes beyond financial and legal review to test the integrity, ownership, history, and reputation of the target and its principals. It verifies management background, beneficial ownership, litigation and regulatory exposure, sanctions and corruption risk, and source of wealth — surfacing the deal-changing facts a data room does not contain.

### How to Verify a U.S. Company Before You Sign (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/verify-us-company-before-signing-contract)
To verify a US company before signing a contract, confirm its legal registration with the secretary of state, identify its beneficial owners, search federal and state litigation and UCC filings, check regulatory and licensing records, and screen all parties against OFAC sanctions lists. Where stakes are high, corroborate the company's physical operations and management through independent on-the-ground checks.

### What Is Investigative Due Diligence? (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/what-is-investigative-due-diligence)
Investigative due diligence is the discreet, evidence-based vetting of a company, executive, or counterparty before a transaction or relationship. It verifies identity, track record, reputation, litigation history, regulatory standing, and sources of wealth using public records, court filings, media, and human inquiry to surface hidden risk that financial and legal review alone do not reach.

### Cross-Border Fraud Investigation: How It Works (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/cross-border-fraud-investigation-how-it-works)
A cross-border fraud investigation is a structured inquiry that traces deception, misappropriated funds, and concealed ownership across multiple jurisdictions. It combines forensic accounting, beneficial-ownership and shell-company analysis, local-counsel coordination, and evidence-gathering to a litigation standard — producing a defensible record that supports recovery, prosecution, or settlement across borders.

### Sanctions & Reputational Due Diligence: The M&A Playbook (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/sanctions-reputational-due-diligence-ma-playbook)
Reputational due diligence is the investigative process of verifying a target company, its owners, and key executives for sanctions exposure, undisclosed beneficial ownership, corruption risk, litigation history, and integrity concerns before a deal closes. In M&A, it runs alongside OFAC/sanctions screening to surface liabilities that financial and legal diligence alone will miss, directly informing price, terms, indemnities, and the decision to proceed.

### White-Collar Crime Investigations, Explained (https://www.fortariscapital.com/insights/white-collar-crime-investigations-explained)
White-collar crime is non-violent, financially motivated wrongdoing committed for illegitimate gain, such as embezzlement, financial-statement fraud, kickbacks, and asset misappropriation. A white-collar crime investigation is the structured, evidence-driven process of detecting it, scoping the conduct, preserving evidence, interviewing witnesses, and quantifying loss, typically led under legal privilege by forensic accountants and certified fraud examiners.