Practice Area
Due diligence investigation services for acquisitions, investments and senior appointments, partner-led and confidential.
Fortaris Capital Advisors is an independent due diligence investigations company. For private equity deal teams, acquirers, family offices, counsel and foreign investors, our due diligence investigators deliver a written, sourced report on a company, its owners or its executives before you sign, invest or appoint: who they are, what the record shows, and what remains unverified.
The deliverable
A Fortaris investigative due diligence report is a written assessment in which each finding is tied to its source, so that an investment committee, a board or counsel can rely on it. Depending on scope, it covers:
Who the company and its principals are: corporate history, registrations, affiliated entities and, where the record allows, beneficial ownership.
Civil, criminal and bankruptcy filings, judgments and liens across the jurisdictions where the subject has operated.
Enforcement actions, licensing and disciplinary records, and screening against sanctions lists and watchlists, including OFAC.
Verification of asserted education, licenses and prior roles, and the circumstances of past exits and business failures.
Adverse media and reputational signals, read for substance rather than counted.
What was established, what could not be verified and why, and the questions to put to the counterparty before signing.
Red flags are reported with the source that surfaced them and what it would take to resolve them, not as a list of database hits. The report surfaces risk from the record; it cannot guarantee that a counterparty is clean.
Scope
For a senior hire, a board appointee, or the leadership of an acquisition target. Covers the named individuals: identity and credential verification, litigation and regulatory history, prior-firm separations and reputational signals.
For an acquisition or a significant investment. Covers the target company, its owners and its key people: corporate history and structure, beneficial ownership, litigation and regulatory exposure, financial-distress signals, reputational risk and key-person investigations, with discreet human-source inquiry where the scope warrants it, built to your signing date.
Engagement
A focused management vet is typically scoped around 10 business days and a comprehensive M&A investigative due diligence engagement runs roughly three to six weeks, with expedited timelines available where the matter requires it.
Fortaris does not publish fixed prices, because scope drives cost: how many companies and individuals are covered, how many jurisdictions the record spans, how far back it must go, and how soon the answer is needed. Engagements are scoped on a project or retainer basis, and the scope and fee are confirmed in a written engagement letter before work begins.
A conversation with a senior member of the team about the subject, the decision and the deadline. It is confidential and carries no obligation.
We set the scope, the questions the work will answer, the timeline and the fee, and confirm them in an engagement letter. Where counsel directs the work, it can run under privilege.
A written, sourced report for the deal team, the investment committee or counsel: the findings, where each came from, and the questions that remain open.
For what investigative due diligence is and how it differs from a background check, read What Is Investigative Due Diligence? For competitive intelligence, reputational profiles and ongoing advisory, see Corporate Intelligence. For why ownership now has to be traced rather than looked up, see the Corporate Transparency Act in 2026.
Why Fortaris
Built for
Target-company and management diligence before the investment committee votes.
Pre-acquisition investigations of targets, sellers and their leadership.
Vetting of direct investments, co-investors, partners and senior hires.
Diligence directed through counsel and structured to preserve privilege.
Verification of American companies, executives and counterparties.
Investigative due diligence supports transaction, investment and appointment decisions in a corporate, investor or legal context. It is not consumer screening and not a routine employment background check. Where an investigation of an individual will inform an employment decision, the Fair Credit Reporting Act may apply, including its disclosure and written-consent requirements; we agree the approach with you and your counsel. This page is general information, not legal advice.
Frequently asked
A Fortaris focused management vet is typically scoped around 10 business days, and a comprehensive M&A investigative due diligence engagement runs roughly three to six weeks, with expedited timelines available where the matter requires it. The timeline is set against your signing, closing or appointment date in the first conversation and confirmed in the engagement letter.
Fortaris prices each due diligence investigation to its scope rather than from a published rate card. Four things drive the fee: how many companies and individuals are covered, how many jurisdictions the record spans, how far back it must go, and how soon the answer is needed. Scope and fee are confirmed in a written engagement letter before work begins.
A Fortaris due diligence report covers six areas, scaled to scope: identity and corporate structure, including beneficial ownership where the record allows; civil, criminal and bankruptcy litigation; regulatory and sanctions exposure, including OFAC; verification of credentials and track record; reputation and adverse media; and a closing section on what could not be verified and what to ask before signing.
Fortaris engagements are partner-led, with senior oversight rather than delegation to a junior team. The bench includes Jon Chmura, an ACFE Certified Fraud Examiner. Fortaris is licensed as a Private Investigator in Michigan (License #3701207862), and work elsewhere in the United States runs through vetted, licensed specialists.
Fortaris does both, scaled to the decision. Fortaris work starts from the public record: corporate filings, court dockets, and regulatory and sanctions records. Where the scope warrants it, higher-stakes matters add discreet human-source inquiry and investigative interviews to test what the record alone cannot. The written scope states which methods will be used before work begins.
Yes. Fortaris engagements can be directed by outside or in-house counsel and structured to support attorney-client privilege and work-product protection, with deliverables prepared accordingly. In that structure counsel engages Fortaris and directs the work, and findings are reported to counsel. Whether privilege attaches to a particular matter is a question for your counsel.
Yes. Fortaris vets individual executives and board candidates as a focused management vet. Where the findings will inform an employment decision, the Fair Credit Reporting Act may apply, including disclosure to the individual and their written consent; Fortaris agrees the approach with you and your counsel before work begins. This is general information, not legal advice.
Fortaris does not publish client names or matters, engagement letters are structured around confidentiality, and the work can run under privilege through counsel. A senior member of the team responds to scope the work. Inquiries through the form below are reviewed by a senior principal.
Strategic intelligence built for executive and investor decisions.
Explore practice FlagshipVerifying American companies, executives, and partners — for the principals doing it from abroad.
Explore practiceCorporate and white-collar investigations, led by senior investigators with federal and forensic backgrounds, including an ACFE Certified Fraud Examiner.
Explore practiceDue Diligence
A definitive explainer on what investigative due diligence is, how it differs from a background check and from financial and legal review, and what a defensible work product looks like.
ReadDue Diligence
Four different professions are sold under one phrase. Most disappointing engagements are decided before any work starts — in a scope of services nobody read closely enough.
ReadPrivate Equity
A sponsor underwrites a management team as much as an asset. Financial diligence establishes what the business earned; it is structurally incapable of telling you who is going to run it.
ReadDue Diligence
Three checks are sold separately, bought separately, and each one stops exactly where the next one starts. This is how they sequence into an M&A timeline early enough that a finding can still change the price.
ReadConfidential inquiry
Investigative due diligence is most useful before the decision is made. Tell us the subject, the decision and the deadline, and a senior member of the team will respond to scope the work.
For sensitive matters, reach Kevin Cronin directly: (313) 612-4990
