We define financial investigations as a method used to identify and examine the financial dimensions of an event or chain of events to support accountability efforts. This method primarily consists of collecting, analysing and interpreting the associated paper trail to document the flow of money or value, and/or evidence links between individuals, companies, places and assets.

Financial investigations have numerous applications within human rights, environmental and international crimes accountability. They can assist in profiling individuals and legal entities, determining ownership and control of assets, tracing the origin and flow of goods or funds, or simply identifying and contextualising relationships.

As a civil society organisation, we do not have law enforcement or coercive powers to obtain private financial information. Rather, we employ a range of investigative techniques to gather intelligence and collect the paper trail, including open-source and source interviews. Documents and data we examine can include title deeds, corporate filings, financial statements, loan agreements and charges, credit reports, investment records, invoices and receipts, and bills of lading, among many others. 

We support civil society organisations in pursuing justice for international crimes, human rights abuses and environmental harm.

We do not work with organisations linked (directly or through their principals) to human rights violations or environmental harm; large financial institutions; national or international intelligence, police or military agencies; multinational corporations; wholly profit-making organisations; and governments or political parties.

We understand that some of our partners may engage with such organisations and individuals as potential partners or collaborators, often for specific and discrete purposes such as funding, obtaining justice or changing behaviour. We evaluate the risk of these secondary associations on a case-by-case basis in line with agreed criteria.

We also do not work directly with minors or vulnerable individuals (including but not limited to disabled people, elderly people, survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery, persons with serious illnesses, or persons who have been subject to torture, rape, or other forms of psychological, physical or sexual violence). This is because we are a small organisation with limited resources and we do not currently have the necessary safeguards in place to do so.

All potential cases are assessed collectively by the FIND team on a case-by-case basis to ensure that (i) the project and desired end-result(s) are in line with our mission and theory of change; (ii) FIND can and is well-placed to add value; and (iii) the potential partnership does not pose an insurmountable risk to FIND, its team, funders and existing partners.

FIND is a company limited by guarantee without share capital, a common structure for non-profits, registered in England and Wales. Its non-profit status is written into its articles of association, which also state that on dissolution, FIND's net assets must be transferred exclusively for charitable purposes.

FIND is certified as equivalent to a US public charity. It received its equivalency determination certification through NGOSource most recently in March 2024.

FIND grew out of Louisa Leeper's efforts to assist UK-based charities with anti-human trafficking and international crimes work. Realising the potential impact of commercial investigative experience in the human rights space, Louisa connected with former colleague Nicholas Bortman who had previously consulted for the International Criminal Court, as well as founded his own investigations firm, Raedas Consulting Ltd. Louisa and Nick raised the idea with entrepreneur Simon Lawton and together they set up FIND in April 2020 thanks to a start-up grant of £20,000 from Raedas.

Later that year, Chris Delaney, an ex-journalist and investigator, joined and together with Louisa, they run the organisation on a day-to-day basis. Mariana Gutiérrez joined in 2021 and has driven the development of our programmatic work as a director of FIND. We are now a team of seven with five investigators (Chris, Mariana, Louisa, Roy Revie and Jack Parham), operations lead, Mouki Kambouroglou, and finance manager, Ross Godwin.