An SFIO summons, an ED enquiry, a whistle-blower email to the audit committee — these are the moments when a company's problem becomes a director's personal problem. We provide structured, privileged support: forensic facts established early, statements prepared carefully, and boards guided through investigations without making them worse.
White-collar matters are investigations into financial wrongdoing — fraud, siphoning, money laundering, insider trading, books manipulation. The agencies differ (SFIO under the Companies Act, ED under PMLA, SEBI, CBI/EOW, Income-tax investigation), but the pattern is constant: documents are seized or summoned, statements are recorded, and early statements made casually become the spine of the prosecution.
Two disciplines protect you. First, facts: an independent forensic reconstruction of what actually happened — money trails, approvals, beneficiaries — before the agency's version hardens. Second, discipline: every statement, production and public word managed, privileged where the law allows, and consistent across forums. Investigations run for years; the companies and directors who come out intact are the ones who were organised in the first month.
A summons or notice has arrived — SFIO, ED, RoC inspection escalating, tax search concluded — naming the company or its officers. The response calendar starts immediately.
A whistle-blower complaint, auditor resignation or forensic red flag has reached the board or audit committee, and an internal investigation must be commissioned — correctly, or not at all.
Lenders or investors have ordered a forensic audit of the company, and its findings will travel to regulators and courts. What the audit sees depends heavily on what is put before it, and how.
Summons compliance calendars, document production strategy, and preparation of officers for statements — what to expect, what the record shows, and why nothing is ever answered from memory.
Forensic audit of transactions, funds flow and related parties by our forensic practice — building the factual record your defence, disclosure and recovery actions will all rely on.
Audit-committee-commissioned investigations with proper privilege structure, terms of reference, evidence handling and reporting that the board can act on — employment, regulatory and disclosure consequences mapped.
ECIR-stage and summons support, attachment-order challenges before the Adjudicating Authority and Appellate Tribunal, and coordination where ED, SFIO and SEBI tracks run in parallel.
Corrective action that regulators credit: recovery steps, control fixes, LODR and statutory disclosures sequenced with the legal strategy — because how a company responds is itself judged.
Investigations run on agency timelines — months to years. Our work is staged: emergency response (days), fact-finding (4–12 weeks for most forensic scopes), proceedings support (duration of the matter). Boards receive a realistic map after the first fact review.
Emergency response and fact-finding are quoted as defined scopes. Long-running proceedings support is staged quarterly with agreed teams and rates, so the board controls cost across a matter that may last years.
The single costliest pattern in investigations: senior people "explaining" informally to officials or auditors before the documents are understood. Statements cannot be unsaid. Preparation is not evasion — it is accuracy.
Loose terms of reference, findings circulated on email, interviews without protocol — the investigation itself becomes discoverable ammunition. Structure it with counsel from the first hour.
Spoliation converts a defensible position into an indefensible one, and is often an offence in itself. Preserve everything, visibly, from the day risk is known.
Privilege and preservation set up immediately: documents frozen, response team named, single channel for all agency communication.
Forensic reconstruction of the transactions in question. You learn your real position — good and bad — before any authority fixes its version.
Statements, productions and proceedings handled on the factual record, forum by forum, with directors' personal exposure separately advised.
Controls fixed, disclosures made, recovery pursued where the company was wronged. The matter ends with the company demonstrably cleaner than it began.
Appear — non-appearance compounds everything — but appear prepared: documents reviewed, facts refreshed, counsel briefed on the record. Statements under the Companies Act and PMLA carry serious evidentiary weight; preparation ensures they are accurate, which is the only protection that works.
They can be, if structured correctly — commissioned by the board/audit committee through counsel for the purpose of legal advice or anticipated proceedings, with controlled circulation. Privilege is fragile; casual handling destroys it. We set the structure before the first interview.
The central government assigns cases to SFIO under Section 212 — typically on RoC inspection reports, public interest grounds, or requests from courts, tribunals or other agencies. Serious fraud allegations in large companies are its home ground.
Yes — provisional attachment under PMLA Section 5, subject to confirmation by the Adjudicating Authority, where property is alleged to be proceeds of crime. Challenges run before the Authority and the Appellate Tribunal; timelines are short and strictly counted.
Sometimes — voluntary disclosure and cooperation earn real credit with regulators and lenders, and concealment is usually discovered anyway. It is a judgement call made on facts, with the forensic picture first. We advise on the specific situation, never by slogan.
Treat it as the start of a formal process: audit committee engagement, independent fact-finding, and disclosure assessment. Section 143(12) reporting has its own timelines. The board's documented response is itself a key defence document.
Yes — investigations usually involve litigation counsel, tax counsel and PR advisers. We run the forensic and company-law core and coordinate the team so positions stay consistent across every forum.
Notify early — D&O policies have strict claim-notification conditions, and investigation costs are often covered. We align the defence structure with policy requirements so cover is not lost on a technicality.
Talk to a partner about your situation — no pitch, no obligation. If we're not the right firm for it, we'll tell you that too.
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