Secrets of a Professional Money-Tracker

STEPHEN VICKERSIf Indonesia is really serious about going after the Suharto family's wealth, here's how to proceed. The first mistake investigators make in a case like this is to pore over accounts and ledgers at the expense of reality. The cardinal rule is never to believe in the integrity of any document until it has been independently verified. This is especially true when dealing with powerful, long-serving leaders who have had entire governments at their disposal to cover their tracks.

The first phase is to develop a strategy. We work with a small government team to establish the priorities and scope. Security has to be very tight. The quarry never stops moving assets or changing companies, domiciles and banks. In the second phase, investigators begin collecting and analyzing available information. A team of investigators and forensic accountants pores over tax and bank records and identifies corporations, trusts and nominee companies that can be pried apart. The goal is to find real, recoverable assets and to develop leverage over individuals and institutions involved in concealing them. The early seizure of cash and property can provide start-up or working capital to continue the hunt.

The third phase is to identify individuals--everyone from drivers to lawyers to business partners--who have been intimately involved with the target, his family and his cronies. Searching phone bills, faxes and computer records--nothing is ever really erased--can determine a core list of those people who might want to talk. Officials of other nations should be approached to help on a government-to-government basis to break local bank-secrecy provisions. In the case of Kroll's search for the wealth of Saddam Hussein, the big break came when we knocked on the door of his lawyer in Switzerland. That led to France, where Saddam held billions of dollars in shares in a media firm.

The last phase is to begin a series of liquidations, civil actions and leveraged discussions to pry open the secrets. There is a simple axiom: follow the money, and everything will come. Where crimes have been committed by accountants or lawyers acting on behalf of the target, then formal reports will be packaged and delivered to the proper authorities. Such packages will also be served on associations of accountants and lawyers. This makes other corrupt professionals more likely to cooperate.

In a case like that of the Suharto family, the search could last from one to two years. We'd recommend a team of five investigators, five case managers, 15 to 20 accountants, five lawyers and a global field team of 100 others to call on as needed. We would use intelligence analysts' software, an encryption cracking kit, a computer memory recovery kit and a forensic laboratory. However, the key asset will be the Indonesian people, at home and abroad. If they seek it, it can be found.

Stephen Vickers is executive managing director in Asia for Kroll Associates, which has traced the assets of Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier, the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos and other autocrats


KLEPTOCRAT
Philippines' dictator Ferdinand Marcos, ousted in 1986, stole up to $10 billion

EMPEROR
Ethiopia's Haile Selassie, ousted in 1974, had stockpiled $2 billion

FAMILY MAN
Though the fortune has dwindled, Suharto & Co. still sit on $15 billion

INSATIABLE
Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko piggy-banked $5 billion before his overthrow in 1997

BABY DOC
When he fell from power in 1986, Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier made off with $500 million