Real estate
Land and buildings held directly, through companies or through overseas entities, with purchase dates and charges where recorded.
OSINT Asset Tracing & Asset Search
OSINT asset tracing tells you what a person or company owns, where it sits and who controls it, before you spend money on a claim or an enforcement action. We search registries in each relevant country, follow ownership through companies and offshore layers, and hand your lawyers findings they can act on.
- Pre-litigation and enforcement
- Property, stakes, vehicles, vessels, aircraft
- Offshore and nominee layers
- Built to support court applications
Short answer
OSINT asset tracing is the search for a subject's assets using public registries and licensed data: land and property records, company registers, vehicle, vessel and aircraft registries, court filings, media and online traces. It shows what can be found, who holds it and how it connects to the subject. Bank balances are not open sources; those come through court-ordered disclosure, which a good asset search helps you obtain.
When an Asset Search Pays for Itself
Before you sue, before you apply for a freezing order, after you win a judgment, and when an insolvency or recovery stalls.
The most expensive litigation outcome is a judgment you cannot collect. An asset search done early answers the commercial question first: is there anything to recover, where is it, and how hard will it be to reach? A defendant with a house in their own name and a stake in a trading company is a different case from one whose visible wealth sits in a trust and a yacht flagged three jurisdictions away.
Typical instructions come from law firms preparing a claim or an application for a freezing order, creditors holding an unpaid judgment, insolvency practitioners looking for assets moved before a collapse, insurers pursuing recovery after a fraud, and investors who suspect a counterparty is stripping a company. If the question is first who owns a business rather than what a person owns, start with a company investigation.
What OSINT Asset Tracing Can Find
Anything recorded in a register or visible in public, linked back to the subject through ownership, control or use.
Company stakes
Shareholdings and directorships, including holdings through relatives, associates and holding layers.
Vehicles, vessels and aircraft
Registered owners and operators of aircraft and vessels, and vehicle traces where a register is lawfully accessible.
Offshore layers
Holding companies, trusts and foundations, mapped to the point where disclosure stops, with the indicators that point past it.
Brands, domains and IP
Trademarks, patents, domain portfolios and online businesses that generate income and can be valued.
Lifestyle evidence
Public posts, media and event records that show use of assets inconsistent with claimed poverty.
Asset Registries and What They Show
Each asset class has its own records, and each has its own gaps. Knowing the gaps matters as much as knowing the register.
| Asset | Typical public record | Common gap |
|---|---|---|
| UK property held by foreign companies | Register of Overseas Entities, public, covering entities that bought land in England and Wales since 1 January 1999 (GOV.UK) | Home addresses, full birth dates and trust details are not shown |
| Property in other countries | Land registries and cadastres, deed records, mortgage and charge filings | Access rules, fees and search-by-name options vary widely |
| Company interests | Corporate and beneficial ownership registers, filings, gazettes | US federal ownership data is not public (FinCEN); many offshore registers are closed |
| US aircraft | FAA registry, searchable by registration, serial number and owner name (FAA) | Owners can ask for some personal details to be withheld; trusts and leasing firms often sit on title |
| Vessels | Flag-state registers, classification and ownership databases, port and tracking data | Open registries and single-ship companies hide the beneficial owner |
| Vehicles | Varies by country; often restricted to authorities or a stated legal purpose | Personal vehicle records are rarely open to private searchers |
What Asset Searches Cannot See, and the Legal Routes
Bank accounts, balances and private contracts are not open sources. Your lawyers reach them through court orders, and our findings help justify those orders.
No lawful asset search will produce a bank statement. In the US, obtaining customer information from a financial institution under false pretenses is a federal offense (15 U.S.C. §6821), and any provider that offers account balances for a fee should be treated as a warning sign, not a shortcut.
The lawful routes run through the courts. In US federal practice, a judgment creditor "may obtain discovery from any person — including the judgment debtor" in aid of the judgment (FRCP 69(a)(2)). In England and Wales, the model freezing injunction requires the respondent to tell the applicant's lawyers about all their assets, "giving the value, location and details", and to confirm it on affidavit (model freezing order). Other jurisdictions have their own disclosure tools.
OSINT does two jobs here. Before the application, it shows the court that assets exist and are at risk of dissipation. After the order, it lets your lawyers test the respondent's disclosure against what is already known, which is often where omissions surface.
Working With Your Lawyers on OSINT Asset Tracing
We usually work under instruction from counsel, so the work stays privileged where the law allows and the findings fit the application they are drafting.
Asset tracing for litigation works best when the investigator and the legal team agree three things at the start: the jurisdictions where enforcement is realistic, the evidential standard each finding must meet, and how the research avoids alerting the subject. We do not contact the subject, their family or their staff, and we do not trigger notifications that would tip them off.
Findings are written so they can be adapted into a witness statement: what was found, where, when it was captured and how it links to the subject, with copies of every record kept. Where your lawyers need a person to speak to the evidence, the analyst who did the work can explain the method. Law firms that use this regularly can read more on our page for law firms.
How an OSINT Asset Search Works
Five stages from scoping to a report your lawyers can use, with a senior review before anything is delivered.
- Scope the subject and purposeYou give us the subject, the claim or judgment, known addresses and companies, and the jurisdictions that matter. We confirm the lawful purpose, depth and a fixed quote.
- Identify and confirm the subjectWe pin down identity, aliases, relatives and associates so assets are not attributed to the wrong person.
- Search registries and recordsProperty, company, aircraft and vessel records, courts, gazettes, media and online traces in each jurisdiction in scope.
- Map ownership and controlAssets are linked to the subject through direct title, companies, nominees or family members, with the strength of each link stated.
- Review and reportA senior analyst checks attribution and confidence. You receive a report with an asset schedule, ownership chart and sources.
Your Asset Report and Timelines
An asset schedule with locations, holders, links to the subject and confidence levels, from 10 business days for a focused search.
The report gives you a schedule of identified assets, each with its record, holder, date, link to the subject and a confidence grade, plus the structures that hold them and the gaps we could not close. A short summary answers the commercial question: is there enough to justify the claim or the enforcement step, and where should it be pursued?
A focused asset search on one subject in one or two jurisdictions takes from 10 business days. Multi-jurisdiction work with offshore layers takes up to about a month. If a freezing application is imminent, urgent delivery costs 50% more, and if we miss an agreed date, the fee goes down. Where assets may move, we can keep watch on key records afterwards through OSINT monitoring.
Lawful Methods and Where Asset Tracing Stops
Public registries, courts, media and licensed data only, used for a lawful purpose such as a claim, enforcement or insolvency.
We do not pretext banks, hack accounts, place trackers, buy leaked data or create fake profiles to see private content. Searches on individuals need a lawful purpose, and personal data is processed in proportion to it under the GDPR and UK GDPR where they apply (GDPR). We decline asset searches whose purpose looks like locating or pressuring a person rather than recovering a debt or supporting a case.
Asset tracing is the wrong tool when the funds were sent as cryptocurrency, which needs crypto investigations, or when you first need to establish what happened, which is the job of fraud investigations. It is one of the OSINT services for litigators and creditors we run as one team.
OSINT Asset Tracing: Specialized Services
Focused versions of asset tracing for specific subjects, deals and situations.
Judgment enforcement
For creditors holding a judgment or award: find what the debtor owns, where it sits, and which enforcement step can reach it.
Read more →Divorce asset search
For family lawyers only: lawful public-record searches that test a spouse's financial disclosure, with strict safeguards against misuse.
Read more →Real estate property search
Find real estate held by a person or company across countries, directly or through entities, with titles, charges and transfer dates.
Read more →Find Out What Is Recoverable Before You Spend on Litigation
Send the subject, the claim or judgment and the jurisdictions involved. We reply with a scope, a timeline and a fixed quote.
Asset Tracing FAQ
We're about to sue a former business partner for about two million dollars — can OSINT asset tracing tell us whether he has enough property and company stakes worth chasing before we commit to litigation costs?
Yes, that is the most common reason to run an asset search. We identify property, company interests, aircraft, vessels and other registrable assets in the jurisdictions where he lives and does business, link them to him, and estimate which are reachable. The summary tells you whether there is enough to justify the claim and where enforcement looks realistic. A focused search takes from 10 business days.
Our client won a judgment against a company that seems to have moved everything offshore — can you find where the assets went and who controls the new holding companies?
Often, yes, at least to the point where disclosure stops. We compare the company's earlier assets and officers with new entities that appear around the same time, follow shared people, addresses and agents into offshore registers, and look for property or vessels that changed title. Where a register is closed, we document the indicators of control so your lawyers can seek disclosure orders against the right parties.
I need to know how much money a debtor has in his bank accounts — can your asset search get the account numbers and balances, or what do we do instead?
No, and you should be wary of anyone who says they can: obtaining bank information under false pretenses is an offense in the US and elsewhere. Balances come through the courts, for example post-judgment discovery in US federal cases or the asset disclosure attached to a freezing injunction in England and Wales. Our research supports those applications and helps your lawyers test what the debtor discloses.
We're insolvency practitioners and suspect the director moved assets to relatives before the company collapsed — can OSINT asset collection show transfers to family members without alerting him?
We can show changes in title and control: property sold or transferred to relatives, new companies with family members as officers, and vehicles, vessels or aircraft that changed registered owner, all with dates. We do not contact the director, his family or staff. Some transfers will only be visible through your statutory powers or court disclosure, and our findings help you target those requests.
Our lawyers want to use your findings in a freezing order application next week — what format do you deliver in, and can the evidence go straight into a witness statement?
We deliver a report with an asset schedule, ownership chart and a source record for each finding: what it is, where it came from and when it was captured, with copies kept. It is written so your lawyers can adapt it into a witness statement. For a one-week deadline, urgent delivery costs 50% more, and the scope may be narrowed to the jurisdictions that matter most.
We think a fraudster bought a yacht and a private plane with our company's money — can you tell who really owns them if they're registered to companies in different countries?
Often, yes. We trace the registered owner of each aircraft and vessel through flag and aviation registers, then follow the owning companies through corporate registers, financing filings, crew and management records, media and public photos. Single-asset companies and trusts are common, so we report where the trail stops and which links connect the assets to the person you suspect.
Sources and Notes
- GOV.UK: Register an overseas entity and its beneficial owners
- FAA: Aircraft registry inquiry
- FinCEN: BOI frequently asked questions
- Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 69 (Cornell LII)
- Ministry of Justice: model order for a freezing injunction
- 15 U.S.C. §6821: privacy protection for customer information of financial institutions
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR)
Sources checked 7 October 2026. Figures about third-party firms and tools are as published by them or by the cited source on that date.