Burner phones don’t always burn the evidence… or the trail

Burner phones are meant to leave no trace. The evidence had other ideas.

This appointment had all the ingredients of a complex investigation: a web of related companies, multiple lawyers, a bankrupt allegedly acting as a shadow director, retiree investors and a trail of transactions that seemed to lead in every direction.

Then came the production orders.

As Liquidators, we requested records from a range of parties. The responses quickly became familiar:
“We no longer have those records.”
“The phones were destroyed.”
“We can’t access the data.”

On the surface, it appeared that key pieces of the puzzle had simply disappeared. But one thing this job has taught us is that information has a habit of surviving in places people forget about.

The breakthrough came from an unexpected source.

An elderly adviser had retained a series of text message exchanges that others appeared to believe no longer existed. Those messages filled critical gaps, linked conversations with transactions and ultimately unlocked information that had been described as “irrecoverable”.

It was the drop of evidence that broke the proverbial dam.

It’s cases like this that remind us the days of following nothing more than bank statements and filing cabinets are well and truly behind us. These days, the real story is just as likely to be hiding in emails, text messages, cloud storage or someone else’s phone. Recent investigations by regulators and insolvency practitioners have shown that digital communications are often the thread that unravels the whole jumper.

That’s the thing about digital evidence – it has a habit of hanging around. Every email has a recipient. Every text message has another participant. Documents get forwarded, downloaded and backed up.

Destroying a phone is one thing – but destroying everyone else’s copy of the conversation is quite another.

People often believe the investigation ends where the records stop. In reality, that’s usually where it begins.

Insolvently yours,
The Liquidator Diaries