Companies · Associates · HR managers · Lawyers
Investigations into misuse of company assets
Check suspected misuse of company vehicles, tools or equipment. INVESTIPOLE distinguishes authorised use from specific unexplained movements and outside activity.
Essential distinction. Theft, breach of trust, misuse of company assets, improper use and unfair competition do not cover the same facts.
Abuse of trust and misuse
The item hasn't necessarily been stolen: handed over for work, then misappropriated.
A service vehicle can be used for private worksites. A professional credit card can finance personal purchases. A stock delivered for delivery can be sold, and a customer file operated for the benefit of a parallel business or competitor.
These situations often fall under breach of trust: a property given for a specific use is diverted from that purpose. When the author manages, in law or in fact, a SARL, SA, SAS or partnership limited by shares, the analysis may concern the misuse of company assets. The investigation first reconstructs the agreed purpose, then documents the use actually observed.
Investipole has been carrying out these checks for nearly 20 years for executives, partners, HR directors and lawyers. Your detectives all have at least 10 years of experience. No criminal or social qualification is automatically inferred from the facts.
Material and intangible property
Which professional assets can be misappropriated?
The mission changes depending on whether the company suspects private use, resale, surrender to a third party or exploitation of a confidential resource.
Vehicles and fuel
Private travel with a service vehicle, sub-lease, foreign to activity transport, fuel card used for a third party.
To be established: service or company car, authorised rules and time windows.
Tools, equipment and stock
Equipment used in private customers, resold products, goods handed over to a third party, equipment immobilized outside the company.
To be established: ownership, reference, handover and intended destination.
Funds, data and clients
Bank card, supplier account, customer file, quotation or orders operated for the benefit of a third party or a competing structure.
To be established: access, confidentiality, solicitations and actual activity.
Facts to be distinguished
The same asset, four different issues.
Name the exact use helps counsel to retain the appropriate basis.
Unauthorized private use
Service vehicle, card, local or tool used outside the conditions set by the company, sometimes during working time.
Handover or resale to a third party
Goods delivered for storage, transport or use and then disposed of, leased or sold.
Embezzlement
Bank card, supplier account, commercial discount or bill of costs mobilized for a personal interest.
Client diversion
Contacts, prospects or orders directed towards a parallel activity, a related company or a competitor.
Contract, vehicle charter, loan voucher, written agreement, inventory, rules of procedure or fee policy determine the agreed destination of the property. Without this framework, an observed use may remain ambiguous.
Photo of illustration: commercial appointment in a customer diversion file.
Client diversion
Diverting a client: a timeline to establish.
The report documents appointments, deliveries, interventions, surrenders of documents or visible exploitation of an activity. The company then brings it closer to access to the customer file, departure dates, solicitations, contracts and business losses.
Your detectives see the activity and observable contacts; the lawyer links them to loyalty, confidentiality or a non-competition clause.
Customer poaching is not in itself a criminal offence: the route is most often civil, under the heading of unfair competition.
Linking the rebate to use
A method built around the asset and its purpose
The mission answers a specific question about a company resource, without investigating privacy outside of this issue.
Identify the handover
What good, given by whom, on what date, for what mission, according to what rules and with what possibilities of use?
Target the gap
Time ranges, locations, expenses, customers, kilometres, stocks or interventions define a verifiable hypothesis.
Note the actual use
discreet monitoring, surveillance and professional research document the use, surrender to a third party or parallel activity within a limited scope.
Align with the contractual framework
Company and counsel compare the report with surrender documents, contracts, internal policies and commercial exhibits.
Abuse of trust, abuse of social property
Misappropriation: what the file should establish
The observable sequence
Transportation, use, intervention, remission, resale, appointment or visible expense.
The handover context
Contract, charter, record, inventory, authorization and professional destination.
A legal analysis
Qualification, procedure, damage and possible sanction are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Investigation cases
Misappropriation of assets and clients: four cases
Simplified situations; follow-up is always decided on the complete file.
Trade · Client file
A salesperson directs prospects to a side business
One company notes that several qualified applications are no longer successful, while the commercial keeps access to the file. The mission targets specific appointments.
Interventions carried out under another sign, with prospectors in the same sector, are documented. The company brings these observations closer to dates of access, untransmitted quotations and commercial losses.
The report does not state the origin of each contact alone: actual activity, people met and chronology are established. The lawyer then evaluates loyalty, confidentiality, misappropriation of clients, prejudice and amicable or contentious strategy.
BTP · Vehicle and tooling
Company resources are used for private projects
Mileage deviations and late returns are accompanied by unusual tool wear. Targeted monitoring shows the loading of identifiable equipment and several movements to unreferenced sites.
The equipment is used for private services. Investipole detectives remain in the public space and do not shoot inside the properties; the report describes vehicle, visible material, places and duration.
Vehicle charter, loan vouchers and planning complete the file. Counsel distinguishes abuse, misappropriation of goods handed over and possible competing activity before any social, civil or criminal decision.
Framework · Payment card
Business expenses fund personal purchases
A management reports recurring payments without justification from unusual suppliers. The legally held data circumscribes the days and points of sale.
An observation confirms the purchase and transport of goods to an address unrelated to the activity, then a second operation of the same nature. No access to the personal account or communications of the framework.
The full report, notes of fees and conditions of use of the card. The company figures the expenses documented and asks for explanations; the lawyer appreciates qualification, responsibilities and procedure.
Distribution · Stock delivered
Goods meant for delivery are resold to a third party
A wholesaler observed discrepancies between loading vouchers and quantities delivered. The mission followed several identified tours.
A recurrent off-route stop is observed, followed by the unloading of cartons handed over to a third party. Visible references, schedules and movements are recorded, without opening packages or intrusion.
Approximated to vouchers, customer returns and inventories, the report sheds light on the breaking point and repetition. The lawyer distinguishes theft, abuse of trust, concealment, complicity and contractual liability; the company strengthens sealed, proof of delivery and control of returns.
Nearby situations
Item handed over, stock, employee or client: distinguish the facts
The manner in which the property is returned, the use found and the persons involved determine the checks to be carried out.
Everywhere in France
Vehicles, projects, clients: a coordinated investigation
Vehicles, construction sites, depots, prospecting and parallel activities often involve several regions. Investipole coordinates useful observations and gathers the facts into a single file.
Director, HR managers and lawyer read a single chronology.
Frequently asked questions from companies
Misappropriation: common questions
Facts and surrender documents determine the strategy.
What is embezzlement of company assets?
The use, retention, surrender or sale of corporate property contrary to the intended purpose. Depending on the case, the facts relate to abuse of trust, theft, abuse of social property or disciplinary misconduct.
Breach of trust: definition and typical cases
Distorting a returned property for specific use. Typical cases: a delivery person sells part of the stock loaded for tours, an employee settles his personal purchases with the company's credit card.
What's the difference between theft and breach of trust?
Theft is a subtraction: the property is taken against the owner's will. In the abuse of trust, the property was handed over voluntarily and then diverted from intended use.
Misuse of company assets: who is involved?
The de jure or de facto officers of SARL, SA, SAS or a limited partnership who use in bad faith the property or credit of the company against its interest. Use is to be used for personal purposes or another business in which the officer is interested. Instead, an employee who is not a director is liable to abuse of trust.
Using a company vehicle for personal reasons: serious misconduct?
Often a fault, sometimes serious depending on frequency, kilometres, recalled prohibitions, seniority, disciplinary past and injury. To be distinguished from the vehicle of function, whose private use is allowed and constitutes an advantage in kind.
Using professional equipment for personal reasons: what penalty?
From warning to dismissal, depending on the value, repetition, possible authorization and use of equipment. Reselling it, or employing it for a competing gainful activity, significantly worsens the situation.
Client poaching: a criminal offence?
Not in itself: the usual course of action is civil, contractual or unfair competition. The copying, for personal use, of confidential client files submitted for professional use may nevertheless be an abuse of trust. The use of protected information can also justify an action for infringement of business secrecy.
Client poaching by a former employee: how to prove it?
By establishing the actual activity of the former employee, the clients asked for, the dates and possible use of company information. Without a non-compete clause, fault implies unfair manoeuvres: starting from the file, denigrating or confusing.
Client poaching after resignation: what can the employer do?
During the notice, the employee remains bound by the duty of loyalty: to approach customers on his own behalf or for a competitor constitutes a fault. Preparing a future activity remains permissible, as long as no act of competition occurs before the end of the contract. After departure, freedom of work resumes its rights, subject to a valid non-competition clause and the absence of denigration, confusion or use of company information.
Partner or subcontractor poaching clients: what remedies?
Except as provided in the articles of association or agreement, a SARL or SAS partner may carry out a competing activity: only unfair acts are liable. The SARL manager remains bound by an obligation of loyalty to the company. For a subcontractor, the premium contract: a non-solicitation clause is lawful only if it is so proportionate to the legitimate interests to be protected. In any case, unfair competition proceedings remain possible in the presence of manoeuvres.
Can you investigate a partner or director?
Yes, when the principal justifies a legitimate interest: the company, by its organs, or an associate acting for personal harm or that of society. The purpose must remain lawful and the necessary and proportionate means. Mandates, statutes, delegations and governance shall be examined before the mission.
Employee emails and files: can we check them?
Files and emails created or received with the professional tool are presumed to be professional and searchable by the employer, apart from those identified as personal. These only open in the presence of the employee or duly called employee, unless there is a particular risk or event. Investipole never secretly accesses a courier.
Breach of trust: what's the role of the detective's report?
Useful, rarely sufficient alone. Proof of remission for a specific use, damage and other exhibits remain indispensable. The judge appreciates the entire case.
How much does an investigation for embezzlement cost?
The pricing of a private detective in cases of misappropriation of property ranges from €90 to €120 excluding VAT per hour depending on various criteria, with a free quote. Approximate figures: around €975 excluding VAT per day of investigation, €4,750 excluding VAT for five days, including fees. Full benchmarks: fees of a privateFR detective.
Confidential consultation
Which item, for what use, and what discrepancy?
Gather handover documents, usage rules, dates, locations and any anomalies noted. Investipole assesses feasibility and proposes a targeted strategy. Write to contact@investipole.fr.
Studying the situation free quotation · Confidentiality · Factual findings