About Us
We advise a select group of top-tier clients working in challenging markets and dealing with complex transactions, disputes, and negotiations. Decades of work in commercial, advisory, investigative, and analytical contexts has given us deep regional and sectoral expertise.
We combine a wide range of approaches, including extensive fieldwork, a large network of high-quality contacts, and sophisticated investigative techniques.
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We work with boards, senior leadership, and government affairs and geopolitical risk teams to identify risks and mitigate their impact. We advise on diverse issues, including government policy and engagement, crises such as expropriation, strategic risks such as geopolitics, advocacy areas such as decarbonisation and ESG, and competitor activities.
We identify and analyse host governments’ strategies, capabilities, and internal dynamics. We unearth the motivations and intentions of stakeholders, including their informal political and commercial relationships.
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Working for risk and compliance teams at large financial institutions and corporates, boutique emerging markets investors, and hedge funds and private equity, we conduct in-depth due diligence on individuals and businesses before acquisitions, capital markets deals, joint ventures, onboarding, and other commercial transactions.
We identify signs of suspected financial wrongdoing such as fraud, corruption, and sanctions evasion. We review the track record, and probity of people and firms to identify reputational risks. We unravel sources of wealth and beneficial ownership to ensure compliance with the UKBA, FCPA, sanctions regimes, and other legislation, and pre-emptively identify future sanctions risk.
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We gather evidence and intelligence for litigators, arbitrators, in-house counsel, insolvency practitioners, and strategic communicators from pre-proceeding to enforcement stages. We investigate suspected wrongdoing, identify beneficial ownership, trace the assets, income streams, and ‘pressure points’ of recalcitrant debtors, locate defendants and witnesses, identify third-party debtors and creditors, and monitor opponents’ activity. We also act as expert witnesses.
We also work with parties and their lawyers to devise non-legal resolutions to complex local and cross-border litigation and arbitration, as well as problematic relations with host governments. We identify political, institutional, business, informal and other barriers to resolution, help clients understand the negotiating culture, and advise on advocacy options and conduits to key decision makers.
Where we work
We are recognised experts in our chosen markets. All of our work has some link to Europe and Eurasia, including eastern Europe, Ukraine, Turkey, the Caucasus and Central Asia, Russia, Iran, Mongolia, and China. The multi-jurisdictional nature of our work means we are comfortable gathering evidence and intelligence to support our work in a wide range of American, European, Middle Eastern, and offshore markets.
We have also developed significant in-house expertise in energy, mining, banking and finance, nuclear fuel, transport and logistics, and infrastructure, and experience in key policy areas such as decarbonisation and energy transition, ESG, and digitalisation.
Our Team
At PRISM, our team is composed of dedicated professionals with diverse expertise, committed to providing unparalleled insight and support to our clients.
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Kate is the founder of PRISM. She has particular expertise in intelligence gathering and analysis for complex political risk matters and disputes. Kate also acts as an expert witness on a range of regional matters.
Kate is an acknowledged political risk expert and corporate intelligence practitioner. She has worked in Eurasia since the early 1990s and enjoys regular dialogue with an unrivalled network of influential policymakers, businesspeople, journalists, and commentators.
Kate is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme, an advisor to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and is recognised by Chambers & Partners as one of the top political risk practitioners globally.
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Benjamin advises corporate and banking clients on new and existing business. He specialises in capital market transactions and complex investor-state relations. He regularly works on special situations and disputes.
Benjamin has more than 15 years commercial experience in the Eurasian region. He is recognised by Chambers and Partners as a leading risk practitioner.
He has a master’s degree in international development from Bristol University and has studied at Kuban State University in Russia. He is fluent in Russian.
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Olivia advises us on regional and investigative matters, with a focus on sanctions risk and asset tracing.
She has more than 15 years’ experience carrying out complex, cross-border investigations and supporting integrity and governance at companies and international financial institutions. She was previously a senior managing director at a global investigations firm and a partner at KPMG, where she set up and led the firm’s Forensic practice in Kyiv. Olivia has repeatedly acted as an expert witness relating to anti-money laundering and financial crime in Ukraine. Olivia is an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and is recognised by Who’s Who Legal for her asset tracing expertise. She speaks Russian.
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James leads evidence gathering and asset tracing matters in jurisdictions across Eurasia.
James joined PRISM from a London-based boutique investigations firm and previously covered the former Soviet Union for a political risk consultancy in London. James has also collaborated with academics on a range of issues, including sanctions and the identification of Russian assets in Western jurisdictions.
He is an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Exeter. He has a master’s degree focussing on Eurasian-origin illicit finance from King’s College London, and speaks Russian, French, Italian, and Arabic.
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Dakota works with our natural resources and banking clients on a range of political and regulatory matters, as well as emerging and ongoing disputes.
Dakota has more than 15 years of experience conducting commercial and economic research across Eurasia. Prior to joining PRISM, he led a team of analysts conducting sanctions research and enhanced due diligence for a major global information and intelligence provider. Before that, Dakota served as head of research at a boutique financial firm focused on capital markets and privatizations in Central Asia. He holds a PhD in Russian history and speaks Russian.
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Nick advises corporate clients on new and existing business. He specialises in the oil, gas, and resource sectors, including political, regulatory and infrastructure risk and opportunities.
Nick has 25 years’ experience working in and around the Eurasian region, including Almaty, Hong Kong, Moscow and London.
With a background in the media, he spent more than a decade at commodity specialist Platts covering global oil and gas markets, and focusing on the Caspian, Middle East, and North Sea.
Nick studied at Essex University and has a postgraduate degree from Goldsmiths, University of London. He speaks fluent Russian.
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Camille contributes to due diligence and evidence gathering matters across Eurasia. She is working to advance PRISM's investigative capabilities using new open-source tools and research techniques.
She has a first-class degree from the University of Cambridge, where she won prizes for Russian and Ukrainian studies. She has lived in Kyrgyzstan and speaks Russian, French, and Ukrainian.
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Cécile has 10 years' experience supporting executives in the technology and intelligence industries. Cécile is a certified internal auditor and holds a bachelor’s degree in History and French from Royal Holloway University. She speaks French and Spanish.