How Does the British Diligencia Dig Data for Investigators in the Arab World?
With the growth of digitalization and the spread of electronic transactions, access to personal and professional data has become a prominent business. Companies, institutions, and countries alike are seeking access to the personal information of individuals.
In this context comes the mission of the British intelligence company Diligencia, which was active through its headquarter in Oxford, and now expanded its operation and created news centers in Tangiers and Dubai. While the company claims that it provides greater opportunity for clarity and transparency, questions are raised about the extent to which it violates the privacy of citizens in Arab countries.
Intelligence Online in an article issued on November 22 (Al-Estiklal keeps a copy of the article) reported that “Diligencia seeks to maintain its secrecy. Its goal is to aggregate all commercial records and legal document data, especially in Arab countries, to make it available on the ClarifiedBy.com platform used by financiers and investigative firms working in support of litigation and asset recovery. Having already covered records in sub-Saharan Africa and Pakistan, the company will soon begin collecting data in Turkey.”
The article added that: “The Oxford-based company Diligencia Group digs data for private investigators in the Arab world. The company is run by former executives from the specialist consultancy Control Risks, and it is expanding its business out of Dubai and Tangiers.”
Clarity vs. Privacy Violations
Zouhair Attouf expert on politics and international relations told Al-Estiklal that: “Even if the Diligencia company claims clarity and transparency, the company can not deny the privacy violation’s practices going on during the process of data collections.”
Diligencia through its official website claimed: “We are driven by a strong belief that clear business information will facilitate change and foster progress in the regions we serve. Our data does just that by delivering the clarity to support thousands of business decisions, every day.”
It emphasized: “We source reliable and accurate data from authentic sources and transform it into intelligent solutions to help deliver clarity, inform opinions and enable decision-making. With clients ranging from financial institutions, law firms, risk advisory organizations, and multinational corporates, we offer invaluable insight into the relationships that underpin business activity in the region.”
However, the 12th article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”
Diligence–Morocco Intelligence Collaboration
The expert Zouhair Attouf added to Al-Estiklal that: “Intelligence cooperation has become among the main files that characterize European–Moroccan cooperation in the third millennium, especially after the growth of transnational and intercontinental security phenomena, starting with the attacks of September 11, 2001, and ending with the mass-migration from Africa to Europe crossing Morocco.”
Attouf added: “These concerns demonstrated the vitality and strategy of security and intelligence cooperation Moroccan intelligence with the European Union. Thus, it is not surprising to find many companies, typically the British Diligencia, working to collect data in Morocco.”
Intelligence Online clarified that: “Diligencia was founded in 2008 by Moroccan corporate intelligence veteran Nouri Bakkali, who had long experience in internal investigations with the Maxwell Group in the early 1990s. Diligencia has a team of 26 employees at Oxford according to its 2020 financials published in late September. The data also shows that the company had net assets of £1m in the UK last year. However, the group uses its Tangiers trump card, a branch of about 40 Moroccan employees run by Moroccan Kahina Gasmi, to collect legal documents for companies from the Arab world and put them on its platform.”
European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC) explained that security, intelligence, and military cooperation between the Moroccan and British authorities are based on an agreement on military and technical cooperation and an agreement on the status of forces. Britain and Morocco have participated in the Desert Lion military exercises since the year 2000 as part of joint military exercises, with the aim of testing new weapons and conducting advanced combat exercises that take into account the rugged geographical terrain.
From another side, the center highlighted the important collaboration between the European Union and Morocco, not only the UK. It confirmed that: “the EU seeks to develop cooperation with Morocco in the security field by providing funds and equipment to deal effectively with illegal immigration and combating terrorism. As well as in the military field by organizing military exercises, maneuvers and concluding arms deals. In addition to the intelligence cooperation that contributed to European countries avoiding terrorist attacks and contributed to the dismantling of terrorist cells.”
Suspicious Activities in the UAE
Intelligence Online pointed out: “The company that processes legal data in countries with complex governance rules, Diligencia, has appointed Jonathan Siklos to run its Dubai branch. Siklos has worked for Control Risks Group, Nardello & Co, and FTI Consulting, and for the past three years has been Senior Director of Case Intelligence at Omni Bridgeway."
It stressed that Litigation funders frequently solicit corporate intelligence firms, and Siklos reports to Patrick Lord, Commercial Director of Diligencia Group, a former Financial Times journalist who spent nine years at Control Risks, where the two worked together.
The article elucidated that Just weeks before adding Siklos to the Dubai team, Diligencia had appointed a new Director of Business Development at its Oxford headquarters. The newcomer, Thomas Mackinnon, was previously at Acuris Risk Intelligence, the partially Singapore-owned arm of Acuris Financial Advisors.
