Using permits and business licenses to find assets: The Liquor License May Hold the Answer
Determining the ownership of a private company is a frequent goal in U.S.-based investigations and asset traces but can be notoriously difficult. Yet the multitude of licenses and permits businesses are required to obtain from municipal or state authorities can provide invaluable information — either in the form of indirect leads or with the name of a company’s owner.
We first learned the value of these documents while working on a case that initially stumped us. The target, the client’s entrepreneurial former son-in-law, was a foreign national with a low stateside profile. He was believed to have owned several identified hospitality businesses in the U.S., but we couldn’t find evidence to tie these to him anywhere. Liens, litigation, media research, and corporate records turned up nothing.
We’d hit the dreaded dead-end report when it occurred to us to check the liquor license for one of the businesses. And there was the target’s name! That one piece of information led to finding more than a million dollars on behalf of the client.
Since then, information gleaned from business licenses and permits has proved invaluable in many instances, including one involving, *ahem,* a gentleman’s club whose owners were accused of wage theft. The variety of records is pretty staggering. Among them: construction permits, dog kennel ownership licenses, sidewalk cafes, and food service licenses…
A few tips:
Do your research to identify what types of licensure your target business is supposed to have. This is an essential step to ensure you find the most pertinent records as quickly as possible.
If the actual (underlying) records aren’t available online, you’ll need to do some sleuthing to figure out how to access them. You may have to call the pertinent office and determine this.
Ownership may not be reported but, especially if historical records are available, you may find the names of potential sources, such as subcontractors or former employees who could serve as human intelligence sources.
As with any other public record, what’s available varies significantly by state, county, and municipality.