Official registers
Established access to hundreds of government registries worldwide: company registers, land and property records, court and insolvency files, and regulatory and enforcement registers.
Due diligence · Investigations · Asset tracing
We find out who people and companies really are, and what they own
Sure Step is a London investigations firm. We check individuals and companies against official registers and primary records in 109 countries, verify every finding at source, and write it up so it stands up in court or in front of a regulator.
Founded in 2009. Instructed by law firms, corporates, and compliance teams for due diligence, counterparty checks, asset and lifestyle analysis, and cryptocurrency tracing.
Founded 2009
London investigations firm
109 jurisdictions
Records obtained since 2009
ABI Full Member
Membership F1697
ICO registered
Data controller Z3003413
How we work
Primary-source verification, not database output
Aggregators and credit data are where things get missed. They are incomplete, lagged, and patchy outside the US and UK. We go to the record itself.
Verified at source
Every finding is checked against the originating record, not a third-party copy of it. Where a record is sealed or not public in that country, the report says so.
In-country where required
Where a jurisdiction needs local access, records are obtained through a vetted agent network built over nearly two decades, with more than one agent per country so results can be cross-checked.
Where we have worked
Records obtained in 109 countries and territories
Every highlighted country is somewhere we have already obtained official records. It is a track record, not a limit: if a jurisdiction keeps a register, we will find the lawful route to it.
Services
What we do
Individual due diligence
A written report on a named person in a given country: identity, addresses, registry identifiers, court and gazette records, PEP and sanctions screening, local media, and regulator checks. Fixed fee per person per country.
Corporate and counterparty due diligence
Who owns and controls a company, what it holds, what it owes, and what has been filed against it. Built from company, land, court, and regulatory registers in the relevant jurisdictions.
Asset and lifestyle analysis
Does the subject's lifestyle match their declared position, and can they be pinned down to fixed assets? Registry-based work on property, corporate holdings, and footprint, for litigation, enforcement, and risk decisions.
Cryptocurrency tracing
Blockchain forensics and tracing of digital assets across wallets, exchanges, and mixing services, reported to a standard that can support freezing orders, disclosure applications, and recovery.
Beyond adverse media
"No bad media" is a weak assurance
A clean media search tells you very little, and a noisy one often tells you nothing. The better question is whether the subject's lifestyle matches their declared position, and whether they can be pinned down to fixed assets.
A subject with verifiable property, corporate holdings, and a fixed footprint is reachable and accountable, and the risk drops accordingly. A subject who is media-clean but asset-light, with a lifestyle that cannot be explained, is the real red flag. Registry-based work is how you find that.
Defensible reporting
Built to litigation and compliance standard
Every finding is attributed to a named source, and fact is kept strictly separate from inference. The search scope is documented, so you see exactly what was searched and what was and was not identified.
That means a "no findings" result is demonstrable rather than a blank assertion, and the report can sit on a client file, in a compliance record, or before a court.
Who we work with
Instructed by lawyers, corporates, and compliance teams
Law firms
Client onboarding, litigation support, asset tracing ahead of enforcement, and evidence that can sit on the record. The ABI is the only investigations association endorsed for Law Society members.
Corporate and M&A
Counterparty, principal, and management checks before a transaction, appointment, or joint venture, in the UK and overseas.
Financial services and compliance
KYC, enhanced due diligence, and source-of-wealth work for compliance files, with a documented search scope the regulator can follow.
We work worldwide. See the map of the 109 countries and territories where we have already obtained records, or the full list.
Instruct
Tell us the subject, the jurisdiction, and the question.
We come back with a scope, a fee, and a turnaround. Fixed fees for defined scopes. Nothing starts until you have agreed both.