Background research and due diligence
Know who you’re dealing with, and how sure you can be.
ProbePeople researches a named person across company registers, court and regulatory records, sanctions lists, the press, academic and patent records, and the open web. It separates them from others with the same name, grades every finding against its evidence, and cites the source.
Subject
Marcus Reed
Founder, Ardent Vale Logistics London
- Resolve
- Scope
- Investigate
- Verify
- Deliver
Findings, graded
- Verified
Director of six UK companies since 2008. Three remain active.
- Likely
Co-founded Ardent Vale Logistics with Priya Shah in 2011.
- Unverified
MBA, London Business School.
- Contradicted
“Revenue over £40m” in a 2023 interview. Filed accounts for that year show £18.2m.
- Verified
Named defendant in a 2019 High Court contract claim, discontinued in 2020.
Identity first
Same name. Different person.
Search a common name and you get several people. A report that blends them is worse than no report. ProbePeople groups what it finds into distinct individuals, shows what sets each apart, and waits for you to choose.
Research starts only after you confirm the subject, and material that belongs to a namesake is kept out of the findings.
4 people named Marcus Reed
- Excluded
Orthopaedic surgeon, Leeds
- Subject
Founder, logistics, London
- Excluded
Secondary-school teacher, Bristol
- Excluded
Software engineer, Austin, Texas
What a report covers
Eight areas, chosen per search.
Corporate & Directorships
Company register entries, officer appointments, shareholdings, beneficial ownership and filings: what the subject runs, owns or has left.
Litigation & Regulatory
Civil and criminal cases, judgments, insolvency and regulatory action, where the record is public.
Sanctions & PEP
Searches for listings on the OFAC, EU, UN and UK sanctions lists, and for politically exposed person status.
Adverse Media & News
Press coverage weighed by the standing of the outlet, including investigative reporting and allegations.
Academic & Patents
Publications, citations and patents, for when a claimed expertise needs testing.
Digital Footprint
Professional profiles, personal sites and domains, code repositories, talks and podcasts.
Property & Assets
Property records, planning permits, and vessel or aircraft registrations where these are public.
Relationship Connectome
The people and companies around the subject: co-directors, co-founders, co-authors and investors, with every tie graded like any other finding.
Evidence grades
Every finding says how well it is supported.
A background report is only as useful as your ability to weigh it. Each finding in a ProbePeople dossier carries one of five grades, set by the sources behind it, and the grade travels with the finding into every export.
- Verified
- Confirmed by an authoritative record, such as a company register, court record, regulator or formal filing, by the counterparty's own official statement (the employer, brand, publisher or institution confirming the relationship), or by several strong independent sources.
- Likely
- Reported by a reputable independent source such as a major newspaper or trade title, or corroborated by several lesser ones, with no authoritative confirmation found.
- Unverified
- Rests only on the subject's own account (their website, profile, press release or the biography they supply), on an aggregator, or on a single low-quality source.
- Contradicted
- Credible sources disagree on a material point. The report sets out the disagreement instead of picking a side.
- Fabrication suspected
- Concrete signs that a claim is false or manufactured, such as impossible dates, copied text or an institution that does not exist. The report names the sign. Used sparingly.
Method
Five passes, in order.
- I
Resolve
The right person first.
We search the name with whatever context you add: employer, city, a profile link. The results are grouped into distinct people, with what sets each apart, and you pick the one you mean. Nothing is charged at this stage.
- II
Scope
Choose what to examine.
A light pass measures how much public material each area holds on that person. You choose the areas and the depth, and see the credit hold, the most the report can cost, before you confirm.
- III
Investigate
Read the record.
Each area queries the official registers that cover it, such as company registers, SEC filings and insolvency records, then searches the web and news, reads what it finds and extracts findings, each tied to its source. Material about namesakes is set aside.
- IV
Verify
Check what matters.
The material findings are checked against the whole evidence set. A grade goes up where independent sources corroborate the claim, and down where it rests on one thin source.
- V
Deliver
A dossier you can act on.
The report opens with a short summary, then the graded findings, the points where sources disagree, and a map of the subject's relationships. Download it as PDF, Word, Excel or CSV, with the connectome as SVG and interactive HTML.
Pricing
Pay for the research a report uses.
No subscription. You buy credits and each report draws on them. Before it starts you see its hold, the most it can cost. When it finishes you pay the metered cost of the searches and model calls it made, at a fixed markup, and the rest of the hold returns to your balance.
Finding and confirming the right person costs nothing. New accounts start with 10 credits.
| Pack | Credits | Price | Per credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | 50 | $49 | $0.98 |
| Pro | 275incl. 25 bonus | $199 | $0.72 |
| Agency | 900incl. 150 bonus | $499 | $0.55 |
Lawful use
Every search states its purpose.
Permitted purposes
- KYC and AML compliance
- Investor or counterparty due diligence
- Fraud investigation
- Journalism
- Personal security
- Another lawful investigative purpose
Not permitted, under any terms
- Employment, promotion or retention decisions
- Tenant or housing screening
- Credit or insurance eligibility
- Any purpose that requires a consumer report under the FCRA
- Stalking, harassment, or locating a person to harm them
ProbePeople is not a consumer reporting agency. The Terms of Service set out the full rules.
Start with a name.
Resolving the person and scoping the research cost nothing. New accounts include 10 credits.