Commercial Investigation Luxembourg | Corporate Investigators – Kurtz Detective Agency*

Company anniversary as an indicator of experience and quality: 10 years of Kurtz Detective Agency in 2023

Among other things, due to its status as a financial and funds centre, Luxembourg is known worldwide and of great significance. Despite the economic crisis of 2007, the partial collapse in the financial sector that followed and subsequent industry-related redundancies, 149 banks were still registered in Luxembourg in 2010, almost exclusively subsidiaries or branches of large foreign banks. Banks of German origin accounted for by far the largest group with 44 institutions. The all-European importance of Luxembourg as a business location is enormous – not only measured by the size of the country.

It can therefore scarcely be surprising that economic crime, especially in connection with the financial sector, is commonplace in the Grand Duchy. The detectives of Kurtz Business Detective Agency Luxembourg and Trier are specialists in clarifying offences against companies: +49 651 2094 0060.

A Financial Centre That Is a Crime Hotspot

A focal point of the financial centre is the funds industry. At the end of May 2010 more than 3,500 investment funds were established in Luxembourg, managing assets totalling over €2 trillion. This makes Luxembourg the largest funds location in Europe. The gross domestic product of the capital is stated at 213 per cent relative to the EU standard, and purchasing power per capita is even specified at 253 per cent of the EU standard. Both figures are not entirely accurate, however, because about half of the workforce are cross-border commuters from neighbouring states (around 135,000 in 2011), which in this way “distorts” the statistics. Even setting this aside, Luxembourg as a city and as a country still ranks well above EU averages.

Yet like, for example, Frankfurt in Germany, Luxembourg as a financial centre is one of the cities with the highest crime rates in the country: a total of 39,957 offences were recorded in 2013. Particular increases were recorded in extortion (up 113.5 per cent), handling of stolen goods (up 37.7 per cent) and fraud (up 37.6 per cent), as our business detectives for Luxembourg have also determined in their assignments.

From Farming to a Technology Location

Since the mid-1970s technology and information companies have increasingly settled in Luxembourg, such as SES-Global (Astra satellites), Intelsat, and also trading companies such as Amazon, eBay, PayPal, Skype and many others. The manufacturing industry, which dominated Luxembourg’s economy until the mid-1970s, today accounts for only about 30 per cent of industrial production. Instead, since the mid-1970s other industries such as chemicals, plastics and man-made fibres, mechanical and vehicle engineering, the ceramic industry, glass, textiles and food production have emerged. Construction and agriculture are now of only secondary importance; agriculture largely consists of family businesses, since workers increasingly move to the towns – including to neighbouring states.

Employee Surveillance in Luxembourg

Luxembourg has two motorway connections (A8 and A64) to Germany, and rail links to France, Belgium and Germany. Five kilometres north-east of the capital lies the airport, which offers international flights to all continents. In 2014 nearly 2.5 million passengers were counted at Luxembourg Airport. There are three other small airfields in the Grand Duchy, which due to their grass runways are only suitable for sport and glider pilots.

Precisely the central location in Western Europe and the progress of technology increasingly confront companies in Luxembourg with cases of economic crime such as industrial espionage or tax fraud. Often employees themselves are either the instigators or externally controlled (bribed) executioners of offences against companies. Thus not only the classic offence types by employees, such as abuse of sick leave and false expense claims, cause problems for many firms, but also the “enemy” within the company who passes sensitive data to competitors. Through investigative methods such as surveillance, undercover placement within a company or counter-eavesdropping, our detectives in Luxembourg are often able to secure evidence admissible in court and identify the perpetrators. Consult Kurtz Detective Agency Luxembourg and Trier: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-luxemburg.com.

Investigations by Kurtz Business Detective Agency Luxembourg

Kurtz Detective Agency Luxembourg offers the following corporate investigations:

• Screening of suspicious employees
• Investigations into suspected disclosure of trade secrets
• Surveillance for suspected sick leave abuse
• Surveillance for suspected expense or time fraud
• Investigations into suspected money laundering
• Investigations into suspected tax or subsidy fraud
• Credit checks
• Recovery and return of stolen vehicles
• Investigations into suspected industrial espionage
• Investigations of patent and competition violations
• Workplace infiltration
• Surveillance for suspected secondary employment
• Investigations into recurring property damage