This client is a family owned South American food business that wanted to buy a competitor in a neighboring country to greatly enhance our client’s revenues and market power. The problem was that the family’s adult members had been kidnapped for ransom by organized crime on more than one occasion. Since then, they had taken measures to become obscure in their home country and abroad. They were concerned that newspaper articles about their purchase of the competitor would put them on the “radar” of organized crime in their home country, resulting in a fresh wave of kidnapping. We were asked to find a way to execute the transaction without endangering the family members’ safety.
The Food Lawyers® formed a company in Europe that was owned by an entity we organized in an island country off the African coast. We issued the African island company’s shares to our South American family client and purchased the South American target through the European company. Our South American family clients have operated the acquired company through professional management without persons in their home country becoming aware of their ownership interest or their heightened international profile. Everybody has profited except the local kidnappers.