Glossary
Investigation terms, explained.
Plain-language definitions of the terms of art that come up in professional investigations — from sub rosa and AOE/COE to beneficial ownership. The vocabulary OnTrial works in, defined clearly.
Definitions
Investigation terms and definitions
- Sub Rosa Surveillance
- Covert, lawful observation of a subject — typically an insurance claimant — to document their real-world physical activity against the restrictions they have claimed. “Sub rosa” means “in secret”: the subject is unaware, and findings are captured as timestamped video for evidentiary use.Learn more →
- AOE / COE
- Arising Out of Employment (AOE) and Course of Employment (COE) — the two-part test of whether a workers' compensation injury is compensable. AOE asks whether the work caused the injury; COE asks whether it occurred within the time, place, and circumstances of employment. An injury generally must satisfy both.Learn more →
- Course and Scope of Employment
- The Texas framing of whether an injury or act happened within the time, place and duties of the job. Investigators develop the facts that bear on it — schedules, duties, location, and witness accounts.Learn more →
- Compensable Injury
- An injury that qualifies for workers' compensation benefits — generally one that arises out of and occurs in the course and scope of employment.Learn more →
- Nonsubscriber (Texas)
- A Texas employer that does not carry workers' compensation coverage. An injured employee's claim against a nonsubscriber generally proceeds as a negligence lawsuit rather than a workers' compensation claim.Learn more →
- SIU (Special Investigations Unit)
- The team an insurer relies on to investigate claims that show signs of fraud. “SIU support” is the outside investigative work — surveillance, background research, canvassing, and recorded statements — that develops a red-flagged claim into a documented factual record.Learn more →
- EUO (Examination Under Oath)
- A formal, recorded questioning of an insured or claimant, taken under oath during the claims process before any lawsuit is filed. Carriers use it to test the validity of a claim; investigators support it with pre-EUO background, social-media, and field workups.
- Subrogation
- The right of an insurer that has paid a claim to step into the insured's position and recover that payment from the party actually responsible for the loss. Subrogation investigation identifies and documents the responsible third party to support recovery.
- Activity Check
- A short surveillance engagement that documents a subject's activity over a limited window — often used as a first step to confirm whether fuller sub rosa surveillance is warranted.Learn more →
- Canvass
- Systematic contact with neighbors, businesses, or potential witnesses around a scene or subject to develop information — for example, a neighborhood canvass to locate a witness, or a provider canvass in a fraud investigation.
- Pretext
- The use of a false or incomplete identity or purpose to obtain information. Pretexting to obtain protected financial or consumer information is prohibited by law (the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act); OnTrial relies on licensed, lawful methods and does not use prohibited pretext.
- Skip Trace
- The process of locating a person whose whereabouts are unknown — a debtor, witness, or subject — by developing and cross-referencing public records, databases, and open sources.Learn more →
- Heir Search
- A locate investigation that identifies and finds the heirs or beneficiaries of an estate — developing identity, address history, and vital records so the administrator or fiduciary can account for every interested party.Learn more →
- Pattern of Life
- An analysis of a subject's movements, routines, and dwell locations over time, built from device-level and open-source signals — used to corroborate or refute claimed restrictions, or to inform protective operations.Learn more →
- OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence)
- Information collected from publicly available sources — public records, websites, social media, and media — then analyzed and verified to answer an investigative question.
- Asset Search
- Identification of a subject's assets — real property, vehicles, business interests, financial accounts, judgments, liens, and cryptocurrency — typically for pre-litigation collectability analysis or post-judgment enforcement.Learn more →
- Pre-Suit Investigation
- Fact-finding done before a lawsuit is filed — identifying parties and witnesses, mapping entities and assets, and preserving evidence — so counsel can evaluate claims, defendants, and collectability before committing to litigation.Learn more →
- Entity and Related-Party Mapping
- Charting the companies, officers, owners, and affiliated people connected to a subject — including entities controlled by family members or insiders — to show who controls what and how assets or business moved between them.Learn more →
- Fraudulent Transfer
- Generally, a transfer of property made to hinder, delay, or defraud a creditor, or made without reasonably equivalent value while the debtor was insolvent. Investigators document the transfers, recipients, and timing that counsel uses to pursue them.Learn more →
- Judgment Enforcement and Turnover
- The post-judgment work of collecting a money judgment — locating the debtor and non-exempt assets and, in Texas, asking the court to order property turned over to satisfy the judgment. Investigators locate the debtor and map assets to support counsel.Learn more →
- Community vs. Separate Property
- Texas is a community property state: property acquired during a marriage is generally presumed to be community property, while property owned before the marriage or received by gift or inheritance is generally separate. Tracing documents where assets came from so counsel can characterize them.Learn more →
- Conservatorship
- The Texas family-law term for the rights and duties of a parent or other person toward a child — often called custody elsewhere — together with possession and access. Attorney-directed investigations document conduct relevant to those questions.Learn more →
- Cryptocurrency Tracing
- The investigative work of tying a person to exchange accounts, payment apps, and wallets, then following on-chain flows to identify where digital assets went and who holds them.Learn more →
- Wallet Attribution
- Linking a cryptocurrency wallet address, or an ENS name that resolves to it, to an identified person or entity, with each link sourced and analyst-verified.Learn more →
- On-Chain Sanctions Exposure
- Whether a wallet's transaction flows touch addresses associated with sanctioned persons or entities, flagged for compliance and enhanced due diligence.Learn more →
- Background Investigation
- A multi-source, analyst-verified review of an individual's identity, criminal and civil history, litigation, employment, and reputation — distinct from an automated, unverified database “background check.”Learn more →
- Executive Background Investigation
- An executive-level inquiry into a principal, board candidate, investor, or counterparty — litigation, regulatory, sanctions, business history, assets, and media — for boards, investors, lenders, and family principals.Learn more →
- Due Diligence
- Pre-transaction investigation of the people and entities behind a deal — identity, litigation, regulatory and watchlist exposure, adverse media, and beneficial ownership — so an investor or acquirer understands who they are dealing with before capital moves.Learn more →
- Confirmatory Due Diligence
- The deeper diligence run after a letter of intent (LOI) and before close to confirm what the buyer has been told — in investigative terms, verifying management, sellers, and co-investors in depth.Learn more →
- UCC Filing
- A public financing statement filed under the Uniform Commercial Code that gives notice of a lender's security interest in a borrower's personal property. UCC searches reveal existing liens, other lenders, and pledged collateral.Learn more →
- Personal Guarantee
- A principal's promise to repay a business loan personally if the borrower defaults. Lenders verify a guarantor's identity, litigation, liens, and assets at origination, and locate the guarantor and their assets after a default.Learn more →
- Family Office Investigation
- A confidential diligence or intelligence engagement for a family office or high-net-worth principal — vetting direct-deal targets, counterparties, and co-investors, and investigating threats and harassment.Learn more →
- China Due Diligence
- The investigation of a Chinese company, its principals, or a supplier or partner before a deal or relationship — ownership and control, state affiliation, sanctions and PEP exposure, litigation, regulatory history, and adverse media — drawn from native-language registry, court, and customs records.Learn more →
- OFAC 50 Percent Rule
- US Treasury (OFAC) guidance that any entity owned 50% or more, directly or indirectly, by one or more blocked persons is itself treated as blocked, even if it is not on the sanctions list by name.Learn more →
- PIP (Prominent Influential Person)
- An individual with significant public, commercial, or social influence who is not necessarily a government official. PIPs are screened alongside politically exposed persons (PEPs) in AML and due-diligence work because that influence can carry elevated corruption, reputational, or money-laundering risk.Learn more →
- Adverse Media
- Negative news and public information about a subject — allegations, sanctions, litigation, or regulatory actions — surfaced and verified as part of a background or due-diligence workup.
- Threat Attribution
- The process of tying an anonymous account, message, or threat to the real person behind it by pivoting across linked aliases, phone numbers, email addresses, and domain infrastructure, then documenting the link for legal action.Learn more →
- Passive DNS
- Historical records of which domains resolved to which servers over time, used in attribution work to connect a site or account to the infrastructure and people operating it.
- Breach & Stealer-Log Intelligence
- Intelligence drawn from breach data and infostealer logs — exposed credentials and infostealer data that can link pseudonyms to real people, surface secondary emails and phones, and show where a subject keeps accounts.Learn more →
- Beneficial Ownership
- The natural person or persons who ultimately own or control an entity, behind intermediate companies or nominees. Mapping beneficial ownership is central to enhanced due diligence and AML / KYC screening.
- Legal-Process Draft
- A draft subpoena or records request, prepared for agency investigators and prosecutors to review and file, that names the carrier, platform, exchange, or provider holding the records and what to ask for.Learn more →
- Subpoena Targeting
- Identifying which carrier, platform, exchange, or provider holds the records tied to a subject, and producing a ranked list of who to subpoena and what to ask for.Learn more →
- DPPA
- Driver's Privacy Protection Act — federal law that limits access to motor-vehicle-record information to permissible purposes.
- Texas DPS Private Investigations Company License
- The license the Texas Department of Public Safety issues under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1702 to companies that conduct investigations for hire in Texas. Licenses are publicly searchable; OnTrial, LLC holds License #C31261501.Learn more →
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