In-country sourcing · Investigation · Risk in MEA

The source layer for due diligence in places where data isn't enough.

Stop Guessing. Start Knowing.

Roots Intelligence is an in-country sourcing firm operating across the Middle East and Africa. Verification, asset tracing, complex investigation, and subject-matter expertise — supplied to consultancies, law firms, and corporates working in jurisdictions where automated DD reaches its limits.

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§ 01 · What we do

Six commercial services. One shared discipline.

All services

Verification

Identity, document, and corporate-existence verification on a named subject in a single jurisdiction. KYC refresh, vendor onboarding, and pre-screening at predictable cost.

Asset Tracing

Documented mapping of corporate, real-estate, and where lawful, financial assets across one or more jurisdictions, with chain-of-custody on every source.

Complex Investigation

Investigative-grade DD on sensitive subjects in difficult jurisdictions. Compartmented HUMINT, source-protected reporting, evidentiary discipline.

SME on Demand

Vetted subject-matter experts on call for short-form questions, pre-investment review, expert witness, or specialist regional advisory across MEA.

Training

Bespoke training for in-house DD and compliance teams, regional desks, and investigation units. Practical, jurisdiction-anchored, taught by the operators.

AI Training Services

Curated, source-attributed datasets and structured evaluation for organisations training AI systems on MEA regulatory, risk, or compliance content.

§ 02 · Coverage

Sourced presence across the Middle East and Africa.

Forty-six jurisdictions, organised into seven regional desks. Open desks operate for direct engagement; the remainder by referral. Click through to the country catalogue for the full operating posture per jurisdiction.

35° N · 18° W 35° N · 60° E 8° S · 18° W 8° S · 60° E

Open desk

Referral only

Verified source

Full coverage catalogue

§ 03 · Coverage at scale

Where the registry ends, the desks begin.

Roots Intelligence maintains active country desks and verified sources across forty-six jurisdictions in MEA. Coverage extends from the GCC and Levant through the Maghreb to East, Southern, West, and Central Africa — including jurisdictions where most automated DD platforms cover thinly or not at all.

Jurisdictions

Active sourcing posture across MEA, organised into seven regional desks.

Verified sources

240+

Vetted in-country sources operating under Roots' compartmentation rules.

Network

Open desks across the region; the remainder operate by referral only.

Full country catalogue →

§ 04 · Why Roots

Three differences that decide outcomes.

01 / IN-COUNTRY

Sources, not aggregated data.

Where automated tools rely on registry data and adverse media feeds, Roots adds a documented HUMINT layer — vetted local sources who validate, contextualise, and surface what isn't filed. The data layer is the floor, not the ceiling.

02 / COMPARTMENTED

Confidentiality by structure.

Every source on a Roots engagement sees only the slice of work assigned. Client identity, parallel jurisdictions, and sibling sources are not disclosed. Confidentiality is structural, not promised.

03 / SPECIALISED

Difficult MEA jurisdictions.

Roots was built for the jurisdictions where due diligence is hardest — Libya, Sudan, Yemen, the conflict-affected Sahel, sanctions-affected economies. Our hardest cases are where most firms decline to engage.

Ready when you are

An engagement starts with a clear scope — not a contact form.

Tell us the jurisdiction, the subject, and the question. Within one working day we revert with scope, fee, and timeline. If the work isn't right for us, we'll say so.

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§ Coverage

Forty-six jurisdictions. Seven regional desks.

Each Roots country desk is a documented sourcing posture: named sources, declared tier coverage, operating languages, indicative timelines. The catalogue below is the firm's standing position. Click through for the desk page, the dispatches filed from that jurisdiction, and the products available.

Jurisdictions

Network

By referral

Verified sources

240+

GCC — Gulf Cooperation Council

6 jurisdictions · All open

Levant & Iraq

7 jurisdictions · 6 open · 1 referral

Iran · Türkiye · Yemen

3 jurisdictions · 1 open · 2 referral

North Africa

7 jurisdictions · 5 open · 2 referral

East Africa & Horn of Africa

10 jurisdictions · 8 open · 2 referral

Southern Africa

9 jurisdictions · All open

West Africa

7 jurisdictions · 6 open · 1 referral

Central Africa

4 jurisdictions · 3 open · 1 referral

Coverage / North Africa / Egypt

MEA-EGY · Cairo Desk

Egypt — sourcing where the registry stops short.

Egypt is a jurisdiction where corporate filings reach the public record only partially, where court records remain primarily in-person, and where the operating reality of a subject is best understood through documented HUMINT. The Cairo desk has been active since 2019.

Cairo desk · standing position

Sources: 14 vetted
Tier: T1 — T3
Languages: AR · EN
Active since: 2019
SLA — standard: 5–10 days
SLA — investigative: 21–45 days

Open for engagement

Source matrix

What's where in Egypt.

Each task category in Egypt sits at a known source tier — public, paid public, HUMINT, or restricted access requiring a lawful basis. The matrix below is the firm's standing assessment; it is what we scope to when an engagement opens.

Task category	Tier	Operational note
Corporate registry extraction	T2 / T3	GAFI portal partial; full extracts often require in-person retrieval.
Group structure mapping	T3	Combination of registry retrieval and HUMINT triangulation; group-level transparency limited.
UBO identification	T3	UBO regime applies; verification typically combines registry signals with discreet enquiry.
Litigation — civil & commercial	T3	Limited online indexing; HUMINT through court runners is the operational norm.
Litigation — criminal	T3	Not publicly accessible; discreet HUMINT only, with declared source-protection.
Regulatory enforcement	T1 / T2	Sector regulators publish enforcement records selectively; deeper signal via HUMINT.
Adverse media (AR + EN)	T1	Strong Arabic-language press; bilingual screening required for full coverage.
Source of wealth narrative	T3	Heavy reliance on market enquiry, family-business mapping, and known-source HUMINT.
Real estate / asset records	T3 / T4	Land registry access typically requires lawful basis; advised through Legal at scoping.
Reputation & integrity	T3	Cairo desk relationships across sectors; documented method, source-protected output.

Dispatches from the Cairo desk

Recent published work.

All dispatches

ROOTS-DSP-2026-014Apr 28 · 2026

Mapping the GAFI gap: what Egypt's registry reform did and didn't fix.

A field assessment of which categories of corporate filing now reach the public record, and which still demand a runner.

Read dispatch →

ROOTS-DSP-2026-009Mar 11 · 2026

Family-business opacity in Cairo: a working note for investors.

Why corporate documents tell you only the surface, and what a desk's relationship layer adds at the source-of-wealth stage.

Read dispatch →

ROOTS-DSP-2026-004Feb 02 · 2026

Egyptian court runners: how a fragile system holds up DD work.

The infrastructure that connects a court ledger to a defensible finding — and why automation has not yet replaced it.

Read dispatch →

Services available — Egypt

Six commercial offers, all priced and scoped for the Cairo desk.

PRD · 01

Verification

Corporate, identity, and document verification on a named Egyptian subject.

Timeline5–7 days

FromUSD 850

PRD · 02

Asset Tracing

Corporate, real-estate, and where lawful, financial asset mapping in Egypt.

Timeline14–21 days

FromUSD 7,500

PRD · 03

Complex Investigation

Investigative-grade DD on Egyptian subjects: HUMINT, source protection, evidentiary discipline.

Timeline21–45 days

FromUSD 22,000

Engage Cairo desk

Tell us the subject and the question — we revert with scope and fee within one working day.

Engagement starts with a clear scope, not a contact form. Provide a brief paragraph; we'll come back with what's possible, in what timeframe, at what cost.

Your firm

Your role

Service

Jurisdiction

Brief scope

Services / Asset Tracing

PRD · 02 · Commercial service

Asset Tracing — documented, jurisdictionally anchored, defensible.

A documented mapping of corporate, real-estate, and where lawful, financial assets associated with a named subject across one or more MEA jurisdictions. Designed for litigation support, judgment enforcement, M&A diligence on private vendors, and regulator-facing internal review.

At a glance

Scope1 subject · 1–4 jurisdictions

Timeline14–28 days (single jurisdiction)

Fee — fromUSD 7,500

Source tierT2 — T3

DeliverableFindings-based report with evidence index

UseInternal · regulator · litigation (note evidentiary limits)

§ 01

What's included.

Asset Tracing is delivered as a structured, findings-based report under the firm's QA discipline. The deliverable consolidates documented evidence into a single client-facing artefact, anchored by jurisdiction and category.

Corporate footprint mapping. Directorships, shareholdings, and group structures of the subject and adjacent entities, with primary-source citations and chain-of-custody on every filing retrieved.
Real-estate identification. Property records where lawfully accessible, with land-registry references; for jurisdictions where access requires a lawful basis, we advise on the route.
Disclosed financial holdings. Where regulator filings, press disclosures, or court extracts reveal financial holdings, we collate and corroborate; we do not access bank records absent legal instrument.
Cross-jurisdictional integration. Where the subject's footprint crosses borders, the findings-based final report integrates into a single narrative organised by asset category rather than by jurisdiction.
Evidence index. Every finding is supported by a referenceable evidence document, identified by source tier and date of retrieval.
Methodology and limitations statement. Plain-language declaration of what was searched, what was not, and where the gaps in the report lie.

§ 02

What's not.

Asset Tracing is a documented, source-attributed product. It is not a covert investigation; it is not pretexting; it does not access information unlawfully. Where a client's question can only be answered by methods Roots will not use, we say so at scoping rather than at delivery.

No access to bank records absent legal instrument. Bank confidentiality lifts require court order or comparable instrument; we route through the client's counsel.
No pretexting against the subject or third parties. All HUMINT enquiry is conducted within the firm's documented method standard.
No payments to public officials. Source access in any jurisdiction is via legitimate channels only.
No undisclosed surveillance. Physical observation, where required, is declared at scoping and conducted within applicable legal frameworks.

§ 03

How the work runs.

An Asset Tracing engagement runs on the firm's standard four-stage workflow. The transition between stages is QA-gated; the client receives a status update at each transition.

Scoping (1–2 days). Subject onboarding, sanctions and conflicts screening, scope confirmation, jurisdictional source matrix applied, fee and SLA agreed.
Execution (10–18 days, single jurisdiction). Country desk runs the scoped task list. Each task is conducted by a vetted source under the firm's compartmentation rules.
Quality assurance (2–4 days). The QA Reviewer applies the firm's three-gate checklist; queries to sources are structured and logged.
Delivery (1 day). The findings-based final report is delivered through the client portal; clarification window remains open for fourteen working days.

Frequently asked.

Can the report be used in court?

The report is structured for evidentiary defensibility — every finding carries source-tier classification and citation — but admissibility is a function of the receiving jurisdiction. We work with client counsel where the engagement is framed for litigation; where the engagement is for internal use only, we say so on the cover page.

What's the difference between Asset Tracing and Complex Investigation?

Asset Tracing is a documented mapping product with a defined scope and a predictable cost. Complex Investigation is open-scope investigative-grade work for sensitive subjects in difficult jurisdictions, typically deeper HUMINT-led, longer-running, and bespoke. We size the right product at scoping; sometimes the answer is one, sometimes the other, sometimes both in sequence.

How does multi-jurisdictional pricing work?

The first jurisdiction is the base fee. Each additional jurisdiction is priced incrementally, reflecting the source matrix for that jurisdiction. We quote a transparent jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown at scoping.

Will the source ever be named in the report?

Documentary sources are cited; HUMINT sources are protected. The report explains the source-tier classification and the level of corroboration for every finding.

Can the report be restated if the client disagrees with a finding?

The firm restates a report on identification of a material defect — a finding that is wrong, missing, or misstated. The firm does not restate a report because the client preferred a different conclusion.

Open an engagement

A scope and a fee within one working day.

Tell us the subject, the jurisdiction(s), and the question. We revert with scope, timeline, and fee in writing.

Your firm

Your role

Service

Primary jurisdiction

Brief scope