I occasionally have to ?dig the dirt? on individuals and companies for
the purposes of due diligence. Computer translations are OK for
getting a general sense of an article or web site, but I want to make
sure my search terms are correct to find them in the first place.

Can you please supply the German equivalent for these and suggest any
other search words I should use.  No need for links.

Money laundering
Fraud
Scam
Corruption
Scandal
Sued
Crime
Criminal investigation
Investigation
Litigation

German equivalent of the SEC (US) and FSA (UK), or any other financial
regulatory body which would undertake investigations and prosecutions.
Ditto for Magistrates Court, Crown Court, High Court etc.
Police or similar investigatory organisation.


Many thanks
Argenta-ga

Here are the translations:

Money laundering = Geldwäsche
Fraud = Betrug (plural = Betrügereien, tax fraud = Steuerhinterziehung)
Scam = Betrug (or (vulgar speech level) Beschiss)
Corruption = Korruption
Scandal = Skandal
Sued = verklagt (to sue = verklagen)
Crime = Kriminalität,Verbrechen,Untat
Criminal investigation = kriminalistische Untersuchung
                       => Criminal investigation department)=
Kriminalpolizei, Kripo
Investigation = Erforschung,Nachforschung,Recherche 
Litigation = Prozess,Rechtsstreit

Useful searchwords for further investigations:

kriminell; verbrecherisch {adj} = criminal
Verbrecher = criminal
Strafkammer = criminal division
Strafrecht = criminal law
Strafregister = criminal records
Strafsache = criminal case
Straftat =criminal act; criminal offence; punishable act
Strafverfahren = criminal proceedings
Strafverfahren = criminal procedure
Strafverfolgung,strafrechtliche Verfolgung = criminal prosecution (for)
Vorbestrafung = criminal record
Strafgesetzbuch = penal code; criminal code
Straftäter = offender; criminal
Kripo,Kriminalpolizei CID : criminal investigation department
Führungszeugnis = good-conduct certificate
polizeiliches Führungszeugnis =   certificate issued by the police
(stating that the holder has no criminal record)

Courts that deal with criminal cases in germany:
(from first to last instance)

Amtsgericht
Landgericht
Oberlandesgericht
Bundesgerichtshof

The most important private organisation that provides financial
information on companies or private individials is the
"Schutzgemeinschaft für allgemeine Kreditsicherung" at
( http://www.schufa.de/ )

More general information (as the Schufa mainly focusses o
creditworthiness) can be found by using "Wirtschaftsauskunftei"
(meaning = private investigation specialised in your field of
interest):
( ://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&q=wirtschaftsauskunftei&meta= )


till-ga


I hope this answers your question and gives you some new starting
points for your digging work.

Question well answered with plenty of examples provided. Thank you.