The recent public warning by UAE Economy Minister Abdullah Bin Touq Al Marri regarding deepfake videos falsely portraying him endorsing investment schemes is a critical signal to corporate and government leaders globally. Denouncing the clips as "entirely fabricated," Al Marri’s statement at Gitex Global 2025 underscores a fundamental shift in the threat landscape: digital identity has become the ultimate weapon for financial fraud.

The hyper-realistic manipulation enabled by AI requires a specialised, proactive defence strategy. Critically, when these scams succeed, the path to resolution lies in rigorous Due Diligence and Asset Tracing. Conflict Advisory Group provides the integrated intelligence and investigative services necessary to protect executives and recover funds when deepfake fraud strikes.

The Deepfake Risk: Weaponising Trust for Financial Crime

Deepfake technology leverages the public trust vested in senior leaders to create compelling, false investment pitches. When a figure like the UAE Economy Minister appears to endorse a scheme:

Fraud Escalation: Victim skepticism plummets, driving investment fraud at massive scale.
The Unmanageable Threat: As Al Marri stated, "I never did that in my life and I never will." Fabricated actions are indistinguishable from reality, making immediate refutation challenging.

When a deepfake-driven financial scam is successful, the following investigative disciplines become essential for victims and legal teams:

Conflict Advisory Group: Leveraging Due Diligence and Asset Tracing Post-Attack

The full-spectrum intelligence provided by Conflict Advisory Group is designed not only to verify the fraud but to immediately pursue the funds and identify the perpetrators, regardless of their location.

Due Diligence to Establish the Crime and Identity

When a client or partner is victimised by a deepfake scam, the immediate need is to establish the facts and verify the true actors behind the facade. Our enhanced Due Diligence services are deployed to:

Vetting the Fraudulent Entities: We conduct deep-dive corporate and financial vetting on the bank accounts, crypto wallets, and shell companies promoted in the deepfake video, exposing the real-world actors behind the digital front.
Source Provenance Analysis: We analyse the deepfake media itself—metadata, AI artefacts, and digital signatures—to definitively prove it is synthetic. This establishes the legal foundation that the public endorsement was fraudulent, which is essential for filing police reports and initiating legal action.
Integrated Threat Intelligence: We use global intelligence networks to determine if the attack is a standalone financial scam or part of a larger disinformation campaign, informing the legal strategy required to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Global Asset Tracing for Recovery

Deepfake scams are often transnational, with funds immediately moving out of local jurisdictions. Our Asset Tracing expertise is critical to transforming digital loss into financial remedy:

Following the Money in Real-Time: We conduct specialised blockchain forensics to track stolen cryptocurrency across various platforms, wallets, and jurisdictions, even after funds have been mixed or swapped.
De-anonymisation and Freezing: We work to de-anonymise wallet addresses, linking virtual assets to real-world exchanges, fiat bank accounts, or physical assets purchased with the proceeds of crime. This intelligence is provided to legal teams to seek court-issued Freezing Orders.
Targeting Global Wealth: Leveraging our international presence, we conduct discreet, cross-jurisdictional investigations to identify high-value tangible assets (real estate, corporate shares, luxury goods) purchased by the scammers, providing the necessary evidence for civil recovery actions.

Contact Conflict Advisory Group

The threat of deepfakes proves that AI is not just changing the global economy; it is reshaping the risk facing senior leadership and investors. When a sophisticated fraud bypasses initial defences, robust Due Diligence and immediate Asset Tracing are the last lines of defence

If you have been targeted by a deep fake investment scam or require proactive protection against digital identity exploitation, contact Conflict Advisory Group today for a confidential consultation.

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