About FSG

The founder and Managing Member of FSG, Willem Jardine, trained as a Catholic priest, studied Theology at university and considered a career in Academics. Instead, at the age of 24, he established a private/forensic investigation practice. It was finally the discipline of academic research, scientific method, honed in the school of experience, that Jardine brings to the business of private intelligence.

In 1985, with an unauthorized overdraft of R 400.00 and little more than youthful enthusiasm, Jardine established the one-person investigation service he branded Jardine Investigations. Based in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, Jardine's first case was an allegation of child abuse in the context of a messy custody dispute between equally inept parents. As ugly as it was, the task was adequately lucrative to fund the operating costs of Jardine Investigations for several months.

At the outset Jardine Investigations sought to market its services to legal practitioners. A debtor tracing division was added in the first year of trading. By the end of year one, Jardine Investigations employed a workforce of four and had the support of several legal practices in Pietermaritzburg. Such was its success that in its second year of trading, Jardine Investigations went high-tech and purchased a computer for the grand sum of R 6 000.00 - a hell of a lot of money in 1987! It had about as much computing power as a ball-point pen, but it put the business way ahead of the competition because it was able to develop its own functional electronic database of bad debtors and criminal types and was able to improve marketing efforts using crude mail merge software to produce form letters to its legal practitioner target market.

"They were happy, crazy times," Jardine recalls. "I was young, fit, enthusiastic and tireless. I had all my hair, a 32" waist, had not yet been shot and had not broken all the bones that I have, thanks to my insane passion for riding superbikes as fast and as far as possible. In those early years it was all hand-to-mouth, but the R 200.00 retainer I demanded for investigative work was way more cash in hand than I ever had during seven years of academia, working nights to pay varsity fees and feed my carcass. Ignorance and thick skin also helped. I remember billing R 235.00 in 1987 for our first debtor tracing - about the same as what we charge now, a quarter of a century later! I was summoned to the office of one seriously pissed-off attorney who gave me a serious dressing down, but was kind enough to also explain the facts of life. I also remember my first point-out to assist the Sheriff to execute a Warrant of Arrest on a debtor who committed the heinous crime of  failing to appear at a Section 65 hearing. Blissfully and stupidly enthusiastic, I cornered this hardened criminal in the shop where he worked, drew my firearm like a Western gunslinger and ordered the poor unarmed, pooh-my-pants frightened sod put his hands in the air! In those days all the young Turk lawyers invaded a particular drinking hole on Friday evenings. Attendance was integral to my marketing strategy. When I walked in, covert stares, huddled heads and whispered conversation soon evolved into raucous mirth at my expense. Everyone had heard about my first arrest and I learned the lesson that news spreads in the legal community. It was worth it though; I didn't pay for a single drink and I had the attention of my target market."

By the end of year three Jardine Investigations was instructed by most legal firms with a collections/litigation practice in Pietermaritzburg and surrounding areas. Local business also recognized that Jardine Investigations successfully investigated incidents of loss.

The business soon also evolved into a risk management consultancy. In the course of the investigation of incidents of loss  Jardine Investigations also sought to identify and correct risks that occasioned such incidents. In a time that "risk management" was largely unknown as a discipline, the business was innovative and forward-thinking. Innovation remains a benchmark.

Lots of work meant additional staff, investment in equipment and infrastructure and soaring operating costs. While Jardine had established himself as a talented investigator, the reality was that he was an inexperienced businessman. Cash flow quickly dwarfed expenses. At the end of 1989, after the Sheriff of the Court had just attached all of the office's now numerous computers, Jardine had no choice but to cease trading. At a meeting with his attorney, R 2 500.00 in hand to finance the friendly sequestration advised by his attorney, Jardine instead instructed him to set up a distribution scheme to settle his creditors. Jardine Investigations was back in business, relocated to Durban and was re-branded Willem Jardine & Assoc.

 Two years later all compromised creditors were settled and in 1994 Jardine Security was formed to provide a security guarding service. The establishment of an alarm installation, monitoring and armed response division followed in 1998.

In 2003 Willem Jardine & Associates and Jardine Security were incorporated into Fohla Security CC, trading as The Fohla Security Group/FSG. The guarding and alarm/armed response divisions were sold off and in 2007 the decision was made to take the investigation, tracing and risk management service divisions national. 

Today FSG boasts thousands of clients across the country and is succeeding in its objective to be the preferred service provide of tracing and investigation services to legal practitioners nationally. All operations and services are managed and administered from the Durban based head office of FSG (the only office of FSG accessible to clients) to ensure consistent, professional levels of service. Willem Jardine remains at the helm.

"While the thrill of outwitting a professional white collar criminal or fraudster is always satisfying" says Jardine, "nothing is as rewarding as uniting a missing person with loved ones - especially when it is a child. Business success is satisfying, but my greater motivation is the sense of achievement that follows a successful investigation."