This is how Sabrina Vai, founder and CEO, describes Ethix. A boutique investigation agency — independent, based in Milan — that has chosen to start again rather than stay the same.
Ethix is at once a young entity in its current corporate form and a team with over twenty-five years of continuous experience in the Italian investigation sector.
This combination — the agility of a startup, the memory of a mature organization — is what allows us to take on complex cases (unfair competition, due diligence, employment disputes) without naivety, and to resist the temptation of shortcuts.
We have seen crimes, tools, processes and digital habits change. Each time, we have updated our procedures and technologies. We have held firm to a single criterion: what we gather must be able to be defended — legally, ethically and on a human level.
“Investigations are done the way craftsmanship is done: with care, with slowness, and with the eye for the detail that others do not see. The difference between a truth and a piece of news lies entirely in the method.”
Ethix does not delegate its engagements to invisible sub-contractors. The person you speak with at the first meeting is the same one who will follow the case through to the final report.
Founding partner and director
Founding partner and director of Ethix since May 2003, holder of a Prefecture license from that same year: she works in both civil and criminal litigation. A law graduate of the Università Cattolica di Milano, she began her career at a well-known Milan law firm before choosing the path of private investigations. She completed her…
Operational coordination and investigations
He has worked since 2013 in the private investigation and intelligence sector. After an initial period as a C.I.I.E. collaborator and FEDERPOL member, he progressively broadened his skills, taking on more complex assignments and coordinating numerous operational teams both in Italy and abroad. A graduate in Legal Sciences for…
Three principles, in this order. First you read the situation — the people, the interests, the clues — then you handle every piece of data with the care it deserves, and finally you follow a rigorous, documented method. This is what makes our reports defensible in court and useful to the client.
It is the ability to read a situation before acting. It serves to avoid wasting the client's time on hypotheses already disproved by the facts, and to understand where to truly look.
It is the way we handle every engagement: singular, confidential, orderly, carefully overseen in data protection and in our attention to the person.
It is the set of procedures, tools and documentation standards that make what we gather usable. Our reports hold up when they are produced in court or presented to the board of directors.
It is called Ethix for a reason. Professional ethics is not a clause at the foot of the contract: it is the first filter applied to every engagement we accept.
Every engagement is covered by an NDA. Data is encrypted and accessible only to the case team, over protected channels. Discretion is protocol, not style.
We operate under a Prefecture license, in full compliance with the Italian Privacy Code, the GDPR and the rules on defensive investigations. Only evidence that is defensible in court.
A written quote, agreed milestones, periodic updates. The client always knows where we stand and why. We distinguish between clues and evidence; we do not promise outcomes.
A written, replicable method, geared toward the legal result. The reports read like a case file: orderly, traceable, understandable to the magistrate.
Ethix is authorized by the Prefecture pursuant to article 134 TULPS. The company operates in full compliance with EU Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) and with the Personal Data Protection Code (Legislative Decree 196/2003 and subsequent amendments).
Confidentiality is structured through procedures: selective access to case files, logging of operations, encrypted storage, and personnel bound by secrecy obligations even after the relationship ends. We do not publicly comment on an engagement, not even once it is concluded, not even in anonymized form, unless expressly requested by the client.
The first step is a confidential consultation. No commitment, no cost, no rushed promises.
