My business partner is threatening to report me to the police abroad after our contract fell apart — could that lead to a Red Notice?

Commercial disputes get criminalized more often than most business owners expect — a missed payment becomes “fraud,” a failed joint venture becomes “embezzlement,” and in some jurisdictions a police report costs the other side almost nothing to file as leverage. Once a warrant is issued on that report, it can be submitted for INTERPOL circulation regardless of how weak the underlying case is.

The warning signs are usually explicit: a former partner mentioning “the authorities,” a lawyer’s letter referencing criminal rather than civil proceedings, or a sudden demand letter with a settlement deadline attached. If you’re seeing any of these, the priority is building a paper trail now — contracts, correspondence, payment records — that frames the dispute as civil, because that same evidence is exactly what later defeats a notice built on a private dispute. Waiting until the notice actually appears means starting from a weaker position.