When Did The Betrayal Begin?
Investigators get hired because you can’t look everywhere, and one of our main skills is figuring out where to look and how far back the searches should go.
Most searches hit the same kinds of records, but an asset search is more interested…
How You Can Sell Property and Still Own It
It sounds unlikely, but when you’re doing an asset search you have to embrace the truth that a sale is sometimes not a sale.
It all comes down to one phrase: Beneficial Ownership. That means that you own something not personally, but through…
Just “a little off” Can Mean Fraud
Lots of the work in divorce asset detection involves looking at the names of companies a subject has, and then trying to figure out the names of new companies concealed from our client (the spouse).
Sometimes, a tiny change is all it takes…
How Good Investigators Think About Search Engines
Not as magic bullets, but as helpful reference librarians.
Remember in middle school when you had to write a report about how many lobsters were caught in Maine each year? You went into the library and told the librarian your project.
She…
The Small Business Landlord-Tenant Wars Have Begun
The big guys have been going bankrupt, but the real carnage is yet to come:. Among America’s small businesses. Potential creditors need to get organized for the fight which appears to have been kicked off in New York this month with a fascinating…
Brexit’s Prediction Lesson for Investigators
What lesson does the Brexit vote hold for anyone conducting or contemplating fact investigation?
Don’t let confirmation bias muddy your thinking.
One of the key “Investigator’s Enemies” identified in my book, The Art of Fact Investigation,…
Lessons from the Panama Papers
When is a big financial story an unsurprising financial story? When it turns out that people from corrupt and repressive countries are sneaking their money offshore to keep it hidden.
The world today is tearing into a huge leak of Panamanian…
Hawala: Red Flags for Detecting the World’s Oldest Form of Money Laundering
We write (and tell our clients) consistently about how difficult it is to obtain the bank account information of litigation opponents without first getting a court order. There are people out there who will charge you to trick banks into…
After DOMA: More Federal Ethics Laws Apply to Same-Sex Spouses
The Supreme Court struck down DOMA’s definition of marriage as unconstitutional today in a 5 to 4 decision written by Justice Kennedy. With all the talk of the expansion of benefits for same-sex couples, it has gone largely unnoticed that…
Privileges, Immunities, and Good Investigation
What does the Supreme Court’s decision this week about the Privileges and Immunities Clause mean to investigators? That they need to continue having a good national network to help one another. The Court this week upheld unanimously a…
