Getting Around Ban the Box Laws the Old Fashioned Way: Interviewing
Ban the Box isn’t going away, and companies need a strategy to protect themselves. The movement in the U.S. to restrict the kind of information employers can look for in making a hiring decision gathers momentum, this time in New York…
A Boon for Investigators We’d Happily Live Without
We’ve written plenty before about Europe’s “Right to be Forgotten,” under which governments tell Google and other search engines to take down links to legal, public documents that are deemed embarrassing or inconvenient…
More Proof: People are Bad at Risk Assessment
One of the most fruitful avenues of investigation is to look at material that nobody ever thought would harm them. That’s the kind of material people do not take great pains to hide. Why hide it when it won’t hurt you and there is…
Three Lessons for Investigators from the FIFA Scandal
These are still early days for the scandal engulfing world soccer, but in the indictments and other stories emerging we see three distinct features crucial for most successful investigations. We have written about all of them, but rarely are…
Be Your Own Charity Investigator
News this morning of a Federal Trade Commission civil fraud case against four “cancer” charities in Tennessee is a good time to highlight a wonderful investigative tool out there that we have been using for years. Based on the fact…
The Ethical Case for Neutral Third Party Investigators
How independent should an independent investigator be? The cover story in this month’s American Bar Association Journal called “The Probers” takes a look at some of the highest profile independent investigations of recent years…
Small Caribbean States Selling Passports for an Investment in the Island
We recently came across this news article about the business of selling citizenship and passports in the Caribbean, particularly in St. Kitts and Nevis. Increasingly, in several island states, people are able to buy passports simply by…
A Little Diligence on Local Businesses Goes a Long Way Toward Preventing Fraud
We pretty regularly find ourselves blogging about small business owners that draw people into scams. We’ve seen the would-be movie executive, the sweet-talking investment solicitor, the landscaper and the produce company owner. Too…
Increasing Transparency of UK Company Ownership
UK lawmakers recently unveiled a new plan to fight domestic and international corruption within its borders. From the perspective of investigators tasked with uncovering hidden assets, the most striking piece of this legislation is the…
FINRA and Due Diligence: On-Site Checks Are Indispendible
Due diligence is all about following up on red flags, but if you don’t find them, there’s nothing on which to follow up. Thus, our tireless refrain: turn over every piece of public record information you can about a person, and don’t…
