by admin_lauth | Sep 19, 2016 | Corporate Investigations, Personal Investigations, Private Investigations News
1. We Locate People
The individual could be a witness, heir, a missing child, or a criminal. Maybe the individual is a former disgruntled employee who could whistle-blow about corporate misconduct or fraud. You might needing locate a subject in possession of the proverbial “smoking gun”—as in the case of stolen assets. Whether it’s an interview, serving papers, or investigate individuals, a Lauth PI can help you to identify and locate the subject.
2. We Locate Assets
Lauth Investigators are skilled at locating assets such as real estate, unclaimed property, and other valuable property like: artwork, antiques, collectibles, motor vehicles, aircraft, vessels, etc. A Lauth investigator can also help attorneys to identify the location both domestic and offshore bank accounts.
3. We Can Leverage for Negotiations
A Lauth Investigator can pull together key sources and intelligence to inform your side during litigation, in an M&A deal, during an internal investigation, or any other adversarial situation. It can make the difference between a favorable settlement and an unfavorable one.
4. We Can Help Attorneys Enforce Judgments
Obviously, a judgment is only useful if you are able to enforce it. A Lauth Investigator can help attorneys to identify current assets and uncover efforts to hide or misrepresent them through the transfer to family members, friends or other parties.
5. We Can Connect the Dots
Lauth Investigators can help you to know who is actually sitting on the other side of the table during litigation or a potential business deal. You can gain immeasurable negotiation power by identifying who is actually behind a faceless corporation or tying together undisclosed connections.
6. We Can Generate A Historical Reconstruction/Timeline
A historical reconstruction may be helpful in a number of different areas. Perhaps you need to review the history of a family to locate heirs. It could be a corporate history or a chain of title issue in a real estate matter. Whatever the issue, a Lauth Investigator can help to identify and piece together long lost documents, facts and witnesses.
Aaron Snyder — Research Investigator and Blog Writer — Lauth Investigations International
by admin_lauth | Sep 2, 2016 | Private Investigations News
After the 2007 to 2008 financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession, several federal regulations and laws have been put in place to minimize the amount and extent of securities fraud. Security fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, includes any practice that induces investors to make financial or investment decisions on the basis of false information, particularly in the stock or commodities markets. Government agencies have worked to limit the financial damaged created by fraudulent activities by implementing whistleblower programs that empower and reward individuals who come forward with information regarding securities fraud or fraudulent activities.
The United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has an entire office designated to whistleblowers. The Commission believes that whistleblowers can be invaluable tools, helping the Commission to identify fraudulent activities, naming those involved, and detecting these activities much earlier. A major perk of the whistleblower program is that the Commission has been able to minimize the financial damage incurred by investors due to securities fraud.
The Dodd-Frank Act created in 2010 established the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Law in order to encourage company employees to come forward with information. The Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Law has given more power to the SEC to detect potentially financially disastrous securities fraud. According to the SEC website, the governmental department “oversees the key market participants in the securities world including securities exchanges, securities brokers and dealers, investment advisors, and mutual funds”. Some states have followed the national government’s model by adopting individual whistleblower programs. Indiana and Utah are two examples of states that have followed the federal government’s example. Edward Siedle, a representative of a whistleblower in Indiana stated “leveraging the power of the whistleblower is tremendously helpful, and it’s not costing the state anything.”
While the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Law establishes that whistleblowers can and should come forward and any interference by the company in question is strictly forbidden, the law does not force companies to establish their own programs aimed at increasing company transparency. Private Investigators can lobby companies to establish whistleblower programs that will help prevent securities fraud and other illicit activities. By creating company-wide whistleblower programs, companies can save significant amounts of money for the company itself and investors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Jo White stated in a speech to the Ray Garrett Jr. Corporate and Securities Law Institute at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago that she “would urge that, especially in the post-financial-crisis era, in which regulators and right minded companies are searching for new, more aggressive ways to improve corporate culture and compliance, it is past time to stop wringing our hands about whistleblowers”. According to Investment News it has been over five years since the SEC created the whistleblower program, and as Chairman White explained the SEC has “seen enough to know that whistleblowers increase our (SEC) efficiency and conserve our scarce resources”. The Chairwoman also noted the importance of individual internal compliance programs in companies. Hiring a Private Investigator to advocate for a company-wide whistleblower programs can prevent costly legal fees, poor publicity, and loss of faith in the company. The financial damage to a company because of securities fraud can be astronomical, and hiring a PI to help the company create or expand a whistleblower program can save companies millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.
For More Information on Whistleblower Programs Visit: www.Sec.gov
Tiffany Walker – Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations
by admin_lauth | Sep 2, 2016 | Private Investigations News, Tips & Facts
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation there were approximately 8,277,829 property crimes reported by law enforcement in 2014. These property crime reports include burglaries, vehicular theft, and larceny-thefts, with an estimated 14.3 billion in financial losses for the victims of these crimes. Of the total number of arrests made by law enforcement, only about 10 percent were for property crimes—even though property crimes make up a large sum of criminal reports.
Police Departments across the country have difficulty prioritizing theft investigations over those involving physical violence. Consequently, the theft of your grandmother’s pearl earrings will most likely not be a priority for the local law enforcement. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a police department can have to manage up to 50 reports of burglaries and around ninety percent of these cases will go unsolved.
Art Theft
The United States’ largest property crime, the Isabelle Stuart Gardner Museum heist, still remains unsolved. The financial losses incurred by the one property crime totaled more than $600 million. None of the stolen paintings have been recovered even after two decades. Private art collections or family heirlooms can be targets for criminals. However, private investigators can be extremely useful tools in finding your stolen property when law enforcement cannot help. Private Investigators have the experience and necessary tools needed to find your property in a timely manner. Unlikely police departments, private investigators can give your case individual attention in order to recover your valuables.
Electronic Theft
The FBI’s National Crime Information Center also tracked the number of reported electronic thefts in the United States. Laptop thefts have increase almost fifty percent from 2007 until 2009. The number of reports jumped from 73,700 to 109,000. During the same period, the number of reported thefts of cell phones also increased about 33 percent. More shockingly, the amount of theft of music players reports increased over ninety percent, with the number of reports rising from 8,900 to over 17,000. More recent estimates suggest that 1.6 million smart phones were stolen in 2012 to 3.1 million in 2013.
Stolen personal electronics are not always reported to police in order to avoid potentially wasted time. Many people have opted for a private investigation in order to ensure more attention to their particular case.
How Private Investigators Can Help
With property theft it is important to act as quickly as possible. Contact the police to create an official report, but also hire a private investigator to ensure that you will have the best chance of finding your stolen items. Private investigators are able to dedicate many more hours than individual police officers because they often have a smaller caseload.
Private Investigators Can:
- Conduct interviews with witnesses, pawn shops, and institutions
- Dedicate more hours to a single case
- Provide positive results more frequently than law enforcement
- Begin investigating right away
- Depending on the victims preferences, collect evidence for prosecution
- Track the sale of stolen goods online
- Conduct a more inconspicuous investigation—in order to avoid tipping off the perpetrator
Stolen items can have significant sentimental value and therefore are priceless, hire a private investigator to ensure you have the best chance of being reunited with your belongings.
Tiffany Walker – Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations
by admin_lauth | Sep 1, 2016 | Private Investigations News
Stolen Family Jewelry
In December 2012 Lauth Investigations International’s Indianapolis office was retained to locate a stolen wedding band—valued at $35,750.
The Case
The owner of the ring was a local grandmother, who we will refer to as Client X. Client X was the grandmother of three, and the mother of two older children—both of whom were married. One of her grandchildren was a special needs child, and required near-constant care. The financial burden of the care was becoming too much for her son’s family. Meanwhile, the client and her daughter-in-law were estranged for many years.
Client X briefed Lauth Investigation’s Private Investigators on the case, and she was adamant that her daughter-in-law, the one with the special need son, could be responsible for the theft.
Client X insisted that she was responsible, and that her son had no knowledge of his spouse’s thieving behavior. In the briefing for Client X, she further explained that she was loaning her son money to pay for various things for their special needs son such as education, clothing and other necessities.
She also had purchased the house they lived which alleviated them of any mortgage or rent payment. The client was firm in remembering where she left the ring inside the home and felt comfortable implicating the daughter-in-law—as there was a history of small items disappearing from inside her home.
The Investigation
The client had contacted other local private investigation companies but they were unable to assist. Lauth Investigators requested that Client X file a police report, and to get the detectives name and report number for reference when speaking with vendors.
Lauth Investigations was confident they could utilize local sources in gathering evidence leading to the daughter-in-law and perhaps even locate the ring.
Lauth Investigators began the case by compiling a strong data timeline to track the various auctions and pawn shops. Investigators worked on a critical timeline to locate the ring before it was sold.
Investigators requested photos from Client X of the daughter-in-law, the ring, and any insurance statements or police reports she filed.
Investigators then compiled a geographical list of auctions and pawnshops near the subject’s home in order to interview shop owners and request receipts.
On Day-Two of the investigation, Lauth Investigations uncovered a receipt from a location nearly one-hour from the suspects home. Evidently, the suspect had sold the ring to a small jeweler for over $8,500.00—just two days after the ring was stolen.
After Client X authorized Investigators to proceed confronting her daughter-in-law regarding the theft, investigators took the receipt and written statement from the jeweler and then attempted to obtain a confession from subject. Investigators attempted to confront the woman to discuss but she adamantly denied the theft and refused to talk any further.
The confession attempt interaction then started a thunderstorm of conflict in the family and people began to shut down.
Investigators then scoured other jewelers and auctioneers and found an additional receipt for $4,000 from months before the other theft.
The Results
Lauth Investigators then contacted the original law enforcement detective on the case and reported their findings.
One week later suspect was arrested.
Client X was very happy to have received closure on her wedding ring, and she recommends anyone having a household theft problem to contact a private investigator.
– Thomas Lauth, CEO, Lauth Investigations International
by admin_lauth | Mar 7, 2016 | Tips & Facts
There’s nothing inherently wrong with meeting someone online; more and more people are meeting that way each year. However, it’s important to know how to vet someone you have met online—it’s not as easy as with people you meet in person. Read these quick tips about how to know who you meet online.
1. Authenticate Their Social Media Profiles
The first-step when you meet someone online should be to authenticate their social media profiles. Essentially, you should be looking to confirm that the person you have met is the person depicted in the profile, and that the person depicted in the profile is a real person.
Start by combing over the social media profile where you met the individual. For instance, if you met them on Facebook, check to see how many friends they have. Someone with very few friends may just be new to Facebook, but often times its a red-flag that the owner of the profile could be suspicious. See how many photos they have posted to the account. Users with only one photo, a graphic instead of a photo, or no photo at all may have something to hide. If they do have photos of themselves, compare the photos to make sure that they are the same person from photo to photo. Check to see if they post to their timeline often, but more importantly, check to see if other people are posting on their timeline. Signs of a two-way conversation or other engagement with users can be an indication that the person is, in fact, real.
Try to find other social media platforms that the individual is using. Compare the profiles and come to a conclusion about whether or not the person is a fake. Once you have determined the user is a real person, use information gleaned from their social media profiles about the safest way to proceed.
When it comes to social media profiles, you are looking for substance. If there is a lack of substance or the profile seems otherwise shady—stay away.
Remember, successfully authenticating their social media accounts is only the first-step. You may have confirmed that they are who they say they are, but, like with any other stranger, it is still important to get the know them before giving them your trust.
2. Ask The Right Questions
Getting to know someone is hard, right? Knowing what to ask is important when meeting people in general, but especially so when meeting people online.
The traditional 5 W’s (who, what, where, when, and why) go a long way towards vetting someone you meet online:
Who are they? Not just their name, but ask them who are they as a person. What drives them? What to do they do? For a living, for fun, on Sunday afternoons, anything—personal questions are a good way to find out if a person is genuine. Where are they from? Do they live far away from their family and friends, or are they well integrated into their community? When did they move to the area? Why?
Asking smart questions, and paying close attention to their answers, can be extremely helpful when trying to understand if a given individual is genuine. Be intensely aware of any inconsistencies in their answers. Find clever ways to ask the same question with different phrasing—see if they are consistent and confident when talking about themselves during your conversations.
3. Choose the Safer Apps
One of the best ways to ensure safety while using social media online is to make sure that you are using the safer social media platforms. There are no social media outlets that are inherently unsafe, but there are certain features on some platforms that make them more attractive to wrongdoers.
Be aware of the privacy and security features of each social media platform you use. Anonymous messaging apps like Kik, among others, are a popular social media platform for predators. A good rule of thumb to follow: if the level of user anonymity is high on a particular social platform, it is more likely that individuals interested in remaining anonymous will use the platform.
Ever thought of talking to someone using FaceTime instead of messengers or phone calls? FaceTime allows you to see who you are talking to, confirm that they match their online profiles, and gives you the ability to read their facial expressions during your conversations. FaceTime, as a conversational app, lets the user interact with others more like they do in the real world. Try asking the person you have met online if they would like to use FaceTime, Skype, or another video streaming app instead of using messengers or phone calls.
4. Try Meeting People Who Live Locally
In an increasingly global society, physical geography plays a smaller and smaller role in the people we meet and interact with. There is nothing wrong with that, but it does make it harder to know if the people we are talking to are who they say they are. It is much easier when the person you’ve met online lives locally. Check to see if they like community gathering places, restaurants, and events in your area. See if they have photos taken locally—if they do, it’s more likely that they are real, and didn’t just pull the photos off of the internet.
Not only can it make vetting their social media easier, but it also gives you the option to meet-up in person at some point. This should be done safely, as we will discuss in tip number 5, but it is certainly one of the best tools to use when determining a given individual’s motives and whether their intentions are genuine or not.
5. Meet Somewhere Public and Bring a Friend
Most people already know that it is best to meet someone for the first time in a public place. Meeting up in a dark ally is bad—for obvious reasons. A public coffee house, restaurant, or otherwise busy establishment is a much better option. But still, there are a few things that you can do to make your meet even safer.
Consider bringing along a friend when you first meet someone. Ask them if they would be willing to bring a friend along as well—as a double date of sorts. If that isn’t an option, ask a friend if they would be willing to go with you early to the coffee shop or restaurant. Having a friend at a nearby table can make you feel more comfortable meeting a stranger. A friend can also monitor your exit from the establishment—as this is perhaps the most dangerous part of meeting someone in a public place. Once you have entered your vehicle and safely left, your friend’s job is done.
This may seem a bit extreme, and is not necessary in all situations, but it’s an easy and effective preventative measure. Bringing a friend along is a great idea—especially if you are meeting someone for the first time.
Aaron Snyder, Writer, Lauth Investigations Blog
