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Any general Diligentia news

Long before I became interested in the world of private investigations, I was a sports nut. When I finally realized that I didn’t have the athletic prowess to become a professional athlete, I focused on becoming the general manager of the New York Mets.

When that turned out to be a bit of a pipe dream, I focused on getting a job in sports, and attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to get a degree in Sport Management. It was really a business degree, with a focus on the legal, business and marketing aspects of sports.

In early July 1999, I got a call from one of my professors, Lyle Henry, who told me that an intern position had opened up for the New York Giants in the communications department. It was a bit of a last-minute thing—the intern who was supposed to take the job had just backed out.

I quickly went down to Giants Stadium, was interviewed by UMass Amherst alumni Peter John-Baptiste, and within a few days, they had offered me the position.

The following week I started.

Do Great Work, the Rest Will Follow

When I got a call from Lyle Henry about the open position, he said I was one of the first people he thought of, in part because of my proximity to the Meadowlands, but also because I stood out from the crowd.

I was one of the top students in the Sport Management program at UMass. I was a bit older and more mature than most students; I knew what I wanted and was on a mission to get my degree and get a job in the sports industry. I was cum laude, participated in extracurricular activities and took a genuine interest in learning from the professors, meeting with them outside of the classroom. I wasn’t trying to butter up the professors; I was doing it because I wanted to learn.

Some people might say I was lucky; but I don’t believe much in luck. (The Giants went to the Super Bowl the year after I was there.) I was certainly in the right place at the right time, but I believe that if you put yourself in the right situation, do good work and stand out from the rest of the crowd, it will eventually be noticed.

Excuses Are Tools for the Incompetent

One of the intern’s responsibilities during training camp was to deliver newspapers to the coaches and ownership, especially Coach Jim Fassel. Three different newspapers had to be in Coach Fassel’s office at 5:30 a.m. sharp, no excuses.

One morning, the stack of newspapers that was supposed to be delivered was not there. “Oh well,” I said, “I guess there are no papers today.” Jeff, special assistant for Giants training camp, thought differently. We drove at an excessive speed to three different gas stations and bought every last newspaper we could find and delivered them to Coach Fassel’s office and the rest of the staff in the nick of time. Coach Fassel didn’t have a clue what we’d done.

Sometimes, even the best-laid plans are thrown for a loop. People don’t want excuses or stories; they want results. It doesn’t matter how you got from point A to point B—it just matters that you got there.

Tone at the Top

Before heading to the training facility in Albany, I spent one week at the Meadowlands. The first day, I met the entire staff, including Coach Jim Fassel, general manager Ernie Accorsi, owner Wellington Mara and (his son) John Mara. I didn’t expect that. I was an intern; they were some of the most powerful people in sports.

Football is known as a pretty rough sport, but I couldn’t help thinking what a classy organization they had.

Through training camp and the rest of the up-and-down season, the Maras were a steady rock, never wavering. They didn’t comment to the media after big losses or big wins, they didn’t interfere with everyone’s job and they didn’t change their tone throughout the season. They were a constant with the team, but they let the team and the players do their jobs without interfering.

My boss, Pat Hanlon, vice president of communications, was charismatic, smart and hard-working. He was the first one in the office and one of the last ones to leave. He would give me a boost of confidence when the season started wearing on me and gently chide me when I would show up 15 minutes late for work.

The tone of your team, sports or otherwise, begins at the top. If you have a fiery, no-holds-barred attitude, so will the rest of your team. But if you are calm, steady and unwavering, so will be the people who look up to you.

Small, Seemingly Meaningless Things Don’t Go Unnoticed

One of my jobs during training camps was to produce the daily clips. One by one, I went through all of the New York newspapers, clipped out the news about the Giants that day, made hundreds of copies for the whole staff and delivered them to the coaches, front office personnel, staff and players. It was tedious, mind-numbing work. I remember thinking to myself, they get the newspapers anyway, why do they need the daily clips?

One day, the copier didn’t work. I didn’t get the clips out. Saying to myself, “Nobody ever reads the darn things anyway,” I let it go and didn’t think much about.

Boy was I wrong. I got an earful from Pat Hanlon. From then on, I made it my mission to get the clips to the whole team by 10 a.m., no excuses.

Even the small, somewhat meaningless things are critical to an organization, from the top of the food chain down to the intern. My job, which I perceived to be small and meaningless, was important, and I quickly realized that everybody’s role in an organization, no matter how small or tedious, is important.

Small Acts of Kindness Go a Long Way

On one of the last days of training camp, I was about to get into my car near the dormitories, when I saw Joe Montgomery. Montgomery was a rookie, drafted in the second round out of Ohio State. Training camp was closing up and he realized that he had left a bag with his wallet back at the training facility. He got in my car and we headed back to the locker room before everything was packed up.

As he got back in the car with his bag, he was enormously thankful. We talked about what I was going to do on my few days off before starting the season. I said I would probably just spend some time with my girlfriend (who is now my wife) and probably go out to eat.

As he got out of the car, Montgomery whipped out a wad of cash, thankful for the ride, and handed me a hundred dollars. “Dinner is on me,” he said. As he exited the car, he put another hundred dollars on my front seat, and said, “Take her somewhere nice.”

I’ll never forget it.

Unexpected small acts of kindness go a long way. They don’t need to be monetary, but they do need to be out of the ordinary. Beyond expectations. People tend to forget things that you do every day; but small, unexpected acts are remembered forever.

In the End …

The Giants season was up and down. After starting the season with five wins and three losses, they lost six out of the last eight games, and were out of the playoffs. The season may have been a disappointment for the team, but it was a great life experience for me.

In January, I returned to school, with a great experience and a new mind-set … one that I have taken with me ever since and will never forget.

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I’m a bit late to the after-party, but the 24th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference wrapped up on June 28. I was honored to be one of the presenters on utilizing open sources and public records in the U.S.

The truth is, I learned a lot more than four things from the 24th ACFE conference. In fact, I learned many more than four things, but here are some key takeaways.

Networking is crucial

I am a firm believer in continuing education, but the most valuable things I learned came from other Certified Fraud Examiners. In the three days of classroom experience, I learned just as much from chatting with other CFEs over drinks as I did in the classroom. I don’t diminish the value of learning through the classroom, but I get equal (or greater) value from interacting with others.

Speaking in front of 400 people is hard

I didn’t think it was going to be easy. Last month, I did a webinar for 500 people, and I thought it was hard speaking to a computer screen for an hour. But that was nothing compared to this. I enjoy speaking in front of small groups, but speaking in front of 400 people is a whole different ballgame.

You can’t please everyone

Overall, I think the presentation went well. In hindsight, I certainly would have changed some things, but overall, it was well received. The ACFE does a great job of collecting feedback on the presentations and while it was generally positive, there were some in the audience who might have shot spitballs at me if I had come within striking distance. I learned long ago that pleasing everyone is impossible, especially in a situation where you are dealing with 400 people with varying degrees of experience.

Preet Bahara is going places

Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, spoke at the conference. He’s certainly no secret anymore; he was featured on the cover of Time magazine as the man “Busting Wall Street.” He was funny, engaging and inspiring. I don’t know where he is going to end up, but it’s going to be big. If he has any political aspirations, they might be Oval Office big.

Favorite quote: “People do not steal your money to save it.” ~ Chris Mather

Most predictable moment: Someone jumping in the Aria pool during the ACFE’s cocktail and networking reception.

Photo Courtesy of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

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Over the past few years, we have covered the Samuel “Mouli” Cohen Story quite extensively. Now, his story is the subject of CNBC’s season premiere of American Greed on Thursday, May 16th at 10pm EST.

I don’t know about you, but my DVR is set.

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Ever since I started in this business more than 10 years ago, I have been fascinated by people’s perception of what private investigators do.

It seems that years of television and movies have warped any true sense of what a private investigator really does.

When I am first introduced to someone and tell them what I do for a living, I’m usually met with some oohs and ahs.

Then I am asked if I do stakeouts on cheating spouses (I don’t), or if I could tell them how much money was in so-and-so’s bank account (I can’t … it’s illegal). Or they’ll tell me they think I know everything about them even though I’ve never met them before (I don’t, but I guess I could if I really needed to).

Can You Break the Law for Us?

We get inquiries all the time from people who want us to do something that’s against the law.

Like break into someone’s house to steal tax returns, or hack into someone’s computer and read their emails, or even just access someone’s telephone records. In case you are wondering, none of these can be done without breaking some sort of law (unless we get the subject’s permission, of course).

Alternatively, we get asked to do something that can only be done in movies. Recently I was asked if I could conduct facial recognition scanning to determine whether a particular person has ever starred in any pornography films under a false name. Nope, can’t do that either.

What Is the Public Perception of Private Investigators?

I wanted to see what the general population thinks about private investigators, so I turned to Google Consumer Surveys.

There were two main questions that I wanted to gain more insight into. I wanted to know whether people think that private investigators abide by the law and I wanted to see what term people would use to best describe a private investigator.

It turns out that my limited view of what people think about private investigators was true.

The overwhelming majority of respondents — 94.6% — think private investigators break the law at least some of the time.

And 20% of respondents said private investigators never abide by the law.

On a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being that private investigators never abide by the law and 7 being that they always abide by the law, 81% of people voted 4 or lower.

There was still some hope.

The second question randomly displayed six terms. People were asked which of the six terms — law abiding, skillful, resourceful, honest, shady or unprincipled — best described a private investigator. Respondents were allowed to pick only one.

The most popular answer was “resourceful,” with 36%.

Finally, a shining light.

But the second most popular was “shady,” with 21.3%.

“Law abiding” and “honest” came in next-to-last and last, respectively.

Investigators Have an Image Problem

Of course, this is not a scientific study. We could probably have used some better terms to describe a private investigator. Or better choices to indicate whether private investigators abide by the law.  You can certainly look at both of these in a completely different light.

But regardless of how you slice it, private investigators have an image problem.

Do other industries have image problems? Absolutely. Investigators are certainly not the only ones.

Look at Wall Street. Or the U.S. Congress, whose 9% favorability rating ranks below such things as colonoscopies and root canals.

Is the Perception a Reality?

Is perception always reality? Absolutely not. But in the case of private investigators … maybe.

From where I stand, I can see lots of investigators who like to perpetuate the mysterious, secretive, shady, working-on-the-edge-of-the-law mystique. I personally know investigators who work in that vast grey area.

We aren’t among them.

We’ve built a company around being transparent, legal and ethical. Even a whiff of any unscrupulous behavior might undermine a client’s best interest, our reputation and our license.

But I guess a transparent, legal and ethical private investigator is not as sexy as a mysterious, Ferrari-driving, pipe-smoking, living-on-the-edge renegade.

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The Diligentia Group Blog is three years old today.

Since our first post, (How to Avoid a Hedge Fund Fraud – Lessons from Bayou Fund) the blog has grown tremendously  and wanted take a minute and thank all of our readers.

So what have we done in the past three years?

  • Made 142 blog posts
  • Visited by more than 125,000 people
  • Read in more than 170 countries
  • Received 335 comments
  • Posted two infographics
  • Created one video

Since the beginning, our goal has been pretty simple … write about things we care about. Judging from the amount of visitors we have had, I guess were are not the only ones who care about this stuff.

Here is a list of some of my personal favorites:

What is your favorite?  Let us know in the comments.

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I like to support great products. I’ve purchased a few things lately that I’d like to recommend.

Samsung Series 9 Laptop

I recently switched from an old bulky Dell laptop, to a new Samsung Series 9 Ultrabook(affiliate link), and could not be happier. The technology in the ultra-light ultrabooks is still new, so you are going to pay a premium, but the form factor, speedy solid state hard drive and the portability are worth it for me.

Carrying around a 6 pound laptop gets old quick. The Samsung Series 9 has a few quirks, such as a lack of a built-in ethernet port (they give you an adapter) and a relatively small hard drive (128 GB’s) compared to the competition, but overall, I could not be happier.

LastPass

Tired of remembering all of your passwords? I have had LastPass for about a year and it has been a godsend. Lastpass stores your online passwords in the cloud, so that you don’t have to remember them. It’s secure and has browser add-ons for all of the major browsers, so it can work on almost any platform.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Unlocked Version)

I like the fact that I am not tied down to a wireless carrier. I recently ditched my Verizon contract for a unlocked Samsung Galaxy Nexus. You can save quite a bit of money by buying the services you need, instead of paying through the nose for things you don’t. Plus, if you ever leave the country, you just have to buy a sim card and you are good to go.

I am a big proponent of the Android platform and the new version of Android’s operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, is an absolute pleasure. The fact that I run my business email through Google Apps is just an added bonus.

Rickshaw Bagworks

I’ve had a bunch of bags that I really didn’t like, but have finally found one that I love. It’s the Large Zero Messenger bag from Rickshaw Bagworks. They are based on Potrero Hill in San Francisco, which happens to be my old stomping grounds.

It’s multi-functional, durable, eco-friendly and stylish. There are hundreds of colors and options to choose from. It’s also made here in the U.S.A., which is always a good thing.

I hope these recommendations point you in the right direction. Support great products!

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Yvette Ferrari has spent the past 45 years not knowing her biological father. She only knew that in 1966 her 17-year-old mother had encountered a medic in the Army who was stationed in St. Louis, Missouri, and became pregnant with his child. Until she was 21 years old, Yvette did not even know the name of her father. She spent years thinking about finding him, but she did not start the process in earnest until 2011.

She began searching for her father more than 10 months ago, even though she had little information about him. She knew his name, his approximate age, that he served in the military and that his family was from Baltimore.

Using what she knew, she searched the Internet for any connections. She found a number of people with the same name as her biological father. But after months of disconnected numbers and dead ends, she decided that she needed some professional help.

Yvette contacted a couple of private investigators and also reached out to a television show that specialized in reuniting long-lost loved ones.

I spoke to Yvette on the phone last week. She told me her story. I told her that I had a good success rate at finding people, but I was honest with her. She wanted some guarantee that I would find her father, but unfortunately, I can’t make guarantees.

There were an infinite number of possible reasons that this may not end up the right way. With such limited information, I thought it might be impossible to find him. A name, an approximate age and a connection to Baltimore were not much to go on. Knowledge that he served in the military helped. Alternatively, her father could be dead or living in a different country; or worse, even if I found him, he might not want to have anything to do with her.

There were too many possibilities to guarantee anything. I would be out of business if I made guarantees.

At the end of the call, I told her that I would do some preliminary research to see whether there could be any chance of success.

I reached out to her that night and told her that I thought I could help. Yvette still wasn’t sure, though, and wanted the weekend to think about it. By Tuesday, she had decided to go ahead with it. She was concerned that there were no guarantees, but I assured her that I would do the best I could.

With the little information she had provided, the search began.

Within a few hours, I had a good lead. A person with her father’s name and of similar age was found in Georgia. Additional queries revealed that he had connections to the Baltimore area, and by scouring public records I found that he had been collecting income from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a sure sign that he had served in the military.

I couldn’t be certain that this was her father without verifying his military records, but I knew that it would take weeks to submit a Freedom of Information Act request to the National Archives and Records Administration. I knew she didn’t want to wait weeks.

On Friday morning, I emailed Yvette the results of the research. I told her that I had a great deal of confidence that I had identified her father, but could not be 100 percent certain until I got the military records back.

At the end of the day, an email came across my screen.

“It was him,” Yvette said.

Her father didn’t know she existed, she said. He apologized, saying that if he had known about her he would have tried to reach out to her. She said she held back her tears until she broke down talking to some friends.

Next month, on her birthday, Yvette Ferrari is going to meet her father. She is meeting him in Austin, Texas, where Yvette, her mother and her father will reunite for the first time in more than 45 years.

That’s one hell of a birthday present!

Author’s note: It’s not often that people get to do work that gets them excited every day. Luckily, I have one of those jobs. I do all different kinds of work every day, but these are the types of cases that are the most satisfying. This made my day … and possibly my year.

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If you’re not a voracious reader of blogs, you’re not only missing out on funny cat videos and rumoured deaths (did you hear that Jon Bon Jovi died a few weeks ago?), but also, some interesting blogs about fraud, ponzi schemes and scams.

With 2012 upon us, we thought it would be nice to provide some blogs you might be interested in reading in the coming year.

If you haven’t learned how to use an RSS reader, it’s a great way to aggregate articles and blog posts.  You can follow these 15 fraud and investigation blogs here.

Have another site to add to this list? Tell us about it in the comments.

15 Fraud and Investigation Blogs You Need to Follow (in no particular order:)

1The Confidential Resource – Richard McEachin, of McEachin & Associates, is an outstanding source for investigative research, resources and methods.

2PI Telegraph– PI Telegraph is an online magazine for the Private Investigation and Professional Security industry based out of the U.K. with topics ranging from marketing and legal updates to industry news and resources.

3ACFE Insights – The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners is on the leading edge of fraud and provides news, analysis and commentary on the global fight against fraud.

4Ethical Investigator – Philip Segal of Charles Griffin Intelligence provides some insightful commentary on current events and helpful knowledge on a variety of investigative topics.

5i-sight Blog – i-sight, an investigation case management software company, provides some great information on ethics, compliance and internal investigations.

6Investor’s Watchdog – Investor’s Watchdog, run by a former SEC enforcement branch chief at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, provides some insight into the workings of financial frauds, ponzi schemes and investments scams.

7Corporate Resolutions – Joelle Scott of Corporate Resolutions takes a different and sometimes witty (how about the check-the-box-let’s-just-make-sure-he-didn’t-kill-anyone search?) look at some current events and news topics.

8The Fraud Files – Tracy Coenen, head of Sequence Inc.,  takes a deeper look at fraud through the eyes of a forensic accountant on topics ranging from multi-level marketing scams to finding hidden income in divorce filings.

9K2 Global Consulting – The blog of K2 Global Consulting, founded by Jules and Jeremy Kroll (Kroll Inc.), provides expertise on compliance, bribery, corruption and insider trading, among other things.

10FIND PI – Thomas Humphreys, a Nashville Private Investigator and lead investigator of [Find] Investigations, adds a little fashion (The Sartorial Sleuth – The Well Dressed PI) and style (ever try the Blood and Sand cocktail?) into his posts.

11Highwick Associates – Nick Braak, an online reputation protection expert, gives his two cents on your online reputation, social media and privacy.

12PonziTracker – Jordan Maglich, an attorney at Wiand Guerra King, provides a great educational resource for information relating to Ponzi Schemes

13The American Private Investigator – Paul Jaeb of Heartland Investigative Group has been posting a monthly podcast since 2009 which covers a variety of topics including marketing strategies, the future of the investigative industry and ways to use social media to help your business.

14Sherlock’s Case Files – Skipp Porteous of Sherlock Investigations gives you some investigative tips, testimonials, and “tantalizing topics” relating to technical surveillance countermeasures.

15Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes – Guns, Gams and Gumshoes is written by “a couple of PIs who also happen to write” and started teaching online classes to answer questions about private investigators.

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