Half the time when someone calls our office about asset identification they tell us, “I need bank account information.”
When told that without a court order there is nearly no legal way to get that kind of information from a bank without the account holder’s consent, many ask: “If it’s illegal, why did an investigator
The college admissions scandal has been full of wonderful teachable moments – about ethics, humility, greed and corruption. Now for asset hunters there is a new nugget today: overpaying on purpose.
As the Boston Globe reported yesterday, a municipal home assessor found it odd that a home in Needham, Massachusetts (near Cambridge, where Harvard
If an investigator told you he could get you some cocaine or find you a way to conduct illegal business with North Korea, would you say “go ahead” simply based on the idea that it could be done?
We ask people this question fairly often when they ask us to get bank account information of
GPS trackers are among the hottest topics in ethics discussions today. At least, that is my impression after a series of ethics lectures I’ve given around the country based on my book, The Art of Fact Investigation.
We wrote three years ago about the need for caution before using one of these devices on
One of the most powerful tools a spouse had to monitor assets or other activities is to look at the shared computer of the spouse under investigation. We have written before in When You’re Allowed to Look Through Your Debtor’s Computers and Phones that as long as a person can show ownership of the computer,
It happens at least twice a month: someone calls our office and asks us to obtain bank account information for another person – usually an estranged spouse.
We reply that without a court order, we are not entitled to know the account number, balance or transactions history of anyone’s account without the account holder’s permission.
You wouldn’t want to ask anyone to steal bank account information about your client’s spouse. You would never ask for the theft of that person’s medical records. You would not try to break into his office to take the computer on his desk to see his work email.
So why would you delight in using
Back in January, we posted a story about a Canadian investigative company whose owners, Michael Grontis, Cullen Johnson, and Elaine White, had fleeced their customers out of millions by promising to find assets hidden in offshore accounts. Instead, they created fraudulent bank records and passed them off as real. These crooked investigators’ work has surfaced
Revenge is a dish best served cold, so if you’re going to tape a spouse or significant other, be cool about how you do it.
Donald Sterling may yet hang on to his basketball team, and his (probably now former) girlfriend V. Stiviano may owe him $7.5 million in damages when this is all over.
PROBLEM:
You want to know what your debtor is hiding from you but you’re not sure if it’s okay for you to secretly look through your debtor’s phones and computers.
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SOLUTION:
Although privacy laws vary state by state, as a general rule, you should be more cautious than not in this territory. In New