In a recent article for Claims Management, Beacon CEO Mike Orchard explains five common misconceptions involving criminal background searches — and what you need to know to avoid costly mistakes when conducting a criminal record search.

He observes: “Whether the criminal search is conducted by an internal special investigations unit (SIU) or an outside firm, there are a number of pitfalls to avoid when managing or contracting these kinds of investigations. Even experienced claims managers will be hard-pressed to interpret correctly the results of an incomplete, ambiguous, or contradictory work product. Faulty assumptions can lead to costly mistakes for insurers.”

Mike Orchard is president and CEO of Beacon Investigative Solutions, a national investigation agency with headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. Beacon specializes in surveillance, criminal background investigations, and corporate investigations. Beacon is licensed in 45 states and Washington, D.C. Mike can be reached at morchard@beaconinvestigation.com or 800-535-2136.

Federal charges of child exploitation have been filed against 32-year-old Ryan Stevenson of Lansing, MI, who was arrested in August 2014, following an investigation by Beacon Investigative Solutions.

Stevenson has been indicted by a federal Grand Jury and he remains incarcerated, pending trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. He has been charged with (1) Coercion and Enticement; (2) Receipt of Child Pornography; and (3) Possession of Child Pornography.

“On behalf of our clients, I want to express our deep and sincere gratitude to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI for immediately recognizing the threat posed by this child predator, and moving as efficiently as possible to bring him to justice,” said Mike Orchard, President and CEO of Beacon. “The fast response and diligent coordination by federal law enforcement in this case led to the safe return of our client’s daughter. Our clients could not be happier with the outcome.”

Beacon was retained by the parents of one of Stevenson’s victims in July 2014. An intensive investigation was conducted with a focus on computer forensics and surveillance. Beacon’s investigators also conducted an in-depth background investigation that yielded compelling evidence regarding Stevenson’s online and business activities.

Extensive research revealed Stevenson had been attempting to solicit underage girls on the Internet during the past 10 years. In comments posted online under various aliases, Stevenson referred to himself as a “sexslavetrainer,” “sex addict,” “perv” and “crazypsychorapist” and made explicit statements regarding sexual activities with underage girls.

Stevenson owns a Lansing company that sells Taser weapons, and he also established an adult-services company, Masters Empire Inc., which purportedly “specializes in erotic arts and photography in Michigan and nationwide.”

Upon completion of a comprehensive 200-page investigative report, Beacon contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan, and briefed the Assistant U.S. Attorney on the findings. Beacon also coordinated directly with Special Agents of the FBI. A search warrant was executed, and the subject was promptly arrested.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, if convicted, Stevenson faces a mandatory minimum of at least 15 years.

About Beacon: Beacon Investigative Solutions is a full-service private investigation firm licensed in more than 40 states and Washington, D.C. Beacon conducts criminal, civil and financial investigations for private, corporate, government and legal clients. To discuss a potential investigation, please contact our corporate offices at 800-535-2136. You can also contact President Mike Orchard at morchard@beaconinvestigation.com.

In a recent article for Property Casualty 360, Beacon CEO Mike Orchard explains how young “millennial” fraudsters are utilizing new technology to commit fraud and other cyber-crimes — and how they have learned to cover their tracks online to remain anonymous.

He observes: “Young people are no more corrupt than baby boomers, but the younger generation has far more advanced technical skills than the greying population and some are using those talents to commit criminal acts.”

It can be difficult for insurance executives and security professionals to keep pace with the constant push of emerging technologies, and their role in an expanding digital black market. Yet while young, tech-savvy fraudsters may be quick to adopt the latest online and mobile tools — from web anonymizers to digital currencies to encrypted communications — they can also be caught with diligent investigative work that mixes both computer forensics and standard fraud investigation practices.

Read the entire article here.

Mike Orchard is president and CEO of Beacon Investigative Solutions, a national investigation agency with headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. Beacon specializes in fraud investigations, surveillance, background and corporate investigations. Beacon is licensed in 45 states and Washington, D.C. Mike can be reached at morchard@beaconinvestigation.com or 800-535-2136.

Beacon has conducted multiple investigations in the past six months for clients who were victims of phishing attacks that utilized the “Google Docs” platform as a ploy to persuade victims to provide password and sign-in credentials for their email accounts.

The phishing attacks were followed by bank and wire fraud, resulting in serious financial repercussions for our clients.

The attacks were initiated when the victims received emails from a friend or close associate, whose accounts had already been hacked without their knowledge. The text of those emails differed in specifics, but the basic message was as follows:

Dear John, I tried to send this document to you before. Did you receive it? VIEW HERE and sign on with your email to access it on Google.doc. Then get back to me so we can discuss! Regards, Jim

Recipients of the phishing email who clicked on the “VIEW HERE” link (which has been disabled in this post) are redirected to a website controlled by the fraudsters, which mimics a legitimate-seeming sign-in screen for Google Docs. The recipients are asked to “sign in” to their email account to receive access to the purported Google Docs. (Needless to say, the Google Docs either don’t exist, or are entirely blank.)

As soon as the victims submit their password at that site, their email accounts — and all the personal and financial information they contain — are compromised.

The attackers immediately access and search their victims’ email accounts for bank accounts and related financial information. They then use that information to make unauthorized wire transfers and ATM withdrawals. Posing as the victims, they send email instructions to the victim’s own bankers, accountants, and investment advisors, instructing them to transfer the funds to various foreign and domestic accounts.

After draining all available cash and assets, the fraudsters then use their victim’s hacked email accounts to send more phishing emails to all of the victim’s personal contacts. The victim’s friends, family and coworkers receive emails supposedly from the victim — asking them to click on the link and sign into Google Docs. And the process begins all over again.

This is a global exploit with many copycats. Our forensic specialists and financial investigators tracked leads in Singapore, India, Switzerland and South Dakota. We followed a trail of hacked servers, phony emails, and ghost financial accounts. Hackers working abroad are facilitated by local criminal associates in each country who facilitate the cash withdrawals.

“Google Docs has been used to distribute malware in the past. Now it is increasingly being used as a lure for phishing,” observed Larry Seltzer at ZDNet in November 2013.

When an email appears to come from a trusted source, and has not been red-flagged by antivirus software or spam filters, most people — even trained security professionals — will often click without hesitation. We recently discovered that a similar attack had duped other private investigators in the popular “PI Cases” user group on Yahoo!

These phishing attacks are a very simple, and very persuasive, form of fraud. For victims, unfortunately, the recovery of stolen funds can be exceedingly difficult because local law enforcement agencies are rarely equipped to investigate schemes that cross numerous international borders. Moreover, the “ghost accounts” controlled by the fraudsters are often established under stolen identities at smaller regional banks and credit unions, or in foreign countries, where internal fraud departments may lack the institutional resources to identify and pursue the perpetrators. In light of these facts, we expect we will be investigating many more of these types of attacks in the months ahead.

About Beacon: Beacon Investigative Solutions is a full-service investigative agency licensed in 45 states and Washington, D.C. We provide investigative services for private clients, major corporations, law firms, insurers, investors, and government agencies.

Beacon Investigative Solutions is pleased to announce that one of our business clients in South Dakota recently obtained a $775,000 summary judgment for tortious interference, in a decision that was supported by evidence obtained during our investigation of the defendant.

While business owners and executives may expect that a successful investigation for tortious interference, defamation and disparagement could potentially cost thousands of dollars, experienced private investigators are capable of delivering cost-effective results. The total bill for our services was equivalent to only three hours of investigative time. Clearly, our client made a smart investment. He also significantly increased the odds of a successful outcome by collecting all necessary evidence before filing suit.

Beacon was retained in December 2010 by the principal of a pest control and exterminator service firm in Rapid City, SD. Our client’s older brother owned and operated a competing company in the same market, and had reportedly been making false statements about our client’s firm.

One of our senior investigators contacted the competing firm, and over a period of time developed the confidence of its owner, who made numerous disparaging statements about our client and his firm. These comments were recorded and documented in accordance with applicable laws and rules of evidence.

Our client subsequently filed suit in the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court of Pennington County, SD (All Seasons Pest Control Co. et al. v. Michael Williams; case #CIV 11-46).

Facts obtained during our investigation and interview of the defendant were presented to the court. The judge found in favor of plaintiff, awarding damages of $250,000, plus punitive damages of $500,000.

About Beacon: Beacon Investigative Solutions is a full-service investigative agency licensed in 45 states and Washington, D.C. We provide investigative services for major corporations, law firms, insurers, investors, and government agencies. 

In a recent article for Consumer Law Magazine, Beacon CEO Mike Orchard discusses what business owners should do to ensure that holiday cheer does not turn into trouble — as well as important steps to take if any there are any employee incidents that create potential liability for the company.

He observes: “By implementing a plan to deal with any issues that could affect the reputation and working environment of your company, you enhance your corporate culture and provide a safe working environment for all your staff.”

Read the entire article here.

Mike Orchard is president and CEO of Beacon Investigative Solutions, a national investigation agency with headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. Beacon specializes in surveillance, background investigations, and corporate investigations, including employee misconduct. Beacon is licensed in 45 states and Washington, D.C. Mike can be reached at morchard@beaconinvestigation.com or 800-535-2136.

Corporate America has become a frontline for foreign espionage. Yet executives, inside counsel, corporate investigators and security professionals seeking to protect their company’s proprietary information may find there are more immediate threats — much closer to home — to their enterprise and its competitive edge.

Corporate strategy, R&D, financials, and operational data may all be, to some degree, chapters of an open book. Major competitors – not covert spies or Chinese hackers – are the ones most likely to flip through the pages.

Read the complete article by Beacon director John Powers at TheLawInsider.com.

About the Author: John Powers is director of Beacon Investigative Solutions and co-founder of Beacon Strategic Advisors. He has been featured in AOL Money & Finance, Huffington Post, Competitive Intelligence Magazine, and The Legal Investigator. Contact him at jpowers@beaconinvestigation.com or follow him on Google+ and @JohnPowersPI.

About Beacon: Beacon Investigative Solutions is a national private investigation agency that conducts high-level investigations for corporations, law firms, private clients and government agencies. Beacon also advises on competitive intelligence and trade secret protection through its consulting division, Beacon Strategic Advisors.

Many eyebrows were raised by the disclosures of Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old former NSA contractor who revealed details on top-secret U.S. domestic surveillance programs before fleeing to Hong Kong and Russia.  Mike Orchard, CEO of Beacon Investigative Solutions, considers the impact of these programs — and the plight of Snowden himself — from the perspective of a private investigator, in a guest blog for The Law Insider.

He observes: “One of the most conspicuous aspects of this national intelligence fiasco is the colossal failure of the background investigation conducted on Snowden, a high school dropout who was granted ‘nearly unlimited access to America’s intelligence secrets.'”

Read the entire article here.

Mike Orchard is president and CEO of Beacon Investigative Solutions, a national investigation agency with headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.  Specializing in surveillance and background investigations, Beacon is licensed in 45 states and Washington, D.C. Mike can be reached at morchard@beaconinvestigation.com or 800-535-2136.

 

The Role of Credit History in an Asset Search…

Credit history plays a critical role in any comprehensive asset search. Identifying the current debts of consumers or businesses is often a starting point for identifying active banking and lending relationships. It can also be a highly valuable took for evaluating the subject’s overall financial health, and adjusting strategies and expectations accordingly.

Certain criteria must be met before a consumer report can be legally obtained from one the credit bureaus, such as Transunion, Experian or Equifax, as outlined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Permissible purposes include collection of a civil judgment, risk evaluations by insurers, investor due diligence and other legitimate business needs involving transactions initiated by the consumer.

Credit reports contain an overview of consumer credit cards, charge cards, car loans, credit lines, collection accounts, and mortgages, as well as their current status and payment history. This information often contains valuable leads for identifying the subject’s active banking relationships, which is a separate but related process.

For corporations and small businesses, credit reports will contain a generalized overview of credit accounts and supplier payments, as well as an assessment of the entity’s financial stress and delinquency risk. Revenue figures may also be provided for both public and private firms. However, when audited financial statements are not available, the revenue data is sometimes estimated based on proprietary formulas that consider factors such as the company’s size and specific industry (NAICS/SIC) and may therefore be widely off the mark. In other situations, company financials are self-reported by company principals, and may be unreliable. It is important to closely review any caveats and the sources cited for all revenue figures provided in these reports, and when practicable, obtain independent confirmation of the data.

If the subject of the investigation is an individual, but the nature of the case is not covered by any FCRA permissible purpose, then it is not possible to obtain an authorized copy of a consumer credit report directly from one of the bureaus. Fortunately, there are other investigative avenues that can yield valuable details on credit history.

Tax liens, bankruptcies, mortgages, evictions, foreclosures, collection suits, and other kinds of civil litigation are all public records. Recent civil suits and judgments against the subject should be closely reviewed for any garnishment filings that identify bank accounts and employers. Divorce suits also may divulge previously undisclosed assets. Commercial litigation may contain other significant details, such as ownership interest in closely held entities, intellectual property, affiliates and subsidiaries.

Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) financing statements are another area for research. UCC filings are public records that memorialize a secured loan, and they typically list the personal or business property that is being posted as collateral, which could be racehorses, crops, aircraft, copyrights, patents or trademarks.

My firm recently completed an asset search for a client who had a mid-six-figure judgment against an individual. Early in the process, we provided a credit overview of the subject that was overwhelmingly negative, containing numerous collections and charge-offs, a delinquent mortgage destined for foreclosure, and a home equity line of credit that had been suspended for nonpayment. The subject had no active consumer credit lines remaining – not one open credit card! – having burned nearly every institution that ever lent him money. The one exception was the satisfactorily maintained loan on his $50,000 Lexus – which was not at all surprising, because appearances are paramount when you are scamming wealthy investors.

The subject’s fraud against our client – which had resulted in a sizable judgment – was already proof this person had no sense of financial responsibility. What we did not know until we reviewed his credit history was that he also had no financial planning or self-preservation, which is quite common in fraud cases.

Within two weeks we had identified five active financial accounts for the subject, both investment and banking accounts. At least one account was overdrawn and the others had minimal balances. Evidently, the money he bilked from our client was long gone. If we had been retained to check his credit profile before the deal was completed – which is a service we provide when conducting corporate and financial due diligence – our client’s investment would most likely never have never been made. Or lost.

Beacon has identified more than $50 million in personal and business assets for our clients in the past two years. Knowing how to legally obtain and critically interpret a subject’s credit history is a small – but essential – part of that process.

About the Author: John Powers is director of Beacon Investigative Solutions. His articles on financial investigation and related matters have appeared in Huffington Post, AOL Money & Finance, Competitive Intelligence Magazine and The Legal Investigator. Email him at jpowers@beaconinvestigation.com or follow him on Google+ and at @JohnPowersPI.

About Beacon: Beacon Investigative Solutions conducts comprehensive asset discovery and financial background investigations for corporate clients, law firms, and government agencies.

Finding offshore funds — and the future of money laundering — are the focus of this article by Beacon director John Powers, published this week in Pursuit Magazine, a leading educational resource for professional investigators.

An overseas shift in banking laws has led to greater transparency at European banks, following investigations by U.S. prosecutors of British bank HSBC and Swiss institutions UBS and Wegelin & Co.

Despite their cooperation with law enforcement, gaining information from offshore institutions remains a challenge for many private investigators and compliance professionals. However, Swiss banks may no longer be the toughest accounts to crack. Global asset searches and financial investigations have grown more complex as criminals pursue new ways to launder their cash, including virtual currency exchanges.

Read the full article here.

About the Author: John Powers is director of Beacon Investigative Solutions. He has been featured in AOL Money & Finance, Huffington Post, Competitive Intelligence, and The Legal Investigator. Contact him at jpowers@beaconinvestigation.com or follow him on Google+ and @JohnPowersPI.

About Beacon: Beacon Investigative Solutions is a national private investigation agency that conducts asset searches and financial investigations for corporations, law firms, private clients and government agencies