Recent Articles

What Greg Smith and Goldman Sachs Tell Us About Investigations

March 14, 2012 19:31

Former Goldman Sachs employee Greg Smith caused quite a stir when he took to the New York Times op-ed page to explain why he was leaving Goldman Sachs after 12 years. Smith, who the Times identified as a London-based executive director for Goldman heading the firm’s United States equity...

Prevent Corporate Identity Theft: A Consumer's Checklist

Philip Segal
March 07, 2012 15:30

A report on National Public Radio written up here outlines the problem: legitimate businesses are increasingly subject to identity theft. Businesses find imposters are misusing their credit ratings, while there’s serious risk that people are using exterminators, contractors and other...

The Putin Plot and Investigative Timelines

Philip Segal
February 29, 2012 20:13

We tell every new client the same thing: when we report on a person we investigate, chronology is critical. Take the New York Times story this week with the headline, “Plot to Kill Putin is Uncovered.” We rushed to read this because it sounds as if someone tried to kill the Russian...

Hiring Due Diligence Should Include an Attitude Check

February 24, 2012 16:42

If you’ve ever had to hire people, you know what a tough job that is. You know that you are making a decision that will have a profound impact on a number of people—not only on yourself and whoever you choose, but also on everyone in your company or organization that will have to...

Secret Lender Agents Make Asset Searches Harder

Philip Segal
February 15, 2012 20:18

It’s always nice to be able to know who has loaned people money. It helps in asset searches, of course, but we also like to call bankers in after-fraud investigations. Now getting to the identity of those lenders is about to get harder. Secured creditors have to put their customers on the...

Allen Stanford: Persistent Due Diligence Could Have Made a Difference

February 10, 2012 17:29

The Allen Stanford alleged Ponzi scheme case is currently before the courts after years of delays.  We are finally getting to hear from witnesses and co-conspirators about what they say were the lengths undertaken to defraud Stanford’s investors.  Given the magnitude of the alleged...

Background Checks for All: Lessons from the Alleged Archdiocese Theft

January 31, 2012 18:49

Anita Collins, an elderly woman working as an accounts payable clerk for the New York Archdiocese, was recently arrested for embezzling funds from the church.  That’s bad news for the archdiocese.  But the real black eye for the church is that the entire experience could have easily...

Forensic Investigations: Due Diligence Done Correctly

Philip Segal
January 27, 2012 17:00

What’s the difference between a forensic audit and a regular audit? We think we know the difference when we see it, but what is it?  The issue came up before a short talk I was giving to some accountants last week, and the answer was relevant to our fact-finding business. A regular...

New Employee Character Checks: A Gut Check is Not Enough

January 23, 2012 16:41

You have an opening in your company.  You get a slew of resumes for the position, you interview a number of candidates, and then you finally narrow it down to two people: One has experience that’s right on the mark, but during the interview you had glimpses of an attitude that might not...

Fire your accountant, financial advisor and lawyer too?

Philip Segal
January 16, 2012 17:14

A thought-provoking column in the Wall Street Journal here that argues in favor of routine changes of auditors got me thinking. If we should change our auditors on the grounds that they get too close to us and are afraid to displease us for fear of losing our business, why shouldn’t the same...