Due Diligence
An asset based commercial loan valued at $22million was approved by a national bank pending a due diligence investigation. Site visits during the due diligence investigation revealed irregularities in one of the New York office locations at the same address as a restaurant bar. Other businesses associated with the restaurant linked the owners to the parent company of the loan applicant. The owners were investigated and the investigation revealed a previous Federal racketeering charge (RICO) against one of the principals of the parent company.

Details of the case revealed that the individual’s business partner had contracted cancer and was undergoing treatment. During the partner’s recovery, the subject assured his partner’s wife he would take care of his business interests until he was able to return. The investigation revealed that the subject had sold the assets of the business and that only a shell corporation existed. The partner died and his wife requested her husband’s portion of the business, which proved to be worthless. She filed a RICO complaint in Federal Civil Court which is still in litigation. As a result of the investigation, the client withdrew the loan offer and now conducts extensive due diligence investigations on every asset based loan.

Background Investigations
A pre-employment background investigation could have saved one client hundreds of thousands of dollars. The client hired a Vice President of Operations based on references alone. 12 months after the employee was hired; he was offered an equity position in the company. He accepted and signed the agreement. Later that month he had an accident on a work site on company time which no one observed. He went on workers’ compensation leave, where he remains over a year later. He is receiving a six figure income and still has an equity stake in the company. The client became embroiled in costly litigation of this matter and has spent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees as a result.

The client requested a background investigation for the purposes of conducting the litigation. The background investigation revealed a Federal criminal record for attempted fraud, a previous workers’ compensation claim, one Federal bankruptcy and eighteen civil lawsuits related to non payment of debt and contract disputes, three of which were related to former employers. The client remains in litigation which has cost the company significant resources, time and money. This would have been avoided if the client had conducted a pre-employment background investigation prior to hiring the individual.

Intellectual Property Investigations
A client learned that pirated software was being sold in the US though a company in Rhode Island which was registered as a Delaware corporation. The client requested an investigation be conducted to identify the source. All they had was an old invoice as evidence.

The invoice for the software purchase was obtained which revealed a Rhode Island fax number at the top of the document. The investigation revealed the fax number was in fact forwarded to an electronic hub line in Las Vegas, which then automatically transmitted the fax in the form of an email to an email account. The investigation revealed the billing address for the fax line was a company in London which was determined to be the registered agent on record with the Delaware Secretary of State for the Rhode Island company.

Undercover contact through the email address revealed the source was a company in Croatia, which was also the parent company of the London business which paid the Las Vegas fax line invoice. The investigation revealed the identity of the manufacturer and the client proceeded with international litigation to cease and desist operation and distribution of the counterfeit software.

Computer Forensics
A computer forensic investigation was requested by a client who suspected a senior executive at a manufacturing facility of diverting business and receiving kickbacks. The client had received reports that the executive was sending ten percent of the company’s business to a company in which he had a personal vested interest and that he was receiving a financial kickback from another vendor. Initial investigation did not reveal any corporate affiliation between the executive and any of their vendors.

A forensic investigation of the executive’s hard drive was then conducted. The investigation revealed two significant documents which were never actually copied to the hard drive of the computer but were printed from floppy disks straight to the printer. Their information was recorded on the printer spools. One was a graphic layout for the letterhead of a company on the vendor list, which suggested that the executive may have been involved in the formation of the company. The second was a spreadsheet identifying a breakdown of which jobs were going to which vendor and the percentage of “fees”.

A sting was set for the executive with mobile surveillance investigators with video cameras. The executive was videotaped as he picked up orders from a client’s facility and then drove directly to the company in which he had a vested interest. He was videotaped taking work orders and pertinent client materials into the facility and returning to his vehicle empty handed. He was interviewed and ultimately confessed to diverting business and accepting kickbacks.

Handwriting Analysis
A handwritten death threat was received by a Connecticut CEO but the writing was disguised and written in block capitals. Forensic investigators microscopically examined the indentations on the document which revealed handwriting indentations which appeared to be writing on a check written to a leading insurance company (the author had written the check on top of the paper and the indentations were made on the death threat document). The amount of the check was legible and we coordinated with the insurance company to identify checks from Connecticut residents in that amount. Eight checks were identified. Database profile research determined that one of the eight was written by a person whose significant other worked for our client. Interviews were arranged at the employee’s place of business and the employee confessed to writing what he stated was a “joke”. He offered his resignation from the company, which was accepted.

Surveillance Investigations
Mobile field surveillance consistently reveals theft, fraud, insurance fraud and domestic infidelities. A fraud investigation involved a driver for a retail store who drove produce from Atlanta, GA to numerous retail locations in Connecticut. Every week, each delivery at each store would be missing just one or two items out of shipments of 500 and 1000 garments. The shrinkage levels at each location were so small that they were not often reported or investigated. After two years, stores in the route reported an increase in missing garments. Investigators conducted mobile surveillance on the driver over a three week period during every delivery on the entire Connecticut route. Every stop was identified and recorded on video.

The surveillance revealed the driver would meet with three relatives on his route in Connecticut and would hand them a bag containing merchandise, which he had carefully removed from each delivery. Investigators followed the relatives as they went to a storage facility where they presumably stored the products each week. With sufficient video evidence, the police obtained a search warrant and reveled over $120,000 of the client’s products in the storage facility. The driver confessed to stealing products to the value of $5,000 per week at his peek and was arrested. The company had not performed a criminal background check on the driver prior to hiring him. If they had done so, they would have learned that the driver had a criminal conviction record in Florida for second degree larceny for a similar violation.

Voice Analysis
A threatening voicemail was received by a CEO attempting to take her company though a sensitive hostile takeover. She stated she had previously received several a similar call but could not identify the source. She believed the person was involved in Information Technology (IT) by some of the statements made in an earlier conversation. Using spectrographic analysis, our specialists compared the threatening voicemail message against voicemail recorded absentee messages of the IT department employees. (There were no rights to privacy of those recorded messages as maintained and stated in the company’s Electronic Monitoring Policy). A positive match was identified and the individual was interviewed. A confession was not forthcoming but the individual immediately resigned without recourse to the client.

Undercover Investigations
Having managed over one hundred commercial undercover investigations, one is rarely surprised by the findings. Undercover investigations have revealed heroin and cocaine sales, theft, abuse, embezzlement, discrimination and violence in the workplace. One undercover investigation was requested by a client whose Food and Beverage Director was accused of sexual harassment by female staff. The CEO had received three letters from female staff complaining about the Director in graphic terms.

A female undercover agent was placed at the client’s facility for three months. The investigation in fact revealed that another manager who wanted the food and beverage Director’s job had created a “harem” of female waitresses at the facility. The manager had formed a sex ring in the hotel and acting as their pimp, providing the females with drugs and money in return. He also wrote the letters to the CEO on the waitresses' behalf and had them sign the letters. The investigation revealed the Food and Beverage Director was innocent of sexual harassment. The sex ring was broken, the waitresses were fired and the manager faced criminal charges.

Fingerprint Analysis
An expensive robotic mechanism was stolen from a manufacturer of high-end computer hardware. The only way to access and remove the mechanism was to dismantle the housing unit. We took fingerprint samples of the housing unit and located four different fingerprints. Fingerprint samples were taken of employees with authorization to remove the housing and three of the prints were identified and eliminated from consideration. The one remaining print belonged to someone without authorization to access the unit. There were only two other employees who worked in the area. During interviews with the two employees, one of them broke down and confessed to removing the mechanism. He returned the unit and submitted his resignation. In return the client did not file a criminal complaint.

Internet Fraud
One retail client located several of its store gift cards on sale at various Internet auction sites. The gift cards were for irregular amounts such as $87.65 and not $100.00, which suggested that they were refund credits. Investigators tracked all Internet gift card sales for a one month period and began purchasing cards using undercover pre-established names, identities, email addresses, accounts and mailing addresses. An undercover relationship was established with the sellers and their presumed anonymity was uncovered. The investigation revealed a ring of store employees in Florida generating and selling false refund gift cards. Federal criminal charges were successfully brought against the individuals.

DNA Analysis
Vicious hate mail was received by a private client. The letters contained threats, vulgarities and disgusting items. The letters were typed and photocopied and had been handled by many people, eliminating handwriting and fingerprint analysis as an investigative option. We sent the envelope to our Forensic lab for DNA analysis which revealed a DNA profile, obtained from the saliva in the licked portion of the envelope. The client was convinced the author was a relative of his. At a dinner party he held, the client obtained a cigarette end, a glass and a bottle, each of which had been used by the three leading candidates. The DNA profile obtained from the cigarette end matched the profile obtained from the envelope. This information was reported to the client for his private use.

Videography
A major personal injury case was filed against the parent company of a facility which was going out of business. A walkthrough by the lawyers involved had to be initiated before the facility was closed and the equipment was sold off at auction. The event had to be recorded in intense detail for future litigation. Our Emmy award winning videographic team videotaped the event, which was conducted by our client, a leading law firm. Many other attorneys and interested parties attended the walkthrough. The quality of our raw and edited production video was universally deemed to be so high that numerous copies were requested and further walkthroughs were not necessary.

Covert Cameras
We have installed covert cameras in corporations, businesses, hotels and offices throughout the Northeast. The saddest event occurred when the owner of a successful family meat business was losing boxes of filet mignon every other week. A covert camera was installed in a smoke detector outside the freezer entrance. During the next three weeks, an individual was recorded twice removing boxes of meat without authorization. Review of the tape revealed that the thief was a person who had worked for our client for 26 years and was the Production Manager at the company. The owner had paid for the employee’s son to go to college and was devastated with these results.

Macro Photography
An Italian men’s clothing manufacturer had obtained counterfeit copies of their suits in New York. The copies were of high quality and even to the trained eye, the source of the manufacturing process used could not be determined. Our technicians obtained samples of the fabric and the labels and photographed them using laboratory grade high-end cameras with Macro lenses. The incredibly high detailed macro photographs were forwarded to a thread expert in the industry. The analysis revealed that the labels were produced using a unique process to which the expert was familiar. The client and the expert were able to identify the manufacturer of the labels and an international criminal and civil litigation case was initiated

Artus Group, Inc.