Wired has the full details, including a breakdown of the defendants and associated judgments. Kind of a wimpy showing from the Feds if they expect to deter this type of conduct. NetworkWorld supplies the incredulity.

-- MDT

Labels: FTC, pretexting, private investigator

An indictment of Joseph Collins, Refco's lawyer for a decade, has been in the wind for some time. This week it became a reality.

While the murmurs about his own legal troubles swirled, Collins saw his firm, Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw become a class action lawsuit target brought by angry shareholders of the now defunct commodity trading firm.

Collins has plead not guilty to the 11-count indictment filed by U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which alleges securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy. A separate civil complaint from the SEC was also filed.

Check out further comment on the Collins case from Thomas O. Gorman at Porter, Wright's SEC Action blog. Bookmark the blog while you're there if you follow the SEC. Good stuff.

-- MDT

Labels: indictment, Joseph Collins, Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw, Refco

At least according to the Siemens company spokesman, you also indicated that the talks will be continuing. I bet they will... Meanwhile back at derr ranch, more housecleaning is planned through the start of '08.

-- MDT

Labels: bribery, SEC, Siemens

Apparently these are already conducted for many major sports leagues. An interesting story here from Rivals.com that delves into the reasons why. Check it out, sportsfans!

-- MDT

Really interesting stuff here from Conde Nast Portfolio (great magazine, even better website) on the movement of government spooks into the private sector. This article is an absolute must read.

Included in the piece is big coverage of the recent shenanigans at Wal-Mart along with name-checks of spy-heavy investigative outfits like Diligence LLC, GlobalOptions, Trident Group, Kroll and Business Intelligence Advisors.

You'll see reference to many of the recent scandals that have been attached to these names (and covered in this space - click the tags below for past Daily Caveat coverage). You'll also get a bit of history on how spooks came to find their way into the private sector.

Again, highly, highly recommended reading...

Labels: BIA, CondeNast Portfolio, corporate espionage, Diligence LLC, GlobalOptions, Kroll, Trident Group

Read into that what you will about the current administration. While you're reading you might also want to factor in what we know about their documented hostility to FOIA.
Annual shredder budget graphage via Radar Magazine.

And, thematically, what better excuse could there be to bring back one of the post popular Daily Caveat posts of all time - Watch it Shred!

-- MDT

Labels: FOIA, shredding

The former partner at Milberg Weiss claims that the firm agreed to cover his legal bills subsequent to his guilty plea on the federal kickback case pending against the firm. Schulman has also sued Bill Lerach's former spin-off firm, Coughlin Stoia. More from Peter Lattman at the WSJ Lawblog.

-- MDT

Labels: Coughlin Stoia, kickbacks, Lerach, Milberg Weiss, Steven Schulman

CSOonline. com - can't say I was previously familiar. But they have an interesting piece up today on the state of pretexting written by Joseph Burton and Gregory G. Iskander both of Duane Morris. Includes a review of the new federal law, a breakdown of the relevant state laws as well as a section on the "Implications for Corporate Investigators."

Check out Pretexting: The Legal Basics, Then and Now right here.

-- MDT

Labels: pretexting

Apparently Hannes Apitzsch was tainted by scandal before he even got he seat warm. Meanwhile, Siemens and the SEC are planning a pow-wow, for today actually.

-- MDT

Labels: bribery, Hannes Apitzsch, SEC, Siemens

Using the "funeral" of Conrad Black as the venue. Required reading...

-- MDT

Labels: corporate investigation, Mark Dann, prosecution, prosecution guidelines, Stoneridge, sub-prime mortgage

Some advice on the subject from attorney John Gamble, a partner with Fisher & Phillips. Via Law.com

-- MDT

Labels: mcnulty memo, prosecution, United States v. Stein

Of the U.S. suit at least, without admitting any wrongdoing and with no liability. A parallel Canadian suit is still pending, but the company claims to have that just about resolved as well.

Labels: Biovail, class action, securities, settlement

Moscow, this time.

-- MDT

Labels: bribery, Russia, Siemens

As I might have mentioned in this pace previously, some of my earliest investigative works was related to historical art theft. Those archival skills came in hand at the time and that world - theft, counterfeiting, reparations, etc. as fascinated me ever since. If the same is true for you, no doubt you'll enjoy this piece from The Independent.

-- MDT

Labels: art theft, counterfeiting

Investigators from Washington, California, Oregon, Texas and New York are all involved in this pretexting mess:

Emilio Torrella, BNT Investigations, Washington State
Brandy Torella, BNT Investigations, Washington State
Steve Berwick, BNT Investigations, Washington State
Victoria Tade, C.I., Inc., California
Megan Ososke, P.I. and Information Services, Oregon
Robert Grieve, Robert Greive International, Texas
Ziad Sakhleh, Robert Greive International, Texas
Darci Templeton, sole proprietor, Texas
Patrick Bombino, AAA Allstate Investigations, New York
Esau Pinto, AAA Allstate Investigations, New York

Primaries and subcontractors are both represented here... It seems pretty clear that in the wake of the HP publicity one step removed isn't going to be a helpful buffer when it comes to pretexting / ID theft-related allegations.

And that's a good thing. This kind of conduct is an insult to the investigative process - whereby legitimately obtained public records and source interviews produce actionable information on behalf of clients.

Check out the comments from Wired's information security blog right here and don't miss the link to the full indictment, (filed in the Western District of Washington State) which should make for interesting reading.

-- MDT

Labels: indictment, pretexting, private investigator

Check out the Houston Chronicle for details.

-- MDT

Labels: Darci Paulette Templeton, Robert Grieve, Robert Grieve International, Ziad N. Sakhleh

SoxFirst has the update, as well as word on that Siemens / Nigera business.

-- MDT

Labels: BAE, Nigeria, Siemens

Here's a break-down of the full FIA report from someone who cares about racing a whole lot more than I do.

-- MDT

Labels: Kroll

Details via AFX.

And as always, background via the tags below.

-- MDT

Labels: Conrad Black, Fraud

If you're in the market.

-- MDT

Labels: jobs, Kroll

How did I miss these guys over the last year? Investigators writing for investigators - and not badly, at that.

Give'em a look.

-- MDT

Labels: Blog, McEachin and Associates

Add wire fraud to the $250 million fraud tab of former executives at International Outsourcing Solutions, the largest coupon company in the U.S. The alleged fraudsters are facing somewhere in the neighborhood of 525 years in prison if convicted. Those kitty litter coupons really add up, right? Get the latest details on the case via Yahoo.

-- MDT

Labels: FBI, Fraud, International Outsourcing Solutions

MF Global, the NY based hedge fund offering from the Man Group has agreed to pay $75 million to settle charges that the fund helped to hide the $180 million Philadelphia Alternative Asset Management (PAAM) hedge fund fraud (in which founder Paul Eustace was recently charged). The CTFC shut down PAAM in 2005 for hiding its own losses from investors.

-- MDT

Labels: CTFC, Fraud, hedge fund, Man Financial, Man Group, MF Global, PAAM

Details via The Daily Intelligencer.

-- MDT

Labels: ING, insider trading, Morgan Stanley

ExecutiveAction is the new shop from Neil Livingstone, founder of Global Options, an investigative firm he split from in 2006 in a very nasty and public manner. Mother Jones has the humerous/scary details on a recent ExecutiveAction press release concerning deadly spores.

-- MDT

Labels: ExecutiveAction, GlobalOptions, Neil C. Livingstone

This quagmire seems to get nothing but deeper...

The Diligence / IPOC story is a convoluted one, but at the meat of it are two Diligence investigators who apparently pretended to be British Intelligence operatives in order to pump KPMG emplyees for information on an onging money lanudering investigation into the Bermuda based, Russia connected IPOC International Growth Fund.

Diligence was subsequently sued by KPMG alleging bribery, deception, and computer hacking. Diligence was also sued separately by law firm, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, their apparent client in this mess. BG&R had reportedly hired Diligence on behalf of the Alfa Group, an entity competing against IPOC for control of lucrative Russian telecom business.

Meanwhile, a lawyer representing IPOC made claims that another investigative firm, Kroll, had broken into the email of Bermuda law firm, Wakefield Quin, seeking data on the matter. While this claim was ultimately unsubstantiated, Kroll WAS also active in the matter - not in Bermuda, but rather in Europe.

Kroll's IPOC involvement was confirmed by the chair of a Geneva audit panel charged with making decisions about whether IPOC or the competing Alfa Consortium would end up with the rich prize of OAO MegaFon telecom shares - worth about $2.5 billion (and you wondered what all the fuss was about...). Kroll is (was? - need to check on this) currently under investigation by Russian authorities due to their activities in the case.

But I digress. Back to the (relative) here and now. Let's let Law.com do the talking:

Diligence’s problems began in earnest in September 2005. Court documents show that the company accused its then-chief financial officer, Igor Alexeev, of stealing internal documents, directing employees to erase data from Diligence computers, and encouraging workers to leave the company. Nick Day, Diligence’s CEO, fired Alexeev on Sept. 28.

Weeks later, a sheaf of Diligence e-mails appeared at the offices of accounting firm KPMG in Montvale, N.J. The messages detailed an operation straight out of a John le Carré novel. (The document drop and details of the operation were first reported by BusinessWeek in February.)

Posing as British and American intelligence agents, Diligence operatives infiltrated a KPMG office in Bermuda, according to court papers. The goal: to get their hands on a draft audit KPMG had conducted on IPOC International Growth Fund.

The audit contained potentially damaging financial information that could be used against IPOC in a high-stakes fight over control of Megafon, a $1.5 billion Russian telecom.

Diligence had been hired by Barbour Griffith, which, in turn, had been hired by Alfa Group Consortium, a Russian conglomerate, to turn up dirt on IPOC. Alfa was also battling for Megafon and would later use the information from the audit against IPOC in an arbitration over Megafon’s ownership.

Officials at Diligence were virtually certain, according to media reports, that Alexeev had burned their investigation and tipped off KPMG. Claims and counter claims were filed between Diligence and Alexee and the whole thing turn ten shades of ugly, even as the ramifications of Alexeev's alleged leaks took their toll on the company.

Currently the whole mess is in arbitration, which is where the story takes another interesting turn...

Lawyers for Diligence have subpoenaed any communications between Alexeev and Terry Lenzner, head of the DC-based Investigative Group International. The material turned over so far suggests that Winston & Strawn hired IGI to assist in IPOC’s lawsuit against Diligence. Well slap my face and call me Aunt Sally... Beat that for your scandal dollar: Diligence, Kroll and IGI all wrapped up in one tangled international mess.

Check out the full Legal Times article for expanded details. There is also a load of past reportage relating to IPOC available via the TAGS below.

-- MDT

Labels: Alfa, corporate scandal, Diligence LLC, Investigative Group International, IPOC, Kroll

This was The Daily Caveat's first weekend of stacked back-to-back holiday parties. We had two-a-days both Friday and Saturday and let me tell you, doing these things is tiring under normal circumstances, but much more so with an infant in tow. So please forgive the lazy presentation of the following:

Samsung Investigation to Reshape Korean Business

Newsday Checks in on the Enron Big Fish

Free E-Book - The Encyclopedia of While Collar Crime

RUDY Running Afoul of FCPA?

Mississippi Tort Star Dickie Scruggs Indicted

There, that should keep you busy till I can get my head together.

-- MDT

Labels: Half-Assing it on a Mnday