We pretty regularly find ourselves blogging about small business owners that draw people into scams. We’ve seen the would-be movie executive, the sweet-talking investment solicitor, the landscaper and the produce company owner. Too often, we find that defrauded consumers and investors could have avoided their losses by doing some basic due diligence.
FINRA and Due Diligence: On-Site Checks Are Indispendible
Due diligence is all about following up on red flags, but if you don’t find them, there’s nothing on which to follow up.
Thus, our tireless refrain: turn over every piece of public record information you can about a person, and don’t leave it to others.
We were reminded of this by the story this
Would-Be Movie Studio Executive Charged in Multi-Million Dollar Scam
According to the Sacramento Bee, a would-be movie studio executive, Carissa Carpenter, pleaded not guilty last week to defrauding investors of at least $5 million during her failed 17-year attempt at creating a movie studio in Northern California. Over the 17-year period, she shifted 
the location of her planned studio several times. Her last
Is the Suzuki Violin Method Founder Really the Biggest Fraud in Musical History?
We recently blogged here about surprising facts we’d found when doing diligence on expert witnesses. We’ve looked into so many people and companies that we’re rarely taken aback when we find that someone left something off of a resume or lied about a degree. But sometimes we come across a news story that manages to
Expert witnesses: Does Anyone Ever Check These People Out?
We have been asked in recent months to look at an uncommonly large number of expert witnesses, both for clients thinking of hiring experts and by people checking out the other side’s experts.
What an eye-opener. Nearly half of these people turned out to have something in their backgrounds that would give someone pause before
“Nightmare Nanny” Refuses to Leave California Home
The story of the “nightmare nanny” who has refused to leave her employer’s home has been making waves all over the news. You’ve probably seen it by now— using Craigslist, Marcella and Ralph Bracamonte hired Diane Stretton as a nanny for their three children in exchange for room and board in their home. 
The couple
Europe’s Right to be Forgotten: Full Employment for Investigators
If anyone wondered what the practical side of Europe’s new Right to be Forgotten would turn out to be, here it is:
In less than a month since a court in the E.U. decided Google links were substantial information and could be scrubbed at the will of a judge, Google has received 40,000 requests to
TelexFree and the Need for Investor Due Diligence
“TelexFree is already creating MILLIONAIRES and now is YOUR turn.” So read the now defunct website of TelexFree Inc., which U.S. officials ordered to be taken down earlier this month. Massachusetts company TelexFree Inc. held itself out as a low-cost internet telephone company. In reality, its founders were allegedly running a billion dollar global
Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions: Discovering the Undiscovered
The Wall Street Journal published an article this week about corporate acquirers demanding protections in mergers against undiscovered criminal acts. It got us thinking about some of the investigations we do during due diligence, and how a relatively inexpensive investigation can ultimately save corporations millions of dollars down the road.
In an increasing number of
Due Diligence on Edward Snowden: Did Someone Blow It?
Plenty of news outlets are tracking hour by hour the efforts of Edward Snowden, the man who leaked highly confidential government documents obtained using top-secret security clearance, to find asylum from criminal charges in the U.S.
We do note, however, that there is an investigation into the firm that conducted the background check on Snowden