According to KRQE news in Albuquerque, New Mexico, landscaper Gary Mares was busted for fraud once again. This time, he solicited landscaping work on Craigslist, collected large sums of money for the jobs upfront, and then never performed the work. Previously, he was working as a landscaping subcontractor for a legitimate company, Milligan Scapes. According
Produce Company’s Owner Accused of Hiding Assets and Swindling Strawberry Company out of Millions
Last week, Curtis Harold DeBerry, owner of the Texas-based Progreso Produce Company, was arrested and accused of cheating investors, business partners and banks out of millions of 
dollars over the past few years. He now faces up to 30 years in prison.
According to the criminal complaint, DeBerry hid assets by transferring money to
We Told You So: Illegal Bank Records Update
Lo and behold, not four days after we wrote our last post on the illegality of obtaining bank records, a postcard appeared in our mailbox promising “statewide bank searches” for under $300. I was intrigued. I thought, maybe they know something we don’t and they’ve found a legal way to find banking information.
I decided
Why Bank Records Are Usually Off Limits to Investigators
Each week we receive calls from people, many of them attorneys, asking us if we can obtain bank records as part of our asset searching. The short answer is, though we probably can obtain 
the records, we absolutely will not. Obtaining bank records without a court order is illegal, unless they happen to be abandoned
U.S. Authorities Target Cayman Islands in Money Laundering Sting
According to the Wall Street Journal’s Marketwatch, last month, three wealth managers, Eric St-Cyr, Joshua VanDyk and Patrick Poulin were arrested in Miami and charged with money laundering and conspiracy to launder money on behalf of U.S. Clients. According to the indictment, St-Cyr
, VanDyk and Poulin worked together to conceal and launder wealthy
South Korean Authorities Search for Property Mogul’s Hidden Assets
In news from South Korea, prosecutors and tax authorities have started to uncover hidden assets held by Huh Jae-ho, former chairman of the now-bankrupt Daeju property empire, in an effort to levy the large fine he owes to the country. In 2010, Huh was convicted of tax evasion and embezzlement in South Korea and
Good Investigation Takes Time But There’s No Complex Formula
In case you thought the background check system relied on by the federal government was pretty much OK despite Edward Snowden’s passing grade, think again.
According to the Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general, complaints about investigators filing fraudulent or falsified records have led to 35 cases in fiscal 2013. There are 65 open and
Dealing with Russia: An Asset-Search Checklist
If it seems like a remote possibility that the U.S. will go to war over Ukraine, it’s much likelier that Washington will attempt to impose some form of sanctions, including asset freezes on Russian leaders and some of Russia’s richest individuals. Speculation about this is widespread, for instance in Reed Smith’s Global Regulatory Enforcement Blog
Screening Job Applicants: Old Test Results Are Relevant, but Fraud is Off-Limits?
When it comes to evaluating people, whether job applicants or potential investment partners, would you rather know how they did on a written test 15 years ago or whether they are trustworthy and good at their job today?
Both would be nice, but while the test results may be less valuable information, they can be
Scottish Boxing Promoter’s Mortgage Fraud Revealed in Divorce Documents
Scottish boxing promoter and former lightweight boxer Barry Hughes recently pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud and is now facing some lengthy jail time. Between 2004 and 2006, Hughes reported his wife’s income on two mortgage applications as upwards of £160,000 a year and obtained £1,287,9
55 in mortgage loans as a result. The trouble is