We live in a world with more data available to investigators than any other time in history so that should result in better investigations, right? Not necessarily according to a recent article in Government Computer News (GCN) which shows a more complete picture of big data’s role in investigations.

The story states that there’s a misconception that big data is the main thing that law enforcement needs for effective decision-making. Many also assume that big data is flawless and that more data means better data. In fact, big data used for law enforcement investigations and intelligence analysis is often contradictory, partial, biased, non-transparent or even manipulated. To make sense of big data, law enforcement agencies often use a decision intelligence platform for data fusion and analytics. But even that’s not enough.

Once the data analysis process begins, analysts must also determine if they have an intelligence gap. And how do they learn what they don’t know? Proven decision intelligence methodologies—based on critical thinking skills—are required to validate assumptions and make the best decisions with the intelligence at hand.

Law enforcement agencies gather big data for an investigation by bringing in more and different sources of data, both structured and unstructured. The amount of data and the process of sifting through it can be overwhelming, so the use of technology is imperative. Agencies can use data fusion to enable entity resolution from disconnected data sources and leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to enrich unstructured data for more effective, automated analytics that improve decision intelligence. AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) can also surface previously hidden relationships and patterns between individuals and/or entities; however, these applications are only part of the solution.

On its own, ML is not useful. ML requires human expertise to learn and generate better insights. While it makes sense to apply ML to big data to accelerate decision-making and to find similarities, commonalities and patterns, analysts must still examine the suspicious patterns or irregularities found and what they may indicate. It is a best practice to apply critical-thinking methodologies after uncovering those unique data points that analysts seek. Machine learning should never replace law enforcement analysts. Rather, analysts benefit from the accelerated insights machine learning provides, and then the ML algorithms learn from the analysts’ know-how and experience as inputs.

There are two concepts in critical thinking that reveal the challenges analysts face: failure of imagination and failure of conception. With failure of imagination, analysts have trouble imagining things that they haven’t previously experienced. One example of this is the United States’ inability to imagine a world without the Soviet Union. Despite all the economic and political indicators that pointed to the Soviet Union’s collapse, it remained inconceivable to most. A more recent example is the United States’ failure to predict the rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan prior to the final withdrawal of American troops, along with the (incorrect) assessment that the Afghan military and government would be able to maintain control of the country.

Failure of conception is the inability to accept data that conflicts with beliefs and past experiences. The 9/11 attacks are an example of this because many in the U.S. intelligence community believed that terrorism was not a domestic issue—despite those same intelligence organizations knowing that there were foreign nationals learning to fly planes but uninterested in learning how to land. In addition, the intelligence community’s experience was that all of Osama bin Laden’s previous attacks were outside the U.S.

It can be difficult to decide which methodologies are best suited to an investigation and to then work through them. Experts in decision intelligence methodologies can guide law enforcement agencies to make the most of their big data, data fusion and analytics. They can assist in testing assumptions and looking at the data and insights from different angles, all to ensure the best outcomes in investigations.

So we see that big data can’t solve everything and human skills will still be needed to conduct proper investigations. And as we know, success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will ensure you know everything to make the right decisions and maximize the settlement process or win your case in court!

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Texas Tech Chancellor Announces New Background Check Policy for Foreign Students

The old proverb goes “A chain is no stronger than its weakest link…” And that is also the case when trying to protect university level lab intellectual property from the prying eyes of foreign governments.

In a CBS News report, the Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System, Dr. Tedd Mitchell, announced that his university will continue to conduct background checks on foreign students /researchers embedded in their labs for over six months. And, added, they will now also do background screening for those visiting their university for only a few weeks at a time.

As he stated in the CBS interview, “[T]hat’s the whole problem with this is when you have folks that are embedded in your labs, we don’t know exactly what all is being lost.”

“They come in there literally just a week or two,” Mitchell said. “Historically, we’ve not done background checks on those folks. We are starting to do that now to make sure that if somebody’s coming to our campus, even if it’s for a short period of time, that we know where they’re from, we know whether or not they’re being financed by government agencies elsewhere.”

The CBS News report does not go into the depth of the background screening, except to say that the university wants to know what, if any foreign governments are financing the foreign visitors’ work.

Knowing is half the battle. Background checks and investigations done correctly are VERY important when protecting valuable IP. And success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process definitely depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will make sure you know everything to make the right decisions as well as maximizing the settlement process or winning your case in court!

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Airbnb Criminal Background Check Policy Sparks Consumer Backlash

Bethany Hallam has made no secret about her past struggles with drug addiction. She ran for her current seat on the Allegheny County Council in Pennsylvania on a platform of improving the county’s jail and public transportation system because she’d spent time in that jail and lost her driver’s license for a time.

So, she was confused in September when she attempted to book a short-term stay in Florida through Airbnb – something she’d successfully done many times in the last six years – only to have her reservation canceled and her account banned because of a past criminal conviction discovered on a background check.

“My background has not changed since they claimed the policy went into effect,” she said.

After posting about the incident on social media and being interviewed by a local news station, she got messages from others who’d been banned by Airbnb and discovered the company it uses to run background checks, Inflection, has been sued numerous times for allegedly providing false information on consumer background reports.

So how is Airbnb running background checks? Airbnb began using Inflection to conduct background checks on hosts and guests in 2016 to ensure safety when someone is renting a home.

“So pre-9/11, less than 40 to 50 percent of landlords were doing background checks. Post-9/11, the background screening industry exploded,” said Jay Jordan, CEO of the Alliance for Safety and Justice.

“Now, four out of five landlords do background checks. Nine out of 10 employers do background checks and these are blanket bans. Anything pops up, there’s no discretion,” Jordan continued.

Companies that run background checks have to follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires they ensure maximal maximum possible accuracy on any check of a person’s reputation, including credit checks and criminal background checks.

That’s why Airbnb must send out an e-mail saying they banned you because of a criminal background check. Founding partner of the firm Consumer Attorneys, Daniel Cohen said these cases are typically settled without any admission of wrongdoing on the part of the background check company.

He said the most common scenarios he sees are people being mixed up with someone with the same first and last name, crimes that were expunged showing up on the background check and crimes that were pleaded down to misdemeanors or otherwise changed to lesser offenses being reported as felonies on the background check.

“I personally would want Airbnb doing a background check on somebody before I let somebody stay in my home,” Cohen said.

“The problem is that the middleman that Airbnb is using, the background check company Inflection and various other background check companies that they use, are coming up with false reports.” He recently had clients who were trying to go to Napa Valley for their anniversary and the day before their trip, Airbnb canceled their reservation and held the $3,500 deposit.

“The client finally gets his background check report, and he’s being mixed up with somebody else entirely,” Cohen said.

“We understand people’s lives are affected by the results we deliver, so we’re committed to the highest standards of accuracy and fairness,” said David Patterson, spokesperson for Checkr, the parent company of Inflection. “As a consumer reporting agency regulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), we only report criminal records that have been filed in a court of law. We take any disputed inaccuracies seriously and promptly investigate and remediate these when appropriate.”

Are more companies going to start soliciting background checks? With the sharing economy continuing to grow, experts say the negative impacts of increased background checks will also rise.

Background checks and investigations done correctly and ethically will benefit specific cases. Success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process definitely depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will make sure you know everything to make the right decisions as well as maximizing the settlement process or winning your case in court!

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In November, Washington D.C.’s attorney general filed a civil lawsuit against Dan Snyder, owner of the city’s National Football League team. The complaint alleges that Snyder colluded with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Snyder is accused of deceiving fans and residents about the NFL’s investigation into the team’s allegedly toxic workplace culture and accusations of sexual assault-all to maintain a strong fan base and increase profits.

Five years after the #MeToo movement went viral, allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct within the organization emerged, along with Snyder’s alleged attempts to discredit or intimidate relevant witnesses.

A congressional committee that has looked deeply at Snyder and the team for nearly a year found that Snyder “abused the subpoena power of federal courts to obtain private emails, call logs, and communications” as part of his efforts to discredit witnesses and kill negative press stories.

Snyder employed a law firm to hire the private investigators that harassed and intimidated dozens of former team employees. The use of private investigators as a tool for providing attorneys with information in preparation for litigation is nothing new.

Investigators are regularly engaged by attorneys on various assignments, including interviewing potential witnesses, serving documents and locating assets. Under the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, unethical or illegal conduct committed by a private investigator can be imputed to the lawyers who hired them.

Many in the legal profession believe that the ABA should be very clear about the high penalties for failing to ensure a private investigator is behaving in an ethical manner—and that corrective action will be taken against those who fail to do so.

Investigations done correctly (and ethically) will benefit the case. Success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process definitely depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will make sure you know everything to maximize the settlement process or win your case in court!

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Is it fun for you guys, referring to PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS, to spend hours to creep on somebody just to find out things anyone could find on google? Do you feel proud?

This is a real comment posted as a question in response to one of our prior videos.

Let’s start with some statistics…

Google has placed in its index an estimated 35 trillion Web pages across the Internet worldwide. While this is an amazing statistic, believe it or not, 35 trillion is barely the tip of the iceberg.
Google’s index represents only an estimated 4 percent of the information that exists on the Internet. This is not a typo or misprint. The actual information that exists on the Web is impossible to know, but is estimated to be 500 times what is currently available through Google. Hard to believe, but true.

So based on this data if you only conducted a GOOGLE search on your subject this could cause you to miss 96% of the information that is out there on the WEB. Advanced searching on Google using BOOLEAN search techniques is good starting point, but you should also check Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go and other search engines as Google will often show you information based on your location, profile and search history not necessarily the best results for an investigation.

Let’s start by defining the term CREEP on somebody. In my opinion there is physical creeping which I would call surveillance. There is also online creeping which would involve developing the online footprint of your subject involving everything from posts and comments on social media to public records like court cases.

In almost all cases the information and evidence obtained through conducting hours and hours of physical surveillance is not something that can be developed through a simple google search. Surveillance efforts typically uncover activity patterns, the physical condition or apparent injuries of your subject, interactions with people and where someone might be working.

Online creeping or should I SAY open-source intelligence gathering can develop a great deal of information on a subject. You might be able to develop alias names, address history, news stories, social media profiles, business ownership and court records involving your subject that might point you in the direction of a criminal case as an example.

A google search will be effective assuming a couple of things.

First that your subject is active on social media. Second, that your subject lives or works in states and counties that serve up court records publicly which allows for search engines to grab and reported them. Florida is a good example of state with fairly open access to public records.

In many states and counties throughout the US public records are not available via a google search. Instead, a website that requires a username and password along with search credits is required to conduct searches on your subject. These types of websites are referred to as the DEEP WEB.

There are a ton of people search and data aggregation sites out there that claim to develop a ton of VERIFIED information. My experience is that the BASIC search features of these sites are free, but if you want the details, you must pay a fee. And even then, these types of sites are not comprehensive in nature and will not pull details from court records nor will they be able to pull back court records from password protected pay sites like the Los Angeles Superior Court as example.

Another major problem in relying on a GOOGLE search is that as a licensed private investigator you should NOT draft a repot based on records and information you found on google. You must go a step further and verify your findings by pulling or getting copies of source documents like criminal records, deeds of trust, court records and DMV records.

If I am called to testify in deposition or at trial and I am asked how I came to learn of some piece of information or evidence during my investigation, I can’t say GOOGLE. I must cite source records and show my process to confirm that the information found is accurate and relevant.

Online creeping sound fun and easy, but it won’t get you admissible evidence you can present to a court or a client. It takes a little bit more.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Wicked Town Gang Investigation Starts Small, but Brings Down Large Drug Organization

According to many news sources, the case that brought down one of Chicago’s most notoriously violent gang factions started small. What grew out of those early strands became the Wicked Town racketeering case, one of the biggest gang prosecutions in years at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago.

Part of a federal effort The case against Wicked Town was indicative of a collaborative push by local and federal investigators to target the drivers of Chicago’s gun violence with racketeering conspiracy charges that typically were used against the outfit or sophisticated drug trafficking organizations.

In addition to using the RICO law to hold large numbers of gang members responsible for their organization’s activities, the Wicked Town case employed the VICAR act, or Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering Activity, an offshoot of RICO created by Congress in 1984.

While the U.S. attorney’s office ultimately took the death penalty off the table in the Wicked Town case, the prospect of that punishment came up repeatedly in testimony of cooperators who decided to flip against their colleagues, despite the gang’s strict “No-snitch” policy.

The ATF agent and his supervisors told news media that while racketeering cases are by no means a “magic solution” to the city’s seemingly endless cycle of gun violence, shootings and homicides in the area where Wicked Town operated are down significantly since the case was brought.

“Instead of running around and going from this small case to another small case where violators we are arresting are going to be right back on the street in a case like this, they’re going away for a long time and it’s going to make a definite impact,” said Will Panoke, the assistant special agent in charge of the ATF’s Chicago bureau.

The Chicago police investigation that ultimately targeted Wicked Town was widening in 2017 when the ATF first got involved, the case agent told the Tribune, looking at some of the ballistics leads such as analyzing shell casings from crime scenes and tracing any guns that had been recovered.

While Chicago police had employed state wires in the case early on, wiretaps targeting key members of Wicked Town’s hierarchy started in mid-2019, more than a year after the initial murders, the agent said.

“A wire is a lot of raw investigative information coming in,” the Wicked Town case agent said.

Solid investigations in law enforcement can lead to big developments. And we also know that success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process also depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will make sure you know everything to maximize the settlement process or win your case in court!

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Dozens of internal FBI documents revealed to the New York Times show that FBI officials came close to deploying the controversial Pegasus hacking tool in its own criminal investigations in late 2020 and the first half of 2021.

It’s unclear how the bureau was planning on using the hacking tool-made by the Israeli NSO Group-or whether it had considered using the spyware against American citizens. The heavily redacted documents, released to the Times after a Freedom of Information Request, show that agency officials were in the “Advanced” stages of planning to brief FBI heads on the spyware and had written up guidelines for federal prosecutors on how the use of Pegasus would need to be disclosed during court cases. Pegasus has been used by various government actors across the globe to infiltrate a target’s mobile phone.

The tool has been slammed by human rights groups for its zero-click hacking ability, whereby the hacked user does not need to click on a link, read a message, or answer a call for their device to be infiltrated. It’s been known that the FBI obtained the surveillance tool for some time, but the agency had until now kept to a line that it was only interested in the software for research and development purposes.

In December 2021, during a closed-door hearing with Congress, FBI Director Chris Wray said in response to a question from Senator Ron Wyden asking if the agency had used the software that the FBI had only procured a Pegasus license for R&D reasons.

He said: “If you mean have we used it in any of our investigations to collect or target somebody, the answer is – as I’m assured – no. The reason why I hedge, and I want to be transparent, that we have acquired some of their tools for research and development. In other words, to be able to figure out how bad guys could use it.”

In response to the revelations, Sen. Wyden slammed Wray for providing “Misleading testimony about the bureau’s acquisition of powerful hacking tools.” Speaking to the Times, an FBI spokeswoman said, “The director’s testimony was accurate when given and remains true today – there has been no operational use of the NSO product to support any FBI investigation.”

Despite deciding against using Pegasus in criminal investigations, the FBI indicated in a legal briefing last month that it would be open to using other spyware in the future. The statement read: “Just because the FBI ultimately decided not to deploy the tool in support of criminal investigations does not mean it would not test, evaluate and eventually deploy other similar tools for gaining access to encrypted communications used by criminals.”

The NSO Group has been blacklisted by the US, while The European Union Data Protection Supervisor has called for the EU to ban the software. A Dutch MEP last week labeled Pegasus, which has been used against journalists, activists, and government critics across the world, as “a grave threat to democracy.”

Useful investigation tools often require prudence on the part of the investigator. Because investigations work. And we also know that success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will make sure you know everything to maximize the settlement process or win your case in court!

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Big names are being targeted by hackers in India at the center of a worldwide scandal in which the gangs allegedly earned thousands of dollars by breaking into emails of government and prominent figures at the request of private investigators. Prominent news sources sent undercover reporters to India earlier this year posing as former MI6 agents (yep, same as James Bond) turned-corporate investigators seeking to hire some of India’s top computer hackers to infiltrate the illegal hacking industry.

One hacker claimed to have used Pegasus, the Israeli software which ignited a political firestorm in India two years ago and prompted a probe into surveillance allegations. Hacking is illegal in India and the UK. The undercover reporters set up a fake corporate investigation firm in Mayfair, London called Beaufort Intelligence.

Then the reporters contacted some of the top alleged hackers in India saying they wanted to gain private information on the targets of their clients. Indian hackers “seized control of computers owned by Pakistan’s politicians, generals and diplomats and eavesdropped on their private conversations,” one article claimed.

The investigation found that victims were often befriended by Indian hackers on social media and the hackers sent them something interesting that required a click. Some Indian hackers even boasted to journalists that they were never caught.

The team also came across a group of hackers operating from an office in Gurgaon under the name White Int run by Aditya Jain, 31, a Deloitte staffer who moonlights as a hacker.

“The British and the whole world are using Indian hackers,” he told them, explaining how he obtained passwords through phishing.

“90% of private investigators use Indian hackers to do this kind of job,” he said.

A pretty unsettling story, but once again, an investigation turns up the facts—in this case about how some private investigators were engaging in this illegal practice. And we also know that success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will make sure you know everything to maximize the settlement process or win your case in court!

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A woman in Tennessee resorted to hiring a private investigator to find out why her tiny home hadn’t been delivered months after paying nearly $50,000, NBC News reported. Matt Sowash, the founder of Colorado-based nonprofit Holy Ground Tiny Houses, faces multiple lawsuits after being accused of failing to deliver homes.

Lori Birckhead, who runs the By Faith Farm in Tennessee with her husband, transferred $46,504 to Sowash in April for an 8-by-28-foot house to put on their property and was told to expect delivery in July.

She told NBC that after multiple attempts to contact Sowash, an aide said it could take more than two years for the house to be completed.

And the plot thickens. Court records show Sowash filed for bankruptcy on October 7, despite telling NBC in September that he wouldn’t “Because I can’t sit back and watch all these people lose their homes.” Sowash also told NBC that he borrowed a $400,000 loan from Kinetic to build the houses, but was unable to make the payments.

The Englewood Police Department in Colorado said it is investigating the allegations against Sowash and his nonprofit, NBC reported. He discovered an interest in tiny houses while in prison and previously told NBC that he built his first house in his garage in 2019 and sold it for $12,000.

This is a good example of how a basic background check on businesses you plan to do business with can tell you the whole story and protect your hard earned dollars.

Once again, an investigation turns up the facts. And we also know that success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will make sure you know everything to maximize the settlement process or win your case in court!

Know Even More: (READ THE ARTICLE)

At times, the professional investigations business closely resembles a James Bond movie. For example, recently, the Justice Department announced charges against six Chinese citizens, including five alleged spies, accused of working on behalf of the Chinese government to recruit US citizens as sources and undermine the federal prosecution against a major Chinese company.

According to news sources, the Chinese telecommunications company was facing federal prosecution in Brooklyn, New York and has been confirmed as Huawei. The US Huawei investigation obstructed by alleged Chinese spies.

The announcements highlight the department’s increased efforts to crack down on Chinese spies working on American soil to undermine the interests of the US government, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news conference.

“As these cases demonstrate, the government of China sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that protects those rights,” Garland said. “They did not succeed.”

Two of the alleged spies, Gouchun He and Zheng Wan, were accused of interfering with a federal prosecution against global telecommunications company Huawei. The two have not been arrested.

They allegedly cultivated a relationship with a law enforcement official involved in the case beginning in 2017. He and Wang believed they had recruited the official as a Chinese asset, according to charging documents, but the US official was working as a “double agent” under FBI supervision, maintaining their allegiance to the US.

When the investigation into Huawei began, the two allegedly asked the official for information about witnesses, trial evidence, and new charges that could be levied against Huawei. In exchange, the US official was given thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry, prosecutors say.

According to news sources, he and Wang have continued to pay the US official for information, according to court documents, sending thousands of dollars in Bitcoin payments as recently as last week.

As the Huawei investigation progressed, He and Wang allegedly increased their efforts to interfere in the prosecution against Huawei. According to charging documents, He and Wang asked the law enforcement officials to tape prosecutors during trial strategy meetings so that they could share non-public information with Huawei.

The US official gave the two alleged Chinese spies a photograph of a single-page document with a fake “classified” marking related to the case instead, according to the indictment. The US official was allegedly paid $41,000 for the document.

This story once again demonstrates the importance of factual and smooth investigations in cases like this. We know that success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will make sure you know everything to maximize the settlement process or win your case in court!

Know Even More: (READ THE ARTICLE)