Objectives
- Compare and contrast various fraudulent schemes
- Compare and contrast digital and analog research sources
- Assess the information sources and how they may be used in an investigation
Introduction
This Guide is similar to one prepared by and used by the Office of the Orange County, California, District Attorney in 1977. There is value to today’s student in that this reflects sources that can be used beyond an internet search engine. In many investigations, particularly in white collar crime, perpetrators or victims may have history that is needed for the case that pre-dates the data stored in modern search engine, and may require an analog investigation.
This section is also valuable as it provides a uniquely broad overview of potential things to ‘find out’ about people under investigation.
Part I contains types of information sought, followed by a number or numbers. The number directs the investigator to sources listed in Part II.
This Guide does not purport to be a complete source reference, as many of the sources are well known, and many other sources can be added from your own experience. Similarly, the Guide indicates merely where information can be found and does not imply that information will be automatically given the investigator. In many cases collection of information is only possible by use of legal process, for example, subpoena, etc.
PART I – TYPES OF INFORMATION DESIRED
Full Name
Address
Date of Birth
Description
Photograph
Occupation
Employment history
Marital Status
Prior addresses of a subject; names of persons previously living at the same address
Addresses, present and former, whether renting or buying; credit references; personal and business associates; names of relatives, locations of banks and finance companies
Telephone numbers and addresses; how long has the suspect had service; record of long distance phone calls; number of extensions in residence, cell number accounts — personal and business, wireless accounts — personal and business
Sources of income; expenditures; personal and business references; net worth of subject; handwriting exemplars
Information as to credit charges which have been made; what hotels are being used; where has your suspect been buying gasoline; employment and credit references
Registered owners of vehicles; legal owners of vehicles; description of vehicles; previous owners of vehicles; operators’ license numbers, signatures; photographs; thumbprints; abstracts of traffic citations
Application for bonds which give personal and business references
Former addresses
Records of stocks bought or sold; profits and losses
Recorded deeds, grants, mortgages, wills admitted to probate, notices of mechanics’ liens, powers of attorney
Record of registration for securities offered for public sale; record of individuals and firms who have violated State or Federal regulations in securities traffic
Information concerning reputation of a business
Businesses’ worth, associates, family, holdings and ratings
Information on associates involved in a medical or dental practice, pharmacists, barbers, funeral directors
Names of post office box holders: return addresses on mail received at post office; mail covers to find a forwarding address
Marriage license applications; addresses, dates of birth; signatures
Names of the bride and groom; maiden name of bride; ages
Information on divorces, i.e., place and date of marriage; date of separation; ages of children; community property; signatures; income; places of employment
Information on parents of a child, for example, occupations, ages, mother’s maiden name, name of physician
Disposition of monies from an estate; value of estate; inventory of all assets of deceased
Name and description of the deceased; property found on deceased and its distribution; cause of death
Where death occurred; birth place; how long deceased lived in the County, State or United States; names of relatives; whether or not deceased was a veteran
Civil suits; liens; description of property involved; name of court reporter, if any, who recorded the testimony
Political party; physical disabilities which would prevent marking a ballot; name of spouse; when and where married; last place of registration to vote
Names boats
Boat &Yacht Registrations and addresses of owners of ships,
or yachts
Ownership of aircraft
Background on horse owners, jockeys, trainers, and people employed at race tracks
Case histories of persons on welfare (usually good background information)
Student records, past and present and teachers’ records, past and present
List of all county employees; occupations and rate of pay; records of all financial business for the County
Presidents and Secretaries of all County Medical Associations; names of hospitals and sanitariums, number of rooms and beds; doctors’ names by street and city; doctor’s year of birth, medical school and year of graduation, office address
Bar owners’ fingerprints, marital status, home addresses, employees, associates
Information relative to Articles of Incorporation, giving businesses, associations, records of election returns; descriptions of seals used by various state officers; papers filed by candidates for election to State offices
Names of associates of a person involved in organized crime and which law enforcement have information
Transcripts of preliminary hearings; probation officer’s reports; subpoenas issued in the case; names of attorneys concerned
Parole reports; inmate contacts; visitors; correspondence; work and training assignments
Copies of telegrams and money order information; possibly handwriting exemplars
Record of all warrants drawn on the State Treasury; accounts of all persons indebted to the State
Legal description of property; amount of taxes paid on real and personal property; former owners of property
Amount of cost of construction; blueprints of construction; information regarding location of plumbing and wiring
Dimensions of property and taxable income of real property, and what improvements, if any, on the property
Maps of streets; locations of drains; location of utility conduits; rights of way; old names of streets
Maps having elevations, base lines; landmarks; important sites
Sources of information in foreign countries
Information as to anticipated travel of a person in a foreign country and vital statistics
Addresses of aliens
Alien information; date of entry; manner of arrival; addresses; occupation; age; physical description; marital status; children; signature; photograph
A guide to newspapers and periodicals printed in the US and its possessions; thumbnail description of every city, including population, county, and location with respect to the nearest large city
Information on cattle and dairies
Mining information, petroleum and gasoline, fish and game
Arson information and thefts of valuable insured items
PART 2 – SOURCES OF INFORMATION
F.B.I.
Post Office
Telephone company
Registrar of Voters
California Horse Racing Board
County Clerk’s Office, Vital Statistics
County Clerk’s Office, Divorce Records
County Clerk’s Office, Civil Files
County Clerk’s Office, Criminal Files
County Clerk’s Office, Marriage License Applications
State Department, Passports Division County Department of Naturalization Credit card companies
County Assessor’s Office
County Tax Collector’s Office Highway Department
Building Department
Health Department
Welfare Department
School Department
County Recorder’s Office, Marriage License Section
County Recorder’s Office, Birth Certificate Section
County Recorder’s Office, Death Certificate Section
County Auditor’s Office
Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit (LEUl) (If your department is a member)
County Surveyor’s Office
County Coroner’s Office
Public Administrator’s Office
Banks and finance companies
Bonding companies
Stock brokers
Credit reporting agencies
Gas and electric companies
Water companies
Moving companies
American Medical Directory
Lloyds Register of Shipping
Lloyds Register of Yachts
Secretary of State, Corporate Division
State Controller
State Department of Agriculture
Department of Natural Resources
Consumer Affairs
Alcohol Beverage Control
Federal Immigration and Naturalization Service
Securities and Exchange Commission
Better Business Bureau
Chamber of Commerce
Department of Corrections
American Insurance Company
Dun and Bradstreet
Department of Motor Vehicles
Treasury Department, enforcement agencies
INTERPOL
Harbor Patrol
Airport Security
County Recorder’s Office
Newspaper Library or Newspaper “Morgue”
Insurance Crime Convention Institute
Federal Aviation Administration
Summary
In this chapter we reviewed extensive lists, but by no means exhaustive lists, of sources of information for investigators. The purpose of this list is to guide the investigator’s imagination into creating more robust and thorough lists to serve as their own investigative resource.
Student case study nine – The Fraudster Who Faked His Own Death 12/18/14
Assignment
- Research the Aubrey Lee Price case, and consider the person faking their own birth (identity theft) and compare and contrast that with the complexity of faking your own death.
- What special skills would an investigator need to investigate this type of crime?
Overview
When a federal judge recently sentenced Aubrey Lee Price to 30 years in prison for bank fraud, embezzlement, and other crimes, it closed a chapter on the once successful businessman’s sensational criminal saga.
Price went from a devout Christian minister and trusted financial adviser to a schemer who wiped out many of his clients’ life savings and then faked his own death to avoid taking responsibility for what he had done. When a routine traffic stop in Georgia resulted in his arrest on New Year’s Eve in 2013 – nearly 18 months after his disappearance – Price acknowledged that he had become a drug dealer.
A Fake Death, a Real Arrest
In June 2012, with his Ponzi scheme about to be revealed, Aubrey Lee Price sent his clients and family “suicide letters” in which he admitted he had defrauded a bank and individual investors and said that he planned to kill himself by throwing himself off a high-speed ferry boat after it left Key West, Florida.
The Coast Guard searched for Price’s body but found nothing. His wife and children, though, believed that he was dead—and at his family’s request, a judge later declared him dead—but FBI agents weren’t buying it.
“Although his suicide letters seemed sincere,” said Special Agent Ed Sutcliff, “we didn’t believe he was dead for the simple reason that there was no body.”
After more than a year of searching for Price, the 48-year-old was arrested on December 31, 2013, after he presented a false ID during a routine traffic stop in Brunswick, Georgia. It was later discovered that he had equipment in his home to make fake identification and was also in possession of handguns and multiple cell phones — all used to facilitate dealing marijuana and cocaine. “It was classic drug stuff,” Sutcliff said. “He was living that life.”
His well-publicized rise and fall makes for a fascinating tale, but our agents who investigated the case and who specialize in white-collar crime are quick to point out that the real focus of this story should not be on Price but rather on his victims.
“It’s unbelievably sad,” said Special Agent Ed Sutcliff in our Atlanta Field Office. “Most of Price’s victims had worked 30 or 40 years to save for retirement. They were living off those funds,” said Sutcliff, who interviewed many of the victims while investigating the case. “They had to learn from us that Price – their friend and adviser — was missing, and all their money was gone.”
Price told investigators he got involved in the investment business to help fund his mission efforts overseas. He worked for two well-known investment firms and later started his own company, PFG. Many of his clients were personal friends from Georgia, where Price lived. Some knew him from church — he gave seminars on how to be a wise Christian investor. Others had been on mission trips with him. Eventually, he consolidated PFG to about 100 “significant investors,” Sutcliff said.
In 2009, unbeknownst to his clients, Price began gambling with their money, making risky investments. He would later falsify documents to hide those transactions. The following year, he convinced 40 of his clients to invest in a troubled Georgia bank, near where he had grown up, and profit by turning the bank around.
Price raised $10 million from his PFG clients, and bank employees and area residents put in $4 million. Price, who by this point was on the bank’s board of directors, was seen as a hero for helping to keep the community bank afloat.
But in 2011, Sutcliff said, Price realized the bank could not be turned around and that his investors stood to lose “a lot of money.” He convinced bank officials to use some of the institution’s funds to invest in US securities and was given permission to wire out $5 million to an account he said he created with a well-known global investment firm.
“Everyone believed Price was on the up and up,” Sutcliff said. “He had investors, a solid track record, and there was no reason to doubt his ability or his honesty. And keep in mind that his PFG investors were getting bogus statements saying they were making money, and when they needed funds, he would provide them. It was the classic Ponzi scheme.”
There never was an account with the global investment firm, and that initial $5 million was just the beginning of Price’s thefts from the bank. He eventually gained access to more than $21 million and lost more than $16 million through risky investments, all the while telling the bank the money was being used to purchase securities. In the end, Price’s deception resulted in the bank’s failure and losses of more than $70 million.
In 2012, when he knew his house of financial cards was about to crumble, Price faked his suicide on a boat in Key West, Florida (see sidebar) and fled first to Mexico and later to Florida, where he grew and sold marijuana and other drugs, and sometimes served as a bodyguard for prostitutes.
“He went from clean-cut preacher and investment adviser to weed grower and prostitute escort,” said Sutcliff, who spent many hours interviewing Price. “He will tell you he made all those risky investments trying to earn back his clients’ money,” Sutcliff said. “He will tell you he still considers himself a religious person who prays for his victims, by name, every day.”
“Like any good con man,” Sutcliff added, “you want to believe what he is saying is true. But in the end, the words don’t match the actions. And then you think about the victims, who were left with nothing.”