A Primer For Gathering Financial Intelligence
A financial investigator did "trash pulls" at an attorney's home to elicit financial intelligence about the attorney's client. During one of these trash pulls an envelope bearing the name of a climate-controlled art storage facility was discovered.
This discovery then led to the interdiction of a valuable painting hidden by the attorney's client at the art storage facility. A second financial investigator was able to detect an adversary's foreign bank account by acquiring financial intelligence from an offshore check printing company.
A third investigator gathered financial intelligence by searching for leads provided by an adversary's: passport, airline frequent flyer statements, country club membership, credit cards, phone bills and other records. In addition to the foregoing, garnering financial intelligence may involve a wide variety of human intelligence and / or discovery devices.
"An Asset Search, Tax Fraud & Divorce" described an effort to access financial information via human intelligence. It outlined how "Brian", (a former high-ranking official at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, who had earlier been an IRS special agent), and I sought human intelligence by interviewing a business associate of a divorcing husband. Furthermore, some sophisticated asset concealment schemes like the one described at "Bearer Shares & An Asset Search", are ultimately only uncovered because of human intelligence.
Another way to elicit financial intelligence can be to physically inspect an adversary's home or place of business. This is precisely what the court-appointed receiver in the case of Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook had done. The Cook receiver had for instance, successfully argued in court that among other things, Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(a)(1)(c) & Fed. R. Civ. P. 34(a)(2) provided for an inspection of Mr. Cook's Apple Valley, Minnesota home. At the time of the Apple Valley inspection, receivership estate assets including three automobiles and 31 watches were seized.
Likely more significant, was the Cook receiver's recovery of over sixty computers and other electronic media. These were eventually forensically examined in an attempt to access additional financial information. That receiver had also issued more than 250 domestic subpoenas, which too might have provided financial intelligence.
If cross-border elements / multiple jurisdictions are however used to conceal assets, then letters rogatory can be issued pursuant to the Hague Evidence Convention (20: Convention of 18 March 1970 on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters Hague Convention).
Letters rogatory, (a.k.a. "letters of request" or "legal assistance requests"), may help access financial intelligence possessed by foreign bank or other foreign witnesses, as explained at "An Asset Search With Letters Rogatory". They are sometimes even available in jurisdictions where there are strong bank secrecy laws, as this sanitized / changed copy of a Swiss letter rogatory indicates:
(Edited June 8, 2010)
Copyright 2010 Fred L. Abrams
