With the blinding speed at which the gSmartphone Ageh came upon the investigative profession, asset investigation remains putting together a puzzle from the multiple pieces: public records, online evidence, news accounts, print documents, and human sources. Emphasizing the importance of public records and the resources of the Internet, this fifth edition concentrates on research techniques. These methods make considerable use of websites, libraries, periodicals, and government documents with a constant theme of correlating data from different open sources. This new edition remains the predominant primer on how to find assets to satisfy judgments and debts, but it now also includes significant focus on the emerging underground economy and the gshadowh financial domain. The text explores the connections between stolen credit card information, the gambling sector, money laundering, and the role a subject may play in a larger criminal enterprise. The book also addresses organized crimefs impact on the Internet and financial transactions in cyberspace, as well as the impact of portable digital devices on civil and criminal investigations and the new challenges for investigators working through the electric labyrinth, including the Deep Web and the Dark Web. This edition also includes a very helpful glossary that defines terms introduced throughout the text and an appendix that provides a checklist for traditional and nontraditional asset investigations. This fifth edition seeks to provide an essential understanding of the digital forensics and mobile digital technologies as it steers private investigators, collections specialists, judgment professionals, and asset recovery specialists in undertaking legal information collection in a most challenging age.

Financial asset investigation continues to evolve through its techniques, and this book serves as a practical primer, emphasizing the use of data collection forms, the latest computer technology, and tools for identifying, locating, and assessing debtors1 assets and liabilities. The text explains data gathering from computer data bases, CD-ROM, human sources, surveillance, and public records. The topics cover both individuals and businesses. They range from obtaining subjects1 basic identifiers, such as a social security number, to using key business ratios to calculate figures for a company1s balance sheet. This new edition strives to incorporate more online and electronic resources and includes a complete chapter on investigation through use of the Internet. Additional new topics include financial investigation for security officers, piercing the corporate veil, news groups, and public record searching shortcuts. Throughout the book, useful forms are provided for gathering, organizing, and analyzing data which allows for easy integration of information. Learning how to exploit information trails and cutting through smoke screens are the main themes of this practical and effective investigative tool.

Developing countries lose billions each year through bribery, misappropriation of funds, and other corrupt practices. Much of the proceeds of this corruption find 'safe haven' in the world's financial centers. These criminal flows are a drain on social services and economic development programs, contributing to the impoverishment of the world's poorest countries. Many developing countries have already sought to recover stolen assets. A number of successful high-profile cases with creative international cooperation has demonstrated that asset recovery is possible. However, it is highly complex, involving coordination and collaboration with domestic agencies and ministries in multiple jurisdictions, as well as the capacity to trace and secure assets and pursue various legal options—whether criminal confiscation, non-conviction based confiscation, civil actions, or other alternatives. This process can be overwhelming for even the most experienced practitioners. It is exceptionally difficult for those working in the context of failed states, widespread corruption, or limited resources. With this in mind, the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative has developed and updated this Asset Recovery Handbook: A Guide for Practitioners to assist those grappling with the strategic, organizational, investigative, and legal challenges of recovering stolen assets. A practitioner-led project, the Handbook provides common approaches to recovering stolen assets located in foreign jurisdictions, identifies the challenges that practitioners are likely to encounter, and introduces good practices. It includes examples of tools that can be used by practitioners, such as sample intelligence reports, applications for court orders, and mutual legal assistance requests. StAR—the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative—is a partnership between the World Bank Group and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime that supports international efforts to end safe havens for corrupt funds. StAR works with developing countries and financial centers to prevent the laundering of the proceeds of corruption and to facilitate more systematic and timely return of stolen assets.

Introduction to Private Investigation is designed to provide the essential knowledge and procedures needed to operate successfully as a private investigator. It is both an instructional textbook for those individuals desiring a career as a private investigator, and a resource manual that can be an invaluable tool for later reference. The approach is a direct, concise style, which facilitates comprehension by novices as well as experienced private investigators, and makes possible competent and professional performance of all types of private investigation. The purpose for writing this book is to fill the existing need within the field for a precise comprehensive text detailing the development of skills necessary for professional investigative work. In addition, there is a lack of recent, up-to-date textbooks currently available to individuals wishing to learn about private investigation. Introduction to Private Investigation will help fill this void. This easy-to-read textbook for investigators is filled with practical information and stories that will provide extremely valuable training. One unique attribute of the book is its commitment to the practice of private investigation in the private business sector as well as the public sector. Another notable quality is its concern with both the portrayal of private investigation as a legitimate professional discipline and the subsequent degradation of the popular, media propagated misconceptions of private investigators. Two new chapters have been added in this second edition, "Criminal Defense Investigation" and "Bioethics, Investigation, and the Occult," due to a complete lack of material for each subject pertaining to Professional Investigation. It will enable the professional investigator or apprentice to sharpen the skills they use every day. Be it undercover, surveillance, interviewing, case preparation, or courtroom testimony, even the most seasoned veterans understand the need to be on top of their game in order to provide clients with the best possible results. This book will help you accomplish that understanding. It will provide you with the basic skills, knowledge and required tools before you go into battle with the Scales of Justice.

The investigative experience offers many challenges in reconstructing past events and in discovering the persons, entities, and organizations involved in a crime or a civil wrong. The discussion begins with explaining the nature of cold cases and the major problems associated with these investigations. A cold case investigation progresses from the internal (the caseOCOs center), proximal (contact evidence), distal (immediate vicinity) to the limbic (the world at large) realms of information. The text stresses the importance of gathering basic identifiers about the victim, suspect, product, or object that constitutes the OC centerOCO of the case. Fifteen keys exist that act as collection points for evidence, and these keys are discussed, including the role they play in the evolution of an investigation. The following topics are featured: identifying the differences between physical evidence, traceable evidence, and information resources; the differences between the goals in criminal cases and in civil investigations; working with the medical examiner; the importance of visiting the locus or crime scene even after a considerable period of time has elapsed; the basics of computer forensics and tips on cyberprofiling; technical assistance and how to locate expert help; tools for uncovering witnesses; locating OC hiddenOCO information archives relevant to a particular case; financial evidence; managing a case; and response when using a combination of traditional and forensic techniques, which constitutes a modern synthesis of investigative methods. Despite analytical methods, it is necessary to understand when to stop an investigation. The text covers this issue and makes recommendations regarding the writing of reports on a case. The Appendix contains a Master Checklist that provides a wealth of information and expertise. This book will be a valuable resource for police investigators, private investigators, and governmental/regulatory investigators."