Page 11 - Professional Investigators Day – Debunking Myths - AFI-LLC Newsletter July 2021

Professional Investigators Day – Debunking Myths - AFI-LLC Newsletter July 2021

News From Around Our Profession
We are dedicated to sharing important news from clients, colleagues and friends
about the news - good and bad - from and about our profession. Our thanks to all
who help contribute. Feel free to email us with any news you have about you, your
agency, your association, and others...

Is Your Agency or Association Offering Webinars or News to Share?
Our agency is available to help you with various topics, and marketing!
If you, or your association, is offering continuing education webinars or events –
we are glad to contribute our own, and also share yours our newsletters.

Three Plead Guilty to Scheme to Obtain Tax Information
(shared by Nicole Gray - Infinity Investigative Solutions in VA)
As part of their guilty pleas, Stephen Mockler, Andrew Panessa, and Sabrina Scott admitted that Scott, while an
employee of a private investigation firm in Texas, provided both Mockler and Panessa with personal identifying
information about her firm’s investigative targets (including the targets’ social security numbers) and requested that
Mockler and Panessa use that information to obtain confidential tax information. Mockler, who received requests for tax
information from both Scott and Panessa, called the IRS and used the personal identifying information provided to him
by Scott or Panessa to impersonate the taxpayer, answer the IRS’s security questions, and learn non-public information
about the taxpayer. Mockler then sent that confidential tax information back to Panessa or Scott, who provided the
information to the private investigation firm’s clients for a fee.
-- DOJ Press Release www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/three-plead-guilty-misuse-social-security-numbers-and-other-
charges-part-scheme-obtain

Our comments:
Sabrina Scott worked for a well-known, now closed, information broker service. On behalf of her clients, she went to
Stephen Mockler and Andrew Panessa to obtain this confidential information for a client. Information we, as private
investigators - citizens - receive illegally is not evidence and can not only result in similar charges - it can destroy your
client's case and your reputation.

Cases like this further damage our profession - not just our public image, which we are perpetually trying to improve - our
access to information, and particularly personal identifying information (or points of verification - which is what we use
them for). Outsourcing potentially illicit and unethical assignments to an information broker does not protect private
investigators or their clients - it poses great risk, and all can face charges as at least part of a conspiracy.

Your livelihood, your client's case, and our profession are not worth it.

How to Draft Effective FOIA Requests (online CE)
(Wes Bearden – Bearden Investigation TX / LA)
This program is designed to familiarize attorneys in both criminal and civil litigation with the process of obtaining
federal, state, and local governmental information under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") and its state
counterparts. The program will cover how to effectively draft such requests, the scope of the act, and tips on routinely
requested information. The course will compare the federal and state acts and discuss the deadlines, procedure, and
most effective methods to request information. It will also discuss an update on case law relating to public information
availability under FOIA. In particular, we will focus on effectively requesting routine information on your client, opposing
party or witness.
www.lawline.com/course/if-you-try-sometimes-you-can-get-what-you-need-how-to-draft-effective-foia-requests

The Profitable PI Launched by Complete Legal Investigations (FL)
Mark Murnan, CLI, and Wendy Murnan have launched their new website – www.TheProfitablePI! Want to grow your PI
business into profitability? Stop by and check out their manuals and marketing books to start growing your bottom line!

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