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Remember, Wednesday, April 27 is Administrative Professionals Day. Let's all be sure to express appreciation to those in our offices who help us deliver results to our clientele.
Find out ways to ensure your investigator adds value to your case and enables you to "Achieve a Superior Position." We are approved by the State Bar of Texas as a CLE sponsor, and are available to speak at your firm. Call us at (713)781-9040 to make
a convenient appointment that could make a difference.
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Next Edition Topics:
Loose Lips: Office chatter can ruin an investigation
Tight Ship: The need to secure your information
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In this edition of VantagePoints, presented are two articles dealing with fraud emanating in the workplace. One deals with fraudulent disability claims and the other addresses some of the telltale signs of embezzlement.
Making the investment to periodically check the status of an employee receiving long-term disability compensation can pay off if that person is misrepresenting the extent and effect of an injury.
Sudden indications of newfound wealth can be a warning signal, especially if it involves an employee who has authority to spend. It is not alarmist to call on experts to conduct a structured, measured, and discreet examination of relevant transactions to learn if there is something amiss.
We appreciate your comments about VantagePoints, and hope you will recommend our newsletter to your colleagues. As always, ideas about investigative topics in which you have an interest are always welcome. Send your suggestions to
[email protected]
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J.R.Skaggs
Founder, Owner, and Manager
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Circling Back: How checking up on disability claimants can uncover truth
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 The general counsel for a regional insurer contacted the offices of ResultQuest and requested surveillance over the course of two days. The surveillance would be targeted at a man who had been injured on the job years earlier and was receiving payments for full and permanent disability benefits for a back injury. The subject was scheduled to visit his attending physician and coverage of the day before and the day of the visit were indicated.
It was revealed that the subject was fully ambulatory, as extensive film footage (obtained from a camouflaged position), showed the subject washing a large motor home using a tall folding ladder and long-handled brush. He also repeatedly climbed into and out of a raised driver hatch that required pulling himself up with his arms to utilize a small stepladder below the hatch.
The next day the man's wife drove him to his doctor's appointment in Tyler, TX, where he listlessly emerged from the passenger side of the car and was "helped" to his feet by his wife, who removed a set of crutches from the back seat to further aid the subject. The subject walked at a snail's pace as he entered the office building.
Following the appointment, the couple drove to a catfish restaurant in Tyler, and, miraculously, the subject was...
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Movin' on Up: When unusual signs of wealth signal an issue
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 Numerous times over the years, ResultQuest has been called in to investigate suspected fraud on the part of an employee. In the vast majority of instances, our analysis has revealed glaring signs of newly acquired wealth that went beyond what the employee's salary might reasonably sustain. Often the person took no precautionary measures to shield the opulence. Furthermore, there was almost never any question posed by upper management.
In one particular incident, an executive who had arrived at his new workplace from out-of-state in an old rattle-trap of a car suddenly appeared at work one day driving a custom luxury pickup. Soon thereafter he arrived in a luxury sport utility vehicle he had purchased for his wife. If someone had bothered to check at the time it would have been revealed, as our investigation later uncovered, that there were no purchase liens perfected against either vehicle. However, nobody at his workplace questioned the purchases at the time.
By the point at which auditors began to question some accounts payable over which the executive had authority, he had embezzled several millions of dollars. ResultQuest
discovered that, aside from the two vehicles, the executive made a cash purchase of a sprawling mansion, which was under renovation and being filled with lavish furnishings at the time that the fraud was detected.
Sudden demonstrations of ...
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