PIAVA usually meets every third Wednesday in the month, except in past years we held no meetings in July and August.  This year we have no meeting in July, but, for the first time in many years, we are having a meeting in August.  The meeting is scheduled for the usually third Wednesday or August 20, 2008.  The meeting will be in Northern Virginia and more details will be posted later. 

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA, www.piava.org

Attorneys are going to change the way they view hiring private investigators and what type of work is authorized for the private investigator.  This is all due to the Anthony Pellicano case in Los Angeles and the jobs he did for attorney Terry Christensen. See prior post on Pellicano Here

Los Angeles attorney Terry Christensen, managing partner at Christensen, Glaser, Fink, Jacobs, Weil & Shapiro, hired and used the private investigator services of Anthony Pellicano who was convicted several months ago for a multitude of federal crimes.  Christensen was indicted in 2006 when the federal grand jury alleged that Christensen paid Pellicano to record and report on telephone conversations in some high profile cases.  See Christensen Indicted.  Christensen was accused of paying Pellicano to illegally wiretap some individuals. 

Federal prosecutors allegedly have dozens of recordings of conversations between Pellicano and Christensen, and they intend to prove that Christensen paid Pellicano to illegally wiretap individuals in some of his high profile cases.  If convicted, Christensen could face up to 10 years in prison. U.S. v. Pellicano, No. 2:2005-cr-01046 (C.D. Calif.).

Now it is reported that many lawyers are thinking about the way they work with private investigators.

The National Law Journal published an excellent article, see Article, analyzing the Pellicano and other cases involving attorneys’ viewpoints on future use of private investigators.

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA, www.piava.org

www.informationinsightsinc.com

Are you a registered private investigator in Virginia and need qualifying continuing education?  American Security Programs, Dulles, VA, is offering interesting training on Saturday, July 12, 2008. Check out below.

News Stories: Investigative Insights
Date & Time:

Saturday, July 12, 2008
10:00am-12:00pm
Fee: $35 per person

Get the inside story about the life and death of the D.C. Madam, Deborah Palfrey, learn about the career and conviction of Hollywood PI to the starts, Anthony Pellicano and learn about investigative journalism as a business occupation.  American Security Programs, 22900 Shaw Road, Suite 101-4
Dulles, VA 20166. Call 703-834-8900, or e-mail hr@securityprograms.com.

The speaker is Dan E. Moldea who has over 30 years of experience in investigative journalism. He is an author having published seven books. Dan is a registered private investigator in Virginia, and he is a member of the Private Investigators Association of Virginia (PIAVA).

See american-security-news-investigations

Of all the choices you make when starting a business, one of the most important is the type of legal organization you select for your company. This decision can affect how much you pay in taxes, the amount of paperwork your business is required to do, the personal liability you face and your ability to borrow money. Business formation is controlled by the law of the state where your business is organized.

This fact sheet provides a quick look at the differences between the most common forms of business entities. The most common forms of businesses are:

Sole Proprietorships
Partnerships
Limited Liability Companies (LLC)

While state law controls the formation of your business, federal tax law controls how your business is taxed.  Federal tax law recognizes an additional business form, the Subchapter S Corporation.

Read

Here

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA

The Internal Revenue Service today announced an increase in the optional standard mileage rates for the final six months of 2008. Taxpayers may use the optional standard rates to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes

The rate will increase to 58.5 cents a mile for all business miles driven from July 1, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2008. This is an increase of eight ( cents from the 50.5 cent rate in effect for the first six months of 2008, as set forth in Read here

Want to know all about the National Security Act of 1947 or the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 or even the Counterintelligence Enhancement Act of 2002?  Well, you can get in bed on a rainy afternoon, flop under the covers and read this book.  It has everything you want to know from homeland security to information privacy and other legal rights of Americans.  Check it out:

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released the Intelligence Community Legal Reference Book. This book was published in 2007, but has just been released to the general public. It includes legislation, procedures, and guidelines related to intelligence and national security. All documents in the book are unclassified.

Don’t forget PIAVA is having its meeting tonight in Vienna, VA.

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA

Information Insights Inc.

PIAVA is having its monthly meeting on Wednesday, June 18, 2008, in Vienna, VA.  The meeting starts at 7 p.m. with dinner.  Our speaker is Bill Stollhans, owner of Potomac Investigative Services LLC, Fairfax, VA.  Bill is a PIAVA member and former president of PIAVA.  He will speak and discuss “Mortgage Fraud Today.” 

Bill is a former Assistant Director, FBI, Special Agent and Chief Financial Office (CFO) for the FBI.  He has over 30 years experience in law enforcement and investigations.  He was graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in Business Administration.  Among other things, Bill specializes in financial investigations. While with the FBI and over the last few years, Bill has conducted numerous mortgage fraud investigations.

Our meeting should be the usual educational, informative and fun time for our members and guests.

If you are interested in attending as a guest, contact me at president at piava.org.

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA

Information Insights Inc., McLean, VA

News from the FBI about new phishing scam:

 The FBI and its partner, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), have received reports of phishing attacks targeting users of EPPICards. The EPPICard is similar to a debit card. EPPICards are issued by a state agency for the purpose of receiving child-support payments. The cards are currently used in 15 states.

Individuals have reported receiving e-mail or text messages indicating a problem with their account. They are directed to follow the link provided in the message to update their account or correct the problem. The link actually directs the individuals to a fraudulent web site where their personal information, such as account number and PIN, is compromised.

Individuals have also reported receiving an e-mail message asking them to complete an online survey. At the end of the survey, they are asked for their EPPICard account information to allow funds to be credited to the account in appreciation for completing the survey. Providing this information will allow criminals to compromise the account.

Click Here For Whole Story

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA

Information Insights Inc.

PIAVA is at the NALI conference today in Arlington, VA.  Yesterday, NALI members and conference attendees toured the Library of Congress learning all the various types of information available through research.  After that the members/attendees walked up to Congress to talk with their representatives about current issues in the professional investigative industry.

Today, various people are giving presentations on attorney/private investigator relationships, “At Risk Protection & Investigations,” managing large investigations, locating hidden assets, fraud investigations, business due diligence investigations and digital forensics.  Attendees receive continuing education credits for going to the sessions.

Some of the exhibitors here are Jimmie Mesis, PI Magazine, www.pimagazine.com, IRB’s Kristen Gilley, www.irbsearch.com, is here along with OTL Tactical, Beth Kalyan, www.otltacticl.com, Tina Green, El Dorado Insurance, www.eldoradoinsurance.com, Mike Yergey, Yergey Insurance Agency, www.yergeyins.com, Paige Arrington, G.A. Public Records Service, www.gaprs.biz, Shawn Monroe, www.paraben.com, and Amanda Cunha, Locate Plus, www.locateplus.com.

Our good friend Rosalie Folino, J&R Folino, LLC, www.jrfolinollc.com, stopped by and assisted the writer in clarifying information and, most importantly, spell checking live time.

Now is lunch time, and we will be back with more news later.

Bill Lowrnce

President PIAVA

Troy Fleming, legal investigator for Brown & Jennings PLC law firm in Roanoke, VA, is attending the NALI Conference in Arlington, VA. Troy is the Southeast Regional Director of NALI.  NALI is the National Association of Legal Investigators headquartered in Lansing, MI. see www.nalionline.org

Troy is a member of PIAVA and represents the Roanoke, VA, chapter.

Troy is also a member of the Inner Circle of Investigators, www.icinvestigators.com, an elite group of investigators specializing in sophisticated civil litgation matters.

The National Association of Legal Investigators (NALI) was formed in 1967 with its primary focus to conduct investigations related to litigation. Membership in NALI is open to all professional legal investigators who are actively engaged in negligence investigations for the plaintiff and/or criminal defense, and who are employed by investigative firms, law firms or public defender agencies. An applicant must have a minimum of 24 months of documented full-time employment in this endeavor.

The NALI members attending the conference here in Arlington, Va, are arriving for the social hour.  Later tonight there is a dinner and PIAVA will be around to see if the food is good.

Follow the news and events at the NALI conference here at the PIAVA Blog.

PIAVA is at the NALI conference in Arlington, VA.  We are on site now and will be posting the latest happenings.  NALI’s membership is composed of professional investigators.  NALI members are here at the conference from all over the United States.

More to come later.

BIll Lowrance

President PIAVA

NALI is having its national conference today through Saturday in Arlington, VA. Click here for information, at the Doubletree Hotel, Arlington, VA. City-National Airport, 300 Army Navy Drive,Arlington, Virginia 22202, Tel: 703-416-4100.

PIAVA is an exhibitor at the conference and will be posting news and information from the conference live.  Check back through out the next few days to updates and information.

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA

This is a great article by Genie Tyburski, Web Manager, The Virtual Chase, on how to find out who owns a small business.

“There are a number of resources and research strategies for finding business owners. I’ll outline several methods, starting with relatively easy approaches and free sources of information. Then I’ll suggest several harder-to-accomplish tactics that still utilize free sources and I’ll end by mentioning some commercial databases.

This how-to article focuses on small businesses because it’s generally harder to find information about them. However, you may use these sources and methods to find owner information for large private companies as well. In some cases, you might even find the names of officers and others in upper management.”

Click Here Finding Company Owner

Bill Lowrance

President PIAVA