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5. Embezzlement
A 48-year-old attorney, married + 2 children, disappeared without
notifying his family and relatives. The family alerted the
police and after an investigation, they learned that he left the country, using
his real identity, to a country in Europe. The
brother approached T.M.P. to locate
him.
Preparing a profile of the missing person
A 48-year-old attorney, who managed trust funds for private clients, as
well as relatives. The missing person found himself in large debts (gambling
problems). After extensive questioning, we learned that considerable amounts of
money were missing from accounts of clients and family members (who did not
report to the police).
The search model
The team asked for details of phone calls from his house, dating 6
months back. The team checked the
missing person's bank accounts to see if there were any transfers of funds into
foreign bank accounts or other accounts. No transfers to banks were found and
there were no unfamiliar phone numbers or calls to international numbers.
The funds held in trust were not found in the bank accounts. The team
looked into a large real estate transaction performed a year before his
disappearance. When verifying the owners of the asset from the real estate
transaction, we learned the name of the owner was never changed and a more
extensive investigation, led us to information that the owner never offered the
asset for sale.
We discovered a fictitious transaction of an asset, and the funds were
transferred to a bank account of an 80-year-old man, living in a retirement
home. The account was closed a few months after withdrawing the funds from the
account. In addition, we learned that the there was a proxy for the said
account - a Belgian citizen, who was a family relative.
The team started to trace the family member and found him living in Antwerp, Belgium.
The team left for Belgium,
located the relative, holding a power of attorney for the bank account to which
the funds were transferred, and began to closely follow him, equipped with
photos of the missing person.
After a while, the missing person was recognized in a meeting with the
Belgian resident, and the surveillance was reassigned to him. We located his
residential address and gathered information on him, such as bank accounts, his
businesses etc. The missing person was not contacted but was under surveillance
24 hours, until the client reached a decision regarding actions required.
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