K2 Integrity · Digging Deeper Episode 3: When Personal Lives Feed Criminal Activity
What happens when an investigator stumbles upon a personal
detail that leads to professional misdeeds? In Episode 3 of Digging
Deeper, Chris Morgan Jones interviews Lisa Silverman, senior managing director in
Chicago, about cases where the personal interfered with the
professional.
One of the most challenging parts of an investigator's job is
to not try and make the facts stick to a theory - but to develop a
theory based on the actual facts. Everyone has a story, and often a
client can have a theory. But what sets an investigator apart is
the ability to find the accurate story, not the popular one. With
the ever-increasing amount of information available on the
internet, getting the information is just the first step. Where an
investigator's skills come in now are in undertaking a
thoughtful analysis, separating accurate information from
falsehoods, and then determining how the information fits together
to tell a story. Also, the repositories for information have
changed over time. For example: twenty years ago, when
investigating an employee for fraud, it was common to physically
sift through files for details. While that still happens, more
often, investigators forensically image the subject's computer
and conduct their analysis digitally.
As investigations become more complex, the ability to observe and
think critically have become invaluable to uncovering the facts and
securing the right outcome. Whether the issues centers around
cybercrimes; trade secrets spirited overseas; a due diligence on a
prospective executive or board-level hire; a range of frauds; or a
variety of international compliance issues with no easy solutions;
a deep dive into a potential investment; or a range of other
challenges, a skilled investigator's job is to follow the trail
of clues to the bare facts, and then to help clients use them in a
way that is as whole and protected as possible in the corporate and
legal arenas they occupy.
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