PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS FOR BANKRUPTCY

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THE PRIVATE EYE GOSSIP

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Vinny Parco

It's been a while since I penned an article for Times Square Gossip, but I'm back.

In the world of private investigations a lot has happened.



As the economy tanks more and more people are filing for bankruptcy.This is a window of opportunity for fraudsters. Some individuals and companies are using the bankruptcy laws to get away from paying bills fraudulently. Investigators are analyzing bankruptcy files to look for items that are not stated such as unreported income,accounts receivables and other assets that are conveniently omitted by the petitioner.





Now that school will be starting soon many school districts throughout the country are hiring private investigators to verify if the children live within the school district. Many parents try to get their children in a better school district even if they don't live there so they can get a better education. P.I.'s are doing record checks and interviewing neighbors .





One of the crimes that irks most people is identity theft.This is becoming more popular by crooks because it is so easy for them to get information from so many sources. For example, a clerk in a department store, who is making minimum wage, is approached by a man or woman asking them if they want to make some money on the side.Then they ask them to get credit card receipts from customers, and the crooks use these receipts to order goods on the purloined credit card information.The employee might make a few hundred dollars from this scam until they get caught.The customer then has to cancel their credit cards fill out forms to get reimbursed and generally they are greatly inconvenienced.





Another law that might affect Private Investigators is S.3214, Surreptitious Video Surveillance Act introduced by Sen. Arlen Spector (D-PA), if enacted, would amend Title III of the Omnibus Crime and control Act of 1968 as amended by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, otherwise known as the Wiretap Act. It would treat certain video surveillance as electronic surveillance under wire communications with prohibitions where a subject would have reasonable expectation of privacy. Sen. Russ Feingold (S-WI) and Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE) are sponsors.





This bill arose from an incident involving he Lower Merion School District's provision of laptop computers use by students at Harrington High School in Pennsylvania. The computers, activated remotely by school officials, displayed images of a student in his home that appeared to show him using drugs. Civil litigation ensued, along with extensive media coverage, According to the McClatchy Newspapers, the school system secretly captured thousands of images of webcam pictures and screen shots as well as creating a record of he websites visited by he students and excerpts of their online chats That was was followed U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on March 29 and the introduction of S3214 by Senator Spector

on April 15.



A few years ago, they tried to pass a law that would hamper investigators from taking videos of insurance fraud claimants because of privacy issues.This law was defeated and we hope that any new laws enacted will not hamper investigators in their job of catching fraudsters.







How To Contact Vincent Parco, P.I., Inc



Certified Forensic Examiner



Certified Fraud Examiner



875 6th Avenue, Suite 206

New York, New York 10001



Tel: (212) 779-2000

Fax: (212) 779-2545



Email: vp@ispyforyou.com

Email: vincent@ispyforyou.com

THE GOVERNMENT TARGETS WRONG PEOPLE

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PRIVATE EYE GOSSIP
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Vinny Parco

The government in its quest for convictions sometimes targets the wrong person and convicts innocent men and women. Case in point. Jabbar Collins had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was accused and convicted of gunning down Abraham Pollack, a local landlord during a botched robbery. Mr. Collins claim in his lawsuit that Asst. District Attorney Michael Vecchione suppressed evidence at the trial that would have exonerated Mr. Collins .The D.A. threatened a drug addled witness and coerced another to give false testimony. Mr. Collins was released from jail after 15 years. If he had a good P.I. he might have avoided this travesty of justice or…….see the rest of this column. Patrick Bombino a well known private eye was arrested recently for impersonating a federal agent. Not true. He was getting information helping his client and the D.A. wanted to stop him Eventually charges were dismissed. In a recent trial of a known Gambino associate, the name of John McNally surfaced as someone who allegedly laundered money for a Joe Watts. John is an outstanding private eye and was a hero cop. He caught the infamous “Murph the Surf” who stole the Star of India from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was not charged. In the book “Confessions of a Mafia Boss” Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso tried to become an informer. He was not allowed to testify because he would have shot down the government’s case against John Gotti. He knew that Sammy “the Bull" Gravano dealt in drugs ( with him) and testified at John Gotti’s trial that he didn't. John McNally knew that Gravano killed 43 people not 19 that he stated on the stand. Gaspipe found out through his paid FBI agent that the Feds were going to arrest John McNally to shut him up. He did not testify and was not arrested. Eight years ago I was tracking down witnesses for a defendant charged with a car case in Staten Island when I started to get witnesses who admitted that they lied to the Grand Jury and when I tracked down evidence withheld from the case I was arrested for Intimidating a witness in the 4th Degree and trespassing ( on public property) Case was dismissed and they effectively stopped me from continuing by getting 31 orders of protection from the witnesses . Of course most of these witnesses were later interviewed and they had no knowledge of this. Case was dismissed against my client a few years ago and there is a Federal Civil Rights lawsuit against the Staten Island District Attorney, NYPD, Department of Motor Vehicles, various inspectors, police officers, false witnesses and a few attorneys who violated ethics rules. Sometimes the bad guys get all the breaks and it is frustrating to law enforcement but we expect them to play by the rules so when we do get convictions they stick. In many cases that I have handled where the defendant was later found innocent, he had a bad attorney or a public defender who was overworked and did not care. Many private eyes are telling me about cyber crimes. Men and women are meeting potential mates on the Internet via social networking sites. Many of the people are liars or exaggerate who they are. One women was conned by her “lover” into giving him money so he could invest it and was taken for $50,000. Smart people have been hiring private eyes to verify the information that's put out there. The sites do not check out these people thoroughly these dating sites are only interested getting your money. Be careful how you use these sites.

Remember, not only the government is watching you, so is Vinny Parco!