Seeing Life through Private Eyes by Thomas G. Martin

Author:Thomas G. Martin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

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In what was one of the biggest fraud cases my company ever handled, a man in Orange County who was the accountant for a transportation company was suspected of stealing huge sums from his employer through a complex system of fake invoicing. Three of us went in to grill him—myself and two of my best investigators. We entered the conference room and sat down to have a very serious conversation with this guy, ready to use all our best interrogative techniques. We were hoping just to get him to cop to something small, to get the ball rolling. Not two minutes into it the guy held up his hands. “I did it. I know exactly how much I took . . . nearly two million dollars . . . one-point-eight to be exact.”

“So what did you do with it?”

“Bet on the Lakers. Bought a boatload of cocaine. And partied with some really hot hookers down in Costa Rica.” Well, that was a fast investigation. We gathered all the supporting background materials—copies of the phony checks, dummy invoices, and phone records. I sorted it, organized it, wrapped it all up, and basically tied a red bow around it before heading off to a local police department in Orange County.

“Yeah . . . not sure we’re going to get involved in this,” was what I heard when I followed up a couple weeks later.

“Are you kidding me?! This is not pocket change. It’s nearly two million dollars!” I protested. For two months, I pestered them. I wasn’t about to let this go down without a fight. “You don’t have to do any work,” I pointed out. “We’ve laid it all out for you. Just present this to the district attorney, file charges, have him arrested, and take the case to court . . . he’s already admitted he’s guilty! There’s a signed declaration of guilt right on top!”

Finally, I wore them down. A detective did take the file to the DA’s office, where one of their investigators reviewed the material. The DA’s office did file charges, and the guy was arrested. When it came time for the trial, he pleaded “not guilty.” His reason for that was, “Those guys said if I told them the truth, they’d let me out of this.” Our jaws dropped. If only we had that kind of power. The trial proceeded, with the question basically now becoming, “So were you lying then to these investigators, or are you lying now?” Eventually, after an eighteen-month legal process, uphill every step of the way, he was sentenced to five years.

It became clear to me that criminals are rarely prosecuted for business crimes such as embezzlement the way the general public might imagine. Law enforcement is up to their eyeballs in work. Many police forces no longer pay overtime, which quickly becomes a problem. For every one case that comes in the door, there are ten more just as urgent right behind them. Don’t forget that police officers are used to seeing the worst of human nature.

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