Are you wondering what really caused one of your family members’ death? Are you interested to learn if you are or someone you know is about to undergo an unnecessary operation? How about whether a reputable professional is profiteering or not?

Did you know that private investigators can also be in the form of various professionals such as medical investigators and examiners who can clear all the cloud in your head when it comes to the abovementioned situations or similar problems? You’re still not convinced? Check out these three cases that investigators served as good ol’ heroes in solving medical or related issues:

Medical Error

Juanita Brown was administered with the wrong medication which was not learnt if not for the assistance of a private investigator. Unfortunately, medication errors cause a wide variety of serious injuries and even deaths and many of these are left unsolved. According to Today’s News Herald, such could be the case of Juanita if not probed.

Psychiatric Fund Raising?

If you’ve been thinking that your professor or your resident scientist is just doing his or her job just for the sheer passion for it, but you smell something fishy since you’ve been witnessing parades of flashy cars and vacations to secluded islands every so often, you might need to consult a private investigator if you’re concerned with the finances of your company. One proof is the case of a psychiatric researcher who has been found to be lying about the 1.6 M worth of drug money. Thanks to investigators, it was discovered that he was underreporting the funds received from various drug companies.

Unnecessary Operations to Meet Necessities

Two Italian medical doctors were suspected to carry out unnecessary operation procedures just to earn more. Investigators used false medical tests to be lined up for the operations. Although debatable, phone taps were used to lead to the discovery of staff boosting their monthly income to as much as 25,000 euros.

These problems, if not for the intervention of private investigators might be just left gathering dust in the corner of injustice. So if you have suspicions that you might be undergoing similar situations or someone you know someone who might be in these types of situation, don’t hesitate to hire a private investigator. A private investigator could be your best bet if you want the truth.

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A former Engineer for aviation giant Boeing is being accused of being part of a years-long scheme of stealing classified information regarding the space shuttle program of the United States – and then sending the information to China. The former engineer, Dongfan “Greg” Chung, is a seventy-two year old who once worked for the company Rockwell International, before Boeing came in 1996 and took over the firm. Chung then worked for Boeing until 2006. He was arrested recently in his home in Southern California.

Chung is being indicted on over ten counts of conspiracy, lying to investigators, obstruction of justice, and economic espionage. If found guilty, Chung faces a sentence of over a hundred years in prison. Chung is a native of China, but he has already become a naturalized citizen of the U.S. He once held clearance for top security level work. His case comes in conjunction with that of an analyst for the U.S. Department of Defense, who was recently indicted for sharing government secrets with two accomplices; the secrets eventually found their way to the Chinese government.

Government officials are very alarmed with the rise in espionage cases, and see them as threats to national security, as well as to the U.S.’ economic position. To date, the Justice Department has already at least six cases that involve efforts by China to acquire certain kinds of technology through espionage, including technology to enable night-vision equipment to operate on the battlefield, as well as smart missiles. For Chung, this meant passing on information to the Chinese government on transport planes, rockets, and space shuttles via another engineer based in China. His involvement in espionage dates to the late 1970’s, when China contacted him to do work as compatriot.

Chung’s case is only one of a few espionage cases in which private investigators are involved. In this case, many different private investigators may be called in to help resolve a case, especially since it has been decades since Chung started helping the Chinese government. Some private investigators may be tasked to trace documents and letters from the Chinese government in order to completely determine who it was in the Chinese government that was responsible for recruiting Chung. They may need to see the extent of Chung’s work as a spy, and they may need to look for more witnesses to support their case.

Private investigators have a lot of work that they could possibly do in order to improve their work on a case. They may be tasked to go after witnesses or observe certain people in order to add to the strength of a case. Their work may be as exciting as going after people, or as tedious as days’ worth of stakeouts.

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China’s plans for world domination might sound like a plot for a Hollywood movie, but to tell the truth, the movie might just be real. In recent months, private investigation and government work have shown that China has plans to use industrial espionage to make their country an even greater military and industrial threat. China’s work has been much greater and more innovative than what the Soviets tried to do. The Soviets, for instance, did not have the supporting industries to enable it to copy U.S. innovations and accomplishments. They ended up making crude copies, and thus could not reach industrial heights the way their contemporaries across the Atlantic did.

The article goes on to say that it China is avoiding the errors made by the Soviets by allowing the West to penetrate into China’s businesses, as well as by sending students to the U.S. to study. Although some of these students will end up staying in the U.S., many of them will return to China and share their expertise. The article calls the China approach a “thousand grains of sand” which will involve trying to push the citizens overseas, with the hope that they can bring back knowledge; as well as employing people of Chinese descent in helping rebuild China through subtle spying techniques. While this approach is not new, imprudent exercise of it can be alarming.

According to the article, any Chinese citizens who come or go are subjected to scrutiny and interviews by the government. The government may ask students to bring back souvenirs, to report on the things that they see, and to “share” what they have learned. Diplomatic immunity, the article says, also works in favor of the Chinese: they offer cash in order to recruit spies, and give large financial incentives to people who can bring back Western knowledge to further China’s industrial hopes. However, they can only work to a certain extent made possible by copyright and patent laws.

In recent months, private investigation has turned up information on what the Chinese are doing in terms of recruiting people to help serve their military and industrial needs. Private investigators are well equipped to handle this case on all possible fronts and they may be tasked to spy on Chinese diplomats, people of Chinese descent, and even Chinese exchange students in order to see how information is being passed on. Of course, this may breed a good deal of paranoia in the general populace, so private investigation must likewise be subtle in checking on how Chinese immigrants and visitors are behaving and possibly working for their motherland.

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Mangroves are very important components to the environment and their value to the ecosystem is recognized around the world.  That is, unless these mangroves grow in Whangamata harbor in New Zealand.  The trees in this area are currently the subject of hot debate – should they be removed?  And how many of them should be uprooted?   For Environment Waikato, this is a concern that is still being contested.

The legal process of mangrove removal
Turns out that the mangroves growing in Whangamata harbor are multiplying too fast and have to be trimmed to make way for projects that will use up more of the area.  Mangroves had become invasive, threatening the harbor and some trees were actually culled over a period of years.  A private investigator was called in but no charges have been filed to this day.  In February, the decision to remove a good number of mangroves was unveiled by the regional council who then asked local residents for their reactions.

One of the recommendations that emerged was that 16 hectares of mangroves should be removed.  This proposal was opposed by Councilor Simon Friar, who felt that more should be removed.  Although he proposed about 60 hectares, Friar later declared that the total amount should be 24 hectares, which will be discussed further during negotiations.  Friar has close ties to the anti-mangrove group of Whangamata.

Strategies for controlling Whangamata’s mangroves
Mangroves naturally grow in shallow beaches but the sediment that enters Whangamata apparently encourages their propagation.  This, according to Harry Wilson, an executive of Environment Waikato, may be dealt with using catchment works.  To solve the problem of too many trees, Environment Waikato is looking at some options that will control the mangroves, including seedling removal and implementing a catchment plan.

Investigating unapproved culling of mangroves
There are opposing views about what should be done to the mangroves.  However, there are also groups that step in and make the decisionmaking much more of a challenge than it should be.  Illegally removing or killing the mangroves exacerbates the arguments already in place, particularly those being upheld by those taking the anti-mangrove side.  If Environment Waikato wants to ensure that the mangrove talks remain on fair ground, they should ensure that the matter is privately investigated.

Man vs. mangrove?
Should nature once again make way for human progress?  Environment Waikato hopes it can come up with a workable and mutually beneficial compromise, while New Zealand is still in the process of reviewing its Coastal Policy Statement.  In the end, it is truly about ensuring the balance between the use of the area near the harbor and ecological concerns that must be established. 

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Gary Bekkum first brought Starstream Research to the fore in 2004, working on it as an informal review of related literature that looked at exotic physics, as well as consciousness concepts that were related to the propagation and thriving of the human race. Starstream research drew from sources that were in Bekkum’s network of science industry and defense industry contacts.

Thanks to his work, Bekkum has a good many contacts with various intelligence officials who have expressed interest in how exotic physical phenomena, such as antigravity, can be applied in various fields. On the whole, Starstream Research provides open-source intelligence on issues that deal with futuristic defense; moreover, it has recently alerted the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), calling up a private investigation on a case involving U.S. bank, which failed to address, and in a timely manner, a transfer of funds that had been unauthorized, and that had taken place in late 2007. The bank has still not addressed the issue, and has, moreover, gone on to start up even more transfers of funds without notifying the account holder, and without authorization from the account holder.

The Starstream Research group speculates that the bank network has been breached by a hacker, and the network may be compromised. In order to determine if this has indeed occurred, a private investigation may have to take place. In this case, a private investigation may be carried out in order to probe the extent of damage done to the bank’s network, and moreover, to trace who is responsible for carrying out the unauthorized transfer of funds.

Private investigation truly is a difficult field to get into and survive in, but it is also a rewarding field when the investigation winds down and justice is served. In 2006, there were about fifty two thousand licensed private investigators working in the United States according to compiled government statistics , with about a third of these investigators listing themselves as self employed. Private investigation, at its very heart, is dangerous, and yet it can also be tedious as most investigators have to conduct hours-long stakeouts, or simply wait for things to happen.

Private investigators also come from many different fields. Some will be computer science graduates, and will specialize in searching through databases, diagnosing computer networks, analyzing the integrity of networks and how well they are protected from hackers, and even re-obtain missing or deleted computer data. Other private investigators will be criminal justice majors, while still others will be accountants, and will do work for private business firms.

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When Madeleine McCann went missing in Portugal last year, police scrambled to find her, and even her parents became suspects. And then, Francisco Marco, a Spanish detective, entered the scene: he was to be paid about fifty thousand British pounds a month to bring Madeleine McCann home for Christmas. He even issued a photo fit of a suspect, much to the Portuguese police’s apparent scoffing that the man’s work had “no credibility”. Marco works for a private agency, Metodo 3, which moved from its tiny Barcelona headquarters to a posh villa in one of the Spanish city’s largest boulevard the day that it received the money to search for Madeleine.

In this article, Marco talks to a British journalist about his work on the case. Barcelona is also the hub of private investigation agencies, some of which the journalist also speaks with. The private investigation agencies want to see Metodo 3 succeed with its investigation and finally bring Madeleine home, but the other agencies worry that the overblown promises, if not met, will make the rest of the agencies a laughingstock.

Metodo 3 itself is a unique firm. Founded by Marco’s mother, it is situated in a Barcelona where private detective agencies are more about looking for infidelities to protect family fortunes. Metodo 3 specialized in swindling, insurance fraud, and even industrial espionage. Metodo 3 won fame for tracking down Francisco Paesa, an infamous Spanish arms dealer. Still, Paesa is a fugitive. Metodo 3 is also making sometimes impossibly large claims on their abilities, casting doubt on whether their contract to look for Madeleine McCann. Other detective agencies in Barcelona also speculate that Metodo 3 may simply be finding publicity leverage in order to elevate its status above other private investigation firms whether or not the McCann case will be solved.

Private investigation itself is a difficult job, and it involves dangerous work, irregular hours and sometimes even tedious routines that include hours sitting down and waiting for something to happen. According to statistics compiled by the U.S. government regarding private investigation, about thirty percent of all private investigators in the U.S. are self employed, and hail from many different fields such as the military, army intelligence, and even law enforcement. Private investigators, moreover, are not only involved in stakeouts or database searching. They can prove the fidelity of spouses or significant others, investigate claims of fraud, look for witnesses and interview them, and even work for companies in secretly monitoring the activities of its employees. In nearly all the U.S. states, a license is required to practice private investigation.

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Paula Grossi was shot in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware early in 2007. The murder, done execution style, occurred in her home. Over a year later, the murder has not yet been solved, and her father, Francis Grossi, has already hired the services of a private investigation company in order to help solve the case. Although Grossi has stated that he hopes that the private investigation company will be able to find information that the local state police was not able to locate, he claims that his decision is not about any ineptitude of the local police force.

So far, there have been no arrests related to the case. In order to pay for the private company to do investigation on the murder case, Grossi is taking back his public offer of a monetary reward of a hundred thousand dollars for clues to solve the case.

This is only one case by which people use private investigators after local police officers have not been able to solve a case, and sometimes in lieu of police investigation. Private investigators are hired routinely in many different fields and for many different reasons. For instance, supermarket or grocery companies routinely hire private investigators to pose as store employees and check on their fellow employees for stealing products. Insurance companies also hire private investigators in order to take a closer look at claims. Law offices may also have to hire private investigators when they need to track down and interview witnesses, and if they have a hard time looking for crucial information that can aid a case as soon as it is picked out of its hiding place.

According to statistics on private investigators, private investigation is a dangerous job, with irregular work hours. Of the fifty-two thousand private investigators licensed to work in the United States in 2006, about a third were self employed. Private investigators also hail from many different fields, such as law enforcement, intelligence, insurance, and the military. The educational background of private investigators is also as varied: some may choose a degree in criminal justice, but some will have come from accounting, business, and computer science degrees. Such backgrounds can be useful depending on the specialty of the private investigator. For instance, a computer science degree can be good for private investigators who wish to do database searchers, or to look for archived or lost data. A private investigator with a degree in accounting can be useful to a company that wants to do a self-audit.

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If you think that you know private investigators well enough to wield your own weapons and drive around in a fancy car, then think again. The real world of crime investigation, according to private investigator and former peace officer Brad Bacom, is nothing like it is on TV. Bacom will be teaching a class that will introduce attendees to the basics of private investigation on February 16 at the Lamar Institute of Technology. Speaking from the perspective of someone with nearly thirty years of experience, Bacom will start with four hours of a talk on the reality of private investigation. The entire course costs $600, and it will meet on February 16 and 23, and then on March 1, 8, 15, and 29.

Bacom has taught this same class for about a year at the same venue. He may not have high profile or television-worthy cases to talk about, but he does have a few experiences in dealing with criminals. He once had a knife pulled on him and robbed him as he was in the process of searching through an abandoned home. His worst injuries however, were on the job, Bacom says. Moreover, Bacom does not carry firearms to exhibit them while carrying out his investigation, which, the private eye says, is not the norm for many investigators. Besides, licensed private investigators are not allowed to carry guns, and being allowed to carry one will entail having to apply for a license for a concealed handgun.

Private investigation, moreover, is not just about going through wreckage to look for missing clues, or running after the bad guys to get a crucial piece of evidence. Private investigation is also about retrieving lost data from computers, or finding their sources, or even using databases to search for people. Private investigation may also involve proving or disproving the fidelity of spouses to each other through surveillance. Companies also hire private investigators to watch out for fraudulent employees and managers.

According to government statistics on private investigators, which are available at , there are around 52,000 licensed investigators in 2006, with about 34% of them working in investigation and security services. Although many private investigators hold basic degrees in criminal justice, many private investigators who have to work for companies or law firms will need additional degrees, experience, or certifications. If you are interested in working as a private investigator, do research on good schools that will provide you with a good background to excel in the field of private investigation in which you would like to be involved in the future.

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A private investigator has volunteered to look for Jaliek Rainwater, as 12-year-old black boy who is rumored to have run away from home. Jaliek is adopted by the Kerr family but story has it that Jaliek has attitude problems that his adoptive parents can’t handle. There were many instances involving Jaliek in school and in the community and the last one of it was about his threats a 4-year-old girl in school.

That was supposed to be the final leg of all of Jaliek’s troubles because apparently, he had disappeared after that incident. Jaliek’s foster parents still believe that the boy was still alive and is only missing after he had runaway. But the police and now even the private investigators are joining the search party for him because they think that something more than a case of a runaway child is going on in this case.

Stephen Kerr, Jaliek’s adoptive father, had said that they were reconsidering the adoption but swears that Jaliek didn’t know anything about it. They said that he must have found out somehow so he chose to run away instead.

This case had triggered so many thoughts and reactions to a lot of people. And most of them would like to know about how the case progresses. The private investigator that offered his services for free to look for Jaliek is Jamie Richardson and his partner. However, they don’t want to show their faces on TV so that they can continue to work anonymously as possible.

Richardson owns a private investigation firm called the ‘Mission Possible Investigation’. They are looking over Jaliek’s case for free and had even setup a hotline for people who might have good leads about the case.

Mission Possible Investigation has been in operation for more than 10 years now and their specialty is with cases related to child abuse and missing persons. While they admit that they normally charge a fee for their services, they are waiving that in Jaliek’s case, as it has more societal feeling and concern than any other case they have handled.

Richardson has worked with the state’s law enforcement agencies as well other private investigative firms. He knew the ropes and is confident that Jaliek would be found soon, provided that nothing sinister had happened to him at all.

The latest development about this case is the unsigned postmarked letter that the New York police had received. It says that Jaliek is indeed, still alive. Both the police and the private investigators working on the case believe that the boy’s adoptive father plays a big role in the child’s disappearance.

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Anthony Pellicano is a private investigator that has faced charges against another cop, albeit a former one. A previous police officer and his wife accused Pellicano of having falsified the phone conversations that were presented as evidence in the court. And it is those tapes had further strengthened the government’s case against them, which is all about charging the government for projects that never existed.

The couple’s names were James Skrzypek and Janice Skrzypek and they are facing charges for defrauding the government of a substantial amount of money by declaring bills for several security works that were never performed at Taylor Homes. Taylor Homes is a housing complex situated in Chicago that has the notorious reputation of being one of the most dangerous housing complexes in the whole of America.

The Skrzypeks are waging a fight behind bars, telling the court that they were setup and were actually innocent of the allegations placed before them. This is yet another effort of the couple to win their federal trial. They have sued private detective Pellicano for allegedly falsifying the tapes that were used in their trial to further strengthen the claims of the government and convicting them both in the process.

The case was filed in the Superior Court of Los Angeles. The Skrzypeks claim that Pellicano, along with other law enforcers and federal agents, had joined forces together to create those tapes in order to make them appear bad in front of the court and its jury. They said that the main and only purpose of the falsified tapes is make the two of them look as if they knew all about the attempts to bribe the officials of the Chicago Housing Authority. And that was what the whole federal case is all about, which is the billing irregularities of the security firm that was owned by the Skrzypeks against this particular government’s arm.

The Skrzypeks continue to resolve that the conversations caught on the three tapes presented in court that had proven the bribery case between their security firm and the Chicago Housing Authority officials never actually happened in the first place. They maintain that only private investigator Pellicano had manufactured all the audiotapes and the conversations caught therein, along with all the agents that he is working for on the case. While the tapes incriminated them into conviction, the couple say that they have yet to prove it authenticity.

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