Eye Opening Federal Criminal Case Dismissed
I’ve been a Private Investigator in Los Angeles for twenty-eight years and have investigated several challenging criminal investigations but none quite as challenging as this one. What you are about to read might resemble the preface to a crime novel, but this is a true story about how I, as a Private Investigator, was tasked with uncovering the truth against insurmountable odds. LOS ANGELES PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR VS. US GOVERNMENT Author; Robert Mann, Director of Worldwide Intelligence Network HERE IS A LIST OF THE SERVICES WE PROVIDE Infidelity Investigations Cheating Spouse Investigations Surveillance Investigations Civil and Criminal Investigations Locate Investigations Executive Background Investigations Employee Misconduct Workers’ Compensation Fraud INTRODUCTION Upon meeting the subject of this article, which became my client (herein referred to as Steve), the first words out of his mouth were he reluctantly pled guilty to bribing a Special Agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Steve owned a very successful freight forwarding and redistribution business. His warehouse was enormous at 500,000 square feet, located in Dominguez, California, on the outskirts of Compton. He employed about a hundred people. WHY AM I HERE? I was more than curious to know why Steve requested my services since the cow already left the barn. “What would you like me to do for you,” I asked. He handed me sixty pages of exculpatory evidence the US Justice Department turned over to him and asked that I, please review them. I asked who his attorney was, and he told me he decided to plead guilty after retaining three different top Los Angeles’ criminal attorneys that cost him approximately $350,000. All three told him he would be better off entering a guilty plea rather than to go up against the US Justice Department. I thought what the heck, I drove an hour to get to Dominguez Hills from Century City, and rush hour was in full swing I might as well take a look. Steve provided me with a private room to review the government’s documents, and what I found in those pages blew my mind. THE ANONYMOUS TIP All sixty pages were on INS letterhead (Homeland Security had not been formed yet), and they all appeared to be written by someone who did not have an academic command of English. The author appeared to be educated outside of the United States. The first page was titled “Anonymous Tip,” which stated that Steve employed about three hundred illegal aliens and was paying them under the table to avoid payroll taxes. It also stated Steve was paying off US Customs Agents to gain more random truck inspections for his company. Steve told me that he was a vetted/approved USA Independent Contractor for the United States Customs office. The anonymous tipster further alleged Steve was transporting illicit drugs in his company’s trucks all across America. Other pages pertained to various investigative assignments allegedly conducted by INS Agents, all initialed by an alleged INS supervisor. Each page had those initials in the same place on each page. The assignments supposedly approved by the INS Supervisor were surveillance of Steve’s warehouse along with several undercover investigations in and around the warehouse to identify all of the alleged illegal aliens working for Steve, under the table. The supervisor’s initials appeared to be copied and pasted on each page. The anonymous note ended with a statement saying that the person calling in this anonymous tip would be willing to testify if asked. So much for it being “an anonymous tipster.” The government’s entire case hinged upon information provided by INS Special Agent Avestro, who alleged the entire investigation, was initiated by an anonymous tipster. A GLIMMER OF HOPE I have conducted hundreds of document examinations over twenty-eight years and developed an innate ability to identify certain aspects in a document that is questionable. I had no doubt those sixty pages were all bogus. I told Steve his only course of action was to try and have his guilty plea withdrawn, which was no easy task. I recommended two partners at Loeb & Loeb law offices for whom I’ve done a considerable amount of investigations for. Both attorneys were former prosecutors at the State and Federal levels. I told the Loeb & Loeb attorneys my interpretation of the government’s documents. Steve told me that not one of the three attorneys he retained wanted to review any of the sixty pages. The Loeb lawyers met with Steve and agreed to take on his case after reviewing Steve’s plea. They filed a motion in Federal Court to withdraw his guilty plea and requested Steve to proceed to trial. MOTION GRANTED Loeb lawyers and the AUSA appeared before US District Judge Terry J. Hatter. The motion to withdraw Steve’s plea was granted. A trial date was set. THE IMPETUS – WHY THIS HAPPENED I learned Steve and his brother dated two Filipina women who were in Steve’s employ. Over time, both Steve and his brother David ended their relationship with their respective girlfriends, which evolved into the two women becoming unhinged. They turned to a mutual Filipino friend who was a Special Agent for the INS named Avestro. The women told Avestro how badly the brothers treated them, and they wanted to teach Steve a lesson by destroying his business. I sat with Steve and David conducting in-depth interviews for days to learn everything that transpired from their first date to their last dates with two scorned women. The brothers explained that Avestro began hanging around the warehouse all the time, acting like a good friend of two ex-girlfriends. I interviewed many of Steve’s employees, especially those who were knowledgeable about the two Filipina ladies lifestyle. The more I heard, the stronger our case became. I learned that Steve’s former attorneys hired private investigators to interview the two ex-girlfriends and other employees who might be helpful to Steve. Not a single employee would speak with those investigators. During my investigation, I interviewed all of the crucial witnesses. Failure in my mind