Happy Holidays & Some Snark!

by Lina M. Maini

Happy holidays to all. We'll be back after the New Year. But we wanted to leave you with a few thoughts...

Over the years, BNI (our investigation company), staff has encountered memorable experiences, portrayed below via our friends at Billable Hours and Stus:

In dealing with witnesses and evidence:

Locating expert witnesses:

and a unique service request approach (I'm on the right):

But always, great clients, to whom we sincerely wish:

From the BNI gang (and, as several wonderful clients have referred to us as, "Monster! Private Investigators"),

Safe, sane and healthy holidays!













copyright Mainiac Productions, Inc.

SeeThruNY (not Illinois)

by Lina M. Maini




Annual Pensions for New York State School Retirees


SeeThruNY is a site that we've been following for the past year. It's populating rapidly, (not sure how thrilled we were to see the Retired Teachers Pensioneers list though... seems a bit invasive), bringing comprehensive NY State government worker data (salary, agency, title...) to the public.

Suspiciously, there is no SeeThruIlinois. We checked. There was a comparable listing of Illinois positions and salaries that was just recently pulled down.

A Chicagoan friend ponders the difference between Illinois Governor Rod (F*** 'Em)Blagojevich (and his equally as effin eloquent wife, Patricia) and the Rogue Three of Albany (RTA). Simply: Hair Club for Men advocate Blago wanted real money for an active state Senate seat; in NYS, the RTA, not the MTA, (albeit an understandable mistake) wanted real money for not-as-of-yet created administration positions in exchange for allowing Sen. Malcolm Smith his Senate majority leadership role.

I guess it's easier to slink away from the criminality if one can legitimately call it a "what-if" theoretical situation, a "let's pretend such and such a position were to be created" for one's support as opposed to screaming "Senate for Sale" into every exposed Fed bug from here to Putin's bedroom (which I hope we really have tapped). This all makes me miss the good ole Clinton "parsing" days. Figuring out what Clinton "did" as opposed to what he "said"... Ahhh, like solving a particularly challenging NYT Sunday x-word puzzle. You knew you would eventually finish it, but it was just so much fun getting there. Bill should have opened a school - Parsin's School By Design.

Here are the real differences: Theoretical v. application. Media lights v. perp walk. Fat guy squeezing down the chimney v. skinny guy digging a tunnel.

My big question is, so which administration gets credit for Poof-n-Play Blago Bingo? Monopoly should come out with a new edition: crackhouses, welfare hotels, the jail looking suspiciously like the Ill. Gov's mansion. Passing Go will land you $200, unless an emissary comes by and offers the Banker more for it and pushes his piece ahead. Of course, you can hope that everyone plays ethically. And my opening at the Met is scheduled for next October 9th, 9:00 p.m.

Stay safe all.

We Can't Let This Bank Fail

by Lina M. Maini






This year, for the first time in 25 years of operation, the Community Food Bank of New Jersey is running on bare shelves. People having to make decisions of whether to buy medicine or food. This is America. Lack of food is unAmerican.











Please take a look at this YouTube video:


For a link to a website that lists local food pantries by county go here: Sefan.org.

Do what you can.

Locate Email Addresses In 8 Seconds

by Lina Maini

Take my word on this. BNI is not the world's first not-for-profit private investigation company. We truly enjoy investigative work. Although several base components of a case (type, agency protocol, basic investigation outline...) are usually the same, each matter is always different. Those differences enable our curiosity to remain engaged. That said, we often receive requests for email searches. We don't take candy from babies either.

Below is a really cool tip, developed by our IT genius, Jonathan Caspian, for conducting email searches from your desktop or Blackberry that should gain you the results you need in less than 10 seconds. (Of course, if it's a real toughie, feel absolutely welcome to call our very much for-profit office.)

Tip:

In the address bar (the field at the top of your screen, identifying the curent site you are on: (e.g. https://www.google.com), input: @companyname email surname. Eaxample: (@bniinvestigations.com email maini).

Click on the pic below for an enlarged example:

Give it a shot. It may be also interesting to see where else people pop up. (This type of search can pull up social networking info. On a tangential note, was it really necessary for the print and online media to continually post the adult costumed pics of the practioner who recently met with an unfortunate and violent demise while in physical defense of his gf, Jade Vixen? Now that is truly an egregious posthumous invasion of privacy, which we understand does not legally exist... but still...)

I'm not going down that road today. Have a great upcoming work week!

BNI Operatives: Street smart; web savvy.

Stay safe.

CarFax - Some, Not All, Of The Facts

by Lina Maini



For a variety of reasons (defect history, ownership records, prior accidents...) attorneys often turn to Carfax for vehicle background checks in MVA-related incidents, car purchases and increasingly, in bad faith online car sales actions (usually processed through ebay).

Carfax is a private corporation; compliance is voluntary. Many dealerships join Carfax to lend credibility to their merchandise and often, potential buyers uncover previously unknown details that influence his or her purchasing decision. CarFax legitimately compiles as much information as is publicly available on vehicles in their registry but Carfax should never be mistaken for a governmental agency or presumed to provide complete and vetted information. It is simply a general-access information tool (albeit one of the better ones available) and should be treated accordingly - as a starting point in any vehicle investigation or research.

Be thorough and use a variety of sources such as:

- the owner's personal records
- your state's DMV records
- safercar.gov (a division of the NHTSA) for vehicle recalls and defect records

BNI Operatives: Street smart; Web savvy.

As always, stay safe.