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Category: FFS Blog

The Art of War

By: Joe H. Dickerson, CFE

The Art of War

I have been a student of Sun Tzu and The Art of War for many years, as you can probably tell from the worn condition of some of my books. The wisdom of Sun Tzu has survived a few thousand years and is currently applicable, not only to war but also to many other facets of our modern life and businesses.

As I study these various translations and treaties of The Art of War, I continue to find more and more application to my profession of Judgment Enforcement; which I will be sharing with you periodically.

My Favorite: “Take from a man that which he treasures, and he will follow your way.”

Application: As it is important to pay attention to the demographics of a debtor, it is equally important to be interested in the psychographics of the debtor as well. You want to understand what makes the judgment debtor tick. I learn as much as I can about the debtor from our client  and the preliminary forensic research our staff does on every case as part of our pre-engagement due diligence.

In doing our preliminary research on this $1.25 million judgment debtor, I found he had obtained a big game hunting license for ALASKA for the last eight years. It was obvious that this guy was not a casual hunter – I suspected he was a big game hunter. I talked to my client who said he thought the debtor was probably a Trophy Hunter but referred me to a friend who was a former employee of the judgment debtor. I had a 10-15 minute casual conversation with him about the debtor – then before hanging up I said, “By the way, is he (the debtor) a fisherman or hunter?” He replied that the debtor was a big-time game hunter who had his entire family room full of trophies.

With this information, I had our attorney subpoena the Homeowners insurance company for a copy of the policy and all scheduled assets. Listed there were: jewelry, furs, artwork, antiques, several high-powered guns and a list of mounted trophies.

With that list of assets, we were able to get a Writ of Execution issued by the court to the Sherriff to raid the debtor’s home and take assets to satisfy the judgment.

I arranged the date for a raid, a moving van with sufficient manpower to load anything we took from the debtor’s home, and a locksmith in case the home was locked or if there were locked files, safes, etc. We had pre-arranged for the sheriff to announce himself then enter the home, show the debtor the Writ, then search the home and remove all weapons before our team entered.

As we started to take our judgment debtor’s lifelong collection of mounted hunting trophies, he immediately agreed to pay the $1.25 million civil judgment against him. Gathered from our preliminary research, we had enough information to form a good idea of what we were dealing with in this case. We got what we wanted in exchange for his trophy collection that he “cherished” as it represented a lifetime of success in his mind and heart. And I thought to myself, as the saying goes…

“Take from a man that which he treasures, and he will follow your way.”

 – Sun Tzu

If you have questions, comments to share, or would like a copy of my book

“Diagnostic & Prescriptive Judgment Enforcement – The New Model for Judgment Enforcement”

Please contact

303-974-5610

OR

joe@financialforensicservices.com

Be sure to watch for our next blog!

As Seen In

Financial Forensic Services, LLC is proud to staff Certified Fraud Examiners

Testimonial

” I was prepared to dismiss a federal case involving millions of dollars against a local individual who claimed to have no substantial assets. After your staff hit the records and delved into the transactions behind the transactions, you discovered the individual to actually be worth a few million dollars. We continued the case to conclusion. We were also very happy with the financial background examinations you conducted of the former directors of two failed national banks. The heart of any civil case is whether there is a pot at the end of the lawsuit. You were our lucky leprechaun in finding such pots.”

R. Michael Sentel
, Former Section Chief Legal Division, FDIC

2014-11-11T18:13:08+00:00

R. Michael Sentel
, Former Section Chief Legal Division, FDIC

” I was prepared to dismiss a federal case involving millions of dollars against a local individual who claimed to have no substantial assets. After your staff hit the records and delved into the transactions behind the transactions, you discovered the individual to actually be worth a few million dollars. We continued the case to conclusion. We were also very happy with the financial background examinations you conducted of the former directors of two failed national banks. The heart of any civil case is whether there is a pot at the end of the lawsuit. You were our lucky leprechaun in finding such pots.”

“As an environmental law firm, we use Joe Dickerson to locate prior business owners and do corporate genealogies. He is persistent, that’s the key to a good investigator, and he has a knack for understanding how people move money and do business. That tells him what rocks to look under. Joe is vastly superior to other investigators in two ways: he lets you know what’s going on and he’s honest with you, because he tells you if there’s really anything there worth pursuing. He is unusually thorough and creative finding people. Joe has earned his fee every time.” “If the information is to be found, then I believe that they will find it. Their service enabled me to do a much better job for my client.”

Tim Gabelhouse
, Attorney at Law

2014-11-11T18:20:41+00:00

Tim Gabelhouse
, Attorney at Law

“As an environmental law firm, we use Joe Dickerson to locate prior business owners and do corporate genealogies. He is persistent, that’s the key to a good investigator, and he has a knack for understanding how people move money and do business. That tells him what rocks to look under. Joe is vastly superior to other investigators in two ways: he lets you know what’s going on and he’s honest with you, because he tells you if there’s really anything there worth pursuing. He is unusually thorough and creative finding people. Joe has earned his fee every time.” “If the information is to be found, then I believe that they will find it. Their service enabled me to do a much better job for my client.”

“Joe is the most competent investigator I’ve ever found. He has rare ability to find hidden assets. Others claim it, Joe has it. He understands the Rules of Evidence, he knows how to talk to people to develop a fact pattern, and he has a sixth sense for fraud. Joe has unquestioned integrity and delivers value for his services.”

Andrew Quiat
, Attorney

2014-11-11T18:12:51+00:00

Andrew Quiat
, Attorney

“Joe is the most competent investigator I’ve ever found. He has rare ability to find hidden assets. Others claim it, Joe has it. He understands the Rules of Evidence, he knows how to talk to people to develop a fact pattern, and he has a sixth sense for fraud. Joe has unquestioned integrity and delivers value for his services.”

“They went overboard in providing excellent service. I was very pleased with what they provided for me as their end product. Financial Forensic Services really understands how a case needs to be put together in order to be presented to a jury. Their PowerPoint presentation tied everything together. It was thorough, it was concise, and it got the job done.”

Jim Thomas
, Prosecuting Attorney

2014-11-11T18:21:32+00:00

Jim Thomas
, Prosecuting Attorney

“They went overboard in providing excellent service. I was very pleased with what they provided for me as their end product. Financial Forensic Services really understands how a case needs to be put together in order to be presented to a jury. Their PowerPoint presentation tied everything together. It was thorough, it was concise, and it got the job done.”

“Joe Dickerson is the industry standard. You can measure the rest by what he does, and I say that without equivocation. Joe has incredible insight into the dark world of fraud. He understands the devious ways in which people perpetrate white-collar crime.”

Jan Schlichtman
, Attorney at Law

2014-11-11T18:20:55+00:00

Jan Schlichtman
, Attorney at Law

“Joe Dickerson is the industry standard. You can measure the rest by what he does, and I say that without equivocation. Joe has incredible insight into the dark world of fraud. He understands the devious ways in which people perpetrate white-collar crime.”

“When I was general counsel for First Interstate Bank, I used Joe Dickerson for locating assets, investigating behavior and asset discovery. He did excellent work and always got the information I needed without compromising the bank in any way. He’s more thorough and kept in better touch with me than other investigators. I’d give him a grade of 96 or 97 out of 100.”

Frank Brainerd, Retired
Banker/Attorney

2014-11-11T18:20:20+00:00

Frank Brainerd, Retired
Banker/Attorney

“When I was general counsel for First Interstate Bank, I used Joe Dickerson for locating assets, investigating behavior and asset discovery. He did excellent work and always got the information I needed without compromising the bank in any way. He’s more thorough and kept in better touch with me than other investigators. I’d give him a grade of 96 or 97 out of 100.”

“Financial Forensic Services did an excellent job in the way they executed my case. They were very straightforward. They stated what they could do for us and they did it. And, from a personal standpoint, they are excellent. Both my wife and I felt very comfortable working with them.”

Michael Whalen, 
Businessman

2014-11-11T18:21:13+00:00

Michael Whalen, 
Businessman

“Financial Forensic Services did an excellent job in the way they executed my case. They were very straightforward. They stated what they could do for us and they did it. And, from a personal standpoint, they are excellent. Both my wife and I felt very comfortable working with them.”

“Joe spends the time to understand the problem from the client’s perspective and from the legal perspective. He is intelligent, tenacious, willing to work as hard as it takes, thorough, well-informed, and just awfully good at what he does.”

Thomas E. Root, 
Attorney

2014-11-11T18:20:05+00:00

Thomas E. Root, 
Attorney

“Joe spends the time to understand the problem from the client’s perspective and from the legal perspective. He is intelligent, tenacious, willing to work as hard as it takes, thorough, well-informed, and just awfully good at what he does.”