Past Criminal Trouble

People are happy to tell you where they grew up and where they live now, but really knowing someone's background means finding out where they were and what they did between college and yesterday.

We begin every due-diligence investigation by compiling a list of an executive's home addresses over the last decade or so. Past addresses are better identifiers on people than Social Security numbers because they show where to look for criminal convictions, lawsuits, and other on-the-record trouble.