So, you meet someone at a conference, and in the course of conversation you discover that you might be able to do some business together.
You’re intrigued, but how do you know it’s a wise move? Do you really know anything about that person?
The point is this: You never know until you check it out. When you’re putting it all on the line, you need to know that the other person is who they represent themselves to be.
“Our best clients are ones who have already been taken advantage of. When we have to do those checks after the deal has been done, that’s a painful experience for those guys,” said Marc Hurwitz on a recent show.
Hurwitz is president of Crossroads Investigations – Xinvestigations.com – in Miami. He and his team of former CIA analysts were recently ranked the No. 1 private investigation agency in South Florida by the Daily Business Review.
Hurwitz is the real deal. He began government service with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and continued in the U.S. Department of State’s Human Rights Bureau. He then worked in the White House for three years, where he served as the aide to the Deputy National Security Advisor.
Hurwitz went on to become a counter-terrorism officer for the Central Intelligence Agency before opening Crossroads in 2008.
Disaster averted
How important is it to do your homework on people? My friend and recent guest on the show, Chaim Cahane of Forte Capital Management, LLC, shared the story of a narrowly averted disaster.
His firm was under contract to close on a beach property and was in the process of raising equity when an individual came to them offering some very favorable economic terms.
But something didn’t add up, and their attorney suggested a background check on the guy. This turned up some past issues that would have prohibited Forte from getting the financing it needed.
“It’s really important to know who your equity is, especially if they have a majority of the interest, because the lenders today have a “know your investor” rule. In this deal, we had to go away from this guy, and we decided to go hard on the deal ourselves. And we were able to, thank God, pull it off,” Cahane said.
Hurwitz says you have to “check the box.” Whether it’s a business deal or checking on a nanny, it’s not an option. You need to know things like:
– Criminal history
– Liens
– Bankruptcies
– Judgments
– Foreclosures
– Evictions
– General reputation
– Blogs
– Media reports
– Finances
Now, I’ve used Hurwitz’s services on occasion. One report he gave me was 300 pages long – and it was spot-on.
“You have to know if someone is vulnerable. What we learned in the intelligence community is that someone’s vulnerabilities will motivate them to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do,” he said.
“If someone’s weak financially, they’re going to take advantage. That may not be the person that they are, but they are at that moment.”
Many different types of clients come to Crossroads Investigations, Hurwitz said, but most are law firms. Real estate firms sometimes do background checks on tenants, he added.
If you contact Hurwitz, be prepared to tell him how deep you want to go with an investigation. What do you want to know?
And by the way, it might be wise to have Hurwitz do an investigation on – you! You might be surprised by what’s out there.
This was a great – if a little frightening – interview. We also discussed:
– The conditions under which Forte Capital Management will do a background check.
– The recent “Panama Papers” revelation. Is there more to come?
Contact Marc Hurwitz of Crossroads Investigations at 305-929-3513 or Xinvestigations.com.
Click here to listen to the full interview.
