Targeted, truth-telling surveillance
A law firm was working for a business client who was trying to enforce a judgment it had against a foreign nation. The country owned several properties in the Washington, D.C. area which were ostensibly being used for diplomatic purposes. Assets that are being used for diplomatic reasons are generally considered off limits for purposes of collecting judgments, while it is sometimes possible to seize non-diplomatic assets and properties. The law firm wondered if the properties were in fact being used for diplomatic purposes, and they hired us to conduct surveillance to find out.
We began by conducting fixed surveillance of the properties using multi-investigator teams, videotaping all of the activity we saw and identifying the occupants through their vehicle tags and using investigative databases. Once we had a pretty good idea of who was living there, we began following the occupants to see if they were diplomatic personnel of the country’s embassy or other missions, or not.
As our investigators began to piece together the lives of the occupants of these properties, it became clear that they were clearly not diplomats.
As our investigators began to piece together the lives of the occupants of these properties, it became clear that they were clearly not diplomats. For example, we followed one man who resided in a house owned by the foriegn country to a Maryland restaurant, where he donned a uniform and began waiting tables. Using pinhole cameras our investigators were able to capture video footage of this man as he served them lunch.
Our reports and the surveillance footage we captured during this investigation were used by the attorneys, who moved the court to liquidate the properties in question.