So You Suspect a Heister! 🚩—or—Let’s Find Some Finance Crimes!
Next steps and resource library.
Step 1:
Find your new non-academic, political appointee university president’s official university curriculum vitae (CV) or résumé*.
If their CV or résumé is not readily available 🚩, and it likely will not be, submit a public records request** through the university for any work history document provided during the presidential search and selection process.
Most likely, there will not be one on file. đźš©
For good measure, also request their work agreement.
If they have previously worked for any public universities or state or federal agencies…couldn’t hurt to submit public records requests for these documents from those agencies, as well!
* A curriculum vitae (CV) is like a résumé, but for an academic—which will detail, in addition to positions held, research and publications, conference presentations, etc.
If a new executive is entering academia without a CV, flashing only a résumé, that’s already concerning, as they have no previous attachment to academia…so what’s their interest? 🚩
** If you are not familiar with the process for submitting a public records request, see How do I make a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Request? Public agencies are required to keep broad records, and in most cases, to provide them to the public when requested.
STEP 1A:
Find their LinkedIn. If they do not have a LinkedIn 🚩, find your college or university’s official biography (which will likely be sparse and non-exhaustive 🚩).
Look for the named companies and organizations, specifically for small consulting companies with generic names, or involvement with nonprofits, or board positions with philanthropic organizations and charities, or lobbying firms.
Make note of their particular areas of (real or claimed) “expertise,” “experience,” or “influence.”
Good markers:
Companies with no logo next to the entry. đźš©
Companies with names formed from combinations of jargony buzzwords like “Capital 🚩,” “Strategy 🚩,” “Partners 🚩,” and especially “Consulting 🚩.”
Career gaps and overlaps.
TIP: Write down or remember the names of any of the companies your *potential* Heister lists!
STEP 2:
See how they appear in media.
Note their associates over time—who changes, who is constant. Use Little Sis to map their relationships.
Read and watch national and local news. Adjust you search timeline windows. Find the oldest article published about them that you can, and see how their public persona changes over time or in various forums. Consider whether they may be a narcissist.
Note the ideas they repeat, their favorite words, phrases, and claims. Look for inconsistencies. đźš©
Anything that stands out as bizarre, don’t dismiss! There is probably an insider with an axe to grind and an anonymous website, somewhere!
See if they have a book, or a pending book deal. See if you can find their ghostwriter.
Check if they have a relationship with an agency that books them for paid speaking engagements. See if their rates are advertised!
TIP 1: Older stories and dated paperwork reflect times when they were developing their trick technique—when they weren’t as practiced and were more likely to have made glaring, rookie mistakes that telegraph future patterns!
TIP 2: Look for varied sources—some “friendly,” “neutral,” and “adversarial” toward your *potential* heister. If they wronged a particular area or group, find that group’s publication! If they have an ownership or management stake in a media outlet, assume that outlet treats their career with kid gloves!
TIP 3: If they have had a non-academic career, their industry will have trade and specialty publications—business or laws journals, niche political publications, etc. Those are useful as they tend to focus on facts and numbers!
STEP 3:
Search: business registration records
Every business has to be registered somewhere. Registered businesses should all be public record. You can look them up.
Look up “business registration records” and "[name of the state where they currently live].”
Find the database. Type in their name. See if anything comes up. Reference their résumé/CV to see where they’ve lived/worked, if you have it. If not, work from their LinkedIn. Repeat in each state they’ve lived in/operated in!
You can use Spokeo as a starting point to trace their moves over time.
Download and file any documents you find to revisit later, to check associates and timelines, and track changes in ownership, position, office location, etc. over time!
TIP 1: Try combinations of their name: try including their middle name, or middle initial. Try their spouse’s name, names of their friends, family, long-time associates. Look for subtle misspellings! 🚩
TIP 2: If you’ve found the name of a company, or companies, try those in Delaware 🚩, as well—Delaware is a business-friendly environment offering greater anonymity and favorable tax conditions, so you can’t search by individual name, but you can search for business names, and can work backward from what you may find!
If you know the name of the company, but it doesn’t seem to exist in any state or Washington, D.C. 🚩, it may be registered “offshore”—outside of the country, allowing the company owner(s) to handle their finances under more favorable tax regulations and out of sight and reach of regulating agencies.
This is one way to avoid paying taxes, and to avoid disclosing how much money you have, and how you’re spending it.
If you have or can gain access to LexisNexis, you may be able to track down more details on a company you suspect may be exist “offshore.”
If not, Ask a Librarian!
One more thing you can try—the D-U-N-S Number Lookup, which Dunn & Bradstreet uses to track the finances of businesses.
Using the D-U-N-S Number Lookup, you can find businesses by searching associated telephone numbers. If you have access to your *potential* heister’s phone number, you can learn what businesses, if any, are attached to their phone number!
TIP 1: P.O. Boxes! Search the addresses listed for companies you find. If your *potential* heister has a business registered to a P.O. Box address, it’s curious ⚠️.
If an address on their filing has a “#” or a “suite number,” be sure to search the address. If street view looks like you’re in a parking lot strip mall, chances are it’s not an office location at all, but a mailbox in a UPS store!
If your *potential* heister has a business registered to an address that, when you attempt to find in street view, is in a strip mall parking lot, it’s likely at a UPS Store P.O. Box they’re trying to pose as an office location 🚩.
STEP 4:
Search state ethics commission financial disclosures.
Elected and public officials must file a state financial disclosure each year they are a public official.
Simply search “[state name]” and “state ethics commission financial disclosures.” Download each file you find, and file away for later review.
You can note the names of primary and secondary sources of income, any assets such as real estate, investments, and the names of companies they have an interest in.
Track their ownership and interest changes over time, noticing any changes. When comparing documents, always check three years.
Once is an occurrence, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern 🚩…and we’re looking for patterns!
STEP 5:
Check for their involvement in nonprofits, especially education and/or religion-aligned nonprofits, which receive special tax protections and exemptions, including paying no property tax!
If your *potential* heister owned or owns, or was or is employed by, or served or serves on the board of a nonprofit, their name will have been filed on tax documents for the nonprofit. You will most likely be able to locate these tax documents through ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer.
These documents are filed using “Form 990,” often referred to as “990s.”
Type in your *potential* heister’s name, as well as the names of any company they have been associated with, in case that company has been *charitable*, and see what documents you find!
Check back in a bit for the pending post, “One Way to Read a 990.”
STEP 6:
Check their political donations/donors with OpenSecrets.
OpenSecrets compiles a extensive, searchable databases of political financial transactions and exchanges—donations and receipts, campaign expenditures, candidate and elected official financial disclosures, lobbying expenditures, etc.—if your *potential* heister gave, received, or spent money for political purposes, you might be able to track it down here.
STEP 6A:
You may want to work backwards from what you find on OpenSecrets to the original source to get more detailed, specific information. For example:
You can search for federal lobbying disclosures through the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) Reports search or the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives search. Filings submitted are automatically received by both databases; however, they navigate differently and some filings available in one database may not be posted to the other—best to try them both!
TIP: Federal and state lobbying disclosures are filed seperately. If your *potential* heister is a lobbyist, check state lobbying filings as well. Simply search “state name” + “lobbying disclosures.”
STEP 7:
Check investment filings and disclosures with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).
If your *potential* heister invests in private equity and/or sits on the board of a publicly traded company, you can may learn about their finances through search tools available from the SEC.
You can search the SEC’s EDGAR database for sale, purchase, trade, and transaction records.
You can search the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure Database for information about a specific adviser or firm.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
You can review home sale/purchase documents with county property appraisers if you suspect your *potential* heister is living far off campus, when required to live in the president’s house.
You can check county voting records as a second source to confirm.
If any of your *potential* heister’s previous public agencies issued a bond to raise funds for projects, Fitch Ratings provides concise reports analyzing factors that impact the financial strength of the bond issuer, including executive behaviors.
Minutes and documents from past public meetings, including Boards of Governors and of Trustees meeting, are posted and archived on agency websites. You can of course, attend in person!
This list will continue to be updated with new resources and information.
Where else do you think they might be hiding‽
