When conducting background searches for divorce records in in the state of New Hampshire, here are things you should remember…

Divorce records in Massachusetts and New Hampshire require separate searches of the probate and family court systems. A standard civil search of the superior court will not suffice. The subject’s city of residence will determine the appropriate probate/family court.

Perhaps one of the odder background checks is when Moody’s conducts business research on the financial standings of the United State of America.    Moody’s, the financial appraisal service,  has put the US in review for possible downgrades.   This is a result of the upcoming deadline where if the United States doesn’t raise its debt ceiling it stands to default on at least some of its outstanding credit.  This has never happened before.

Defaulting on the debt ceiling would downgrade America’s credit rating and hinder its borrowing ability.   To borrow money, the US would be forced to pay higher interest rates, provided it could borrow money at all.   Seems surreal given all we were brought up on, which was the belief in this nation’s financial strength and its standing around the world.

Now most corporate research and financial vetting is nowhere near as difficult or as intense as the examination of America’s credit potential.    No one in their right mind, no American citizen, anyway, could possibly feel sanguine about this.  Even foreign interests are aware of the ramifications and the resulting consequences this would have on the global economy.

Nevertheless, here we are.  According to the article in USA Today, Moody’s considers the probability of a default on credit payment to be slight but not improbable.   Any default would alter Moody’s assessment of America’s ability to pay its debts on time.   this would cause a demotion of America’s longstanding Triple A credit rating to a Double A rating.   Not the worst, but, as I wrote earlier, nothing we ever experienced before in this country.

It’s all a little surreal for me.  We shall see what August 2nd, the drop dead date, will bring.

Here is a new public relations release that addresses the increased need for international background checks.  this is especially the case with education verificaitons and employment verification, as more than a few of your employment candidates maybe be telling tall tales about their education and work experience.   In fact, they could be lying through their teeth.

Anyway, find below and excerpt from the relase.   Here is the link for the full article].

Corra Group has expanded its corporate research services to address the increased need for financial vetting on the part of American businesses. The background checking services offers a full range of various business research reports that will assist businesses in producing goods and services for both the domestic and international markets. The background checks range from corporate credit reports, to civil and criminal background checks on corporate principles and the entities themselves.

As a background checking service we see our fair share of physical and sexual violence that can be related to the home  or domestic environment.  But domestic violence is not necessarily contained within the home.   Domestic violence may originate in the home, but it can affect the workplace.

Studies claim that one in four women are victims of domestic violence.   Homicide  is the second leading cause of death among women in the workforce.  While women constitute the majority of victims, there are men too who are subjected to domestic violence at the hands of their significant other.   Domestic violence can by anything from physical and sexual assault to psychological abuse.   All of it has its effects and its consequences can prove detrimental to the workplace environment.

The most obvious effect is that someone who is abused will probably not function as well as someone who comes to work without being forced to dwell on the fearsome events at home.  There are the physical issues, meaning injuries and  pain suffered during domestic disputes.   There is the long and short term psychological effects, all of which adversely effect the general morale of most working environments.   Fellow employees who are aware of another employee suffering abuse are distracted and distressed by the results.

And then the domestic situation can come to work.    Lovers become stalkers and obsess about the other person.   The reasons are many, ranging from substance abuse issues, to financial concerns or the more basic romantic considerations–the break up of a relationship, an affair.    And sometimes it is for truly stupid or concocted reasons or no real reason at all.   But whatever the reason, more than a few women have been killed or injured in the workplace by angry spouses and significant others.   These people in a pique of rage are unable to control themselves.   They are not clear headed enough to consider the  issues of collateral damage.  Because, as tragic as it is, not only is the object of anger harmed, but other employees as well.

Employers need to develop a policy that confrontsh domestic violence and the workplace.  The worst thing an employer can do is try to ignore it or make believe it doesn’t exist.   Pretend all you want, but other employees sure know when something is amiss.    Morale drops when the employer ignores or otherwise refuses to deal with the situation.

There are any number of course where  prevention training can help managers and coworkers identify victims.   Most employers who arrange for courses in prevention training can identify critical domestic violence  situations more easily and prevent those situations from reaching critical mass.

No one should be subjected to the terrors of domestic violence.   But, despite all of our hopes and righteous indignation, domestic violence will occur at  home.  The key for most employers is to keep fit from spreading to the workplace.  Prevention is a far better choice than crisis management.    No employer wants the burden of experiencing someone injured or killed in the workplace.  No employer needs to confront the liability issues and the publicity resulting from being yet one more company on the six o’clock news.

Seek help.  There are training courses on workplace  domestic violence inmost parts of the country.   Get the training.  Become aware of the issues.  Maybe even save a life.

There is a $750 Million theme park being planned in Spring Hill, TN, which is the Nashville area.   A background check revealed that the man behind the proposed theme park owes at lest $750 Thousand in judgments.   According to an article in the Reynolds Center, the principal behind this planned theme park, with its two hotels,  a sports arena, and the inevitable wter slide, owes nearly three fourth of a million in judgments.

In the article, which was picked up from the Nashville Business Journal, writer Annie Johnson, urges those interested in business ventures or deals where civil judgments could be a major concern if not a deal breaker, urges the usage of Pacer and Lexis Nexis.   This is all good.   But to really get to the issue of state and not federal cases, sometimes the mere listing of judgments and the figures are not enough.  Sometimes it is important to conduct county civil court records searches as part of your due diligence program.

County Civil Searches are hand searches, meaning they are pulled by hand from the county courthouse.    Of course, one must be aware of the county courthouse where the records are located.   The initial judgment search should tell you that much.   And then, for business research, is is a matter of first pulling the records, and then if the situation warrants, pulling court copies as well.

For background checks, using the free sites, the Google, Yahoo, etc, are good to a point.   The databases are often most helpful.   But to really get into the meat of it all, sometimes it is necessary to run the county civil records searches.   It is, after all, a relatively a modest investment for things like $750 million theme parks and even lesser business ventures.

There is a $750 Million theme park being planned in Spring Hill, TN, which is the Nashville area.   A background check revealed that the man behind the proposed theme park owes at lest $750 Thousand in judgments.   According to an article in the Reynolds Center, the principal behind this planned theme park, with its two hotels,  a sports arena, and the inevitable wter slide, owes nearly three fourth of a million in judgments.

In the article, which was picked up from the Nashville Business Journal, writer Annie Johnson, urges those interested in business ventures or deals where civil judgments could be a major concern if not a deal breaker, urges the usage of Pacer and Lexis Nexis.   This is all good.   But to really get to the issue of state and not federal cases, sometimes the mere listing of judgments and the figures are not enough.  Sometimes it is important to conduct county civil court records searches as part of your due diligence program.

County Civil Searches are hand searches, meaning they are pulled by hand from the county courthouse.    Of course, one must be aware of the county courthouse where the records are located.   The initial judgment search should tell you that much.   And then, for business research, is is a matter of first pulling the records, and then if the situation warrants, pulling court copies as well.

For background checks, using the free sites, the Google, Yahoo, etc, are good to a point.   The databases are often most helpful.   But to really get into the meat of it all, sometimes it is necessary to run the county civil records searches.   It is, after all, a relatively a modest investment for things like $750 million theme parks and even lesser business ventures.

Industrial espionage has been on the rise, along with employee theft.   Perhaps it is the bad economy or perhaps the overall loosening of ethics, but more employees, disgruntled and otherwise are stealing valuable proprietary data and attempting to sell it to the competitor.

French automotive giant, Renault, thought it had such a calamity where three of its employees where suspected of stealing sensitive documents related to Renault’s electric car program and selling it off to the highest bidder.   Onerous enough,  for sure.  But now there is some doubt, well more than some doubt, that there is really a case of industrial espionage against the three French employees accused of the crime.    In fact, the three fired managers may be exonerated.   For the record, they have always claimed their innocence.

Both Renault and French prosecutors uncovered little evidence on the three suspected employees.   They failed to find the expected Swiss Bank accounts where the suspects were funneling money.   Prosecutors hoped to find DNA samples on  the stamps used for posting anonymous tip letters.  The stamps, unfortunately, were self-sticking, so no DNA samples.   There is also concern for the missing $350 thousand Renault paid to a private investigator for supposedly discovering information about the alleged Swiss Bank Accounts.

So, what is Renault left with?  A fair share of public embarrassment.   Renault has been accused of pulling the trigger too quickly, before significant evidence could be uncovered.  Senior management may have to resign in the wake of this scandal.    I mentioned the Renault case initially in an article dealing with industrial espionage.  The article was entitled,  Businesses Hurt by Thieving Employees and Increased Industrial Espionage.   In any event, whether there was actual espionage or not, Renault has been seriously dinged by this incident.

In the arcane world of espionage, industrial or national, somethings to objective is not as clear as we would like.   Sometimes the directive is all too obvious, and something there are hidden objectives submerged in the layers of information we tend to take at first value.   What someone wants as the results of disinformation is often not as clear as we would first believe.   Industrial espionage, like any other spying, is based largely in deception.   The instigator seldom wants his competitor to know what he was after and what he got away with.  And sometimes when the discovery of a leak is made,  the operation was designed to elicit that discovery.

In corporate spying, the instigator will often us deceptive practices to cover his tracks.  Or in this case, stealing secrets was not the main objective.   The real objective was to disrupt Renault, cause a shakeup in management.   If this was the case, according to the article in the Wall Street Journal, the perpetrators appear to have succeeded.

Once upon a pretty short time ago, companies who were thinking of  outsourcing or building  new manufacturing plants considered Mexico a good idea.  And why not?   Labor is inexpensive, the weather is decent, and Mexican workers are diligent and competent.   There are advantages to locating factories in Mexico, thanks in part to the NAFTA agreement.   Mexico gives businesses easy proximity to the United States, so there is a reduction in shipping costs.

But now Mexico is consumed by a series of violent episodes as a result of the drug trade and resultant wars among the rival drug cartels.  Couple that with the Mexican Government’s attempt to crack down on the cartels, and the business climate down there is dicey at best.   With this being the case, according to a recent Wall Street Journal Article, many companies are limiting their investments in Mexico.   In some provinces business investment is way down.

Overall, the drug related strife, replete with murder, extortion, and kidnapping, has cost the Mexican economy upwards of $4 Billion in foreign investments. Executives are reluctant to consider jobs in Mexico.    The latest potential investor to decide to go elsewhere is Swiss Appliance manufacturer, Electrolux AB, who chose Tennessee instead of Mexico  for it its new plant.  Whirpool Corp decided against Mexico and will also install its new oven and cook-top plant in Tennessee.

The glass maker, Owens-Illinois, and heavy equipment manufacturer, Terex Corp.  have put on hold their plans for building new factories in Mexico.  However, other companies like Toyota and snowmobile manufacturer, Polaris, were still moving forward with their investment plans.

I have done a fair amount of research on the drug wars and the Mexican Government’s attempt to reduce the violence and corruption in that country.   To date, some 31,000 people have been murdered.  And then there is robbery, extortion, and kidnapping.  One American executive was kidnapped a few weeks ago.  None of this bodes well for continued investment.

I hate to see Mexico torn asunder by violence and corruption. The domination of the country by drug cartels is anything but good.    But, quite honestly, at the same time with America in an economic downturn,  I am gratified to see that corporations are investing money within the United States and hiring American workers for manufacturing and production jobs.   Considering the Recession and the state of domestic manufacturing, it is time more money was invested here so that new manufacturing plants can be installed and, perhaps, older plant renovated.   Instead of merely paying attention to outsourcing for the cheapest labor dollar, perhaps it is time to reflection long range planning and the repercussions of  chronic unemployment and a paucity of manufacturing right here within our borders.

Yes, labor may be more costly, but shipping is less, and if stability is a factor then few nations are as stable as conditions here.   Besides, if you want Americans to be able to buy the goods being manufactured, then it is necessary to provide jobs.

Sometimes, as evidenced by this situation in Mexico, things happen for reasons no one can ever predict.

Just to notify everyone that Corra Group will be closed for our annual Christmas Party from Noon to 2:30 P.M. Pacific time on Friday December 17th.    Otherwise we will be here to service all your background checking needs earlier in the day and after lunch.    As many employers will be having their Christmas Party the same day, I have a feeling that few will even notice our brief and celebratory absence.

Happy Holidays to all.

Corporate espionage has been a growing concern for various industries.   Especially with this economic downturn, when businesses are doing all they can  do to survive, the last thing they need is theft of their proprietary data.   Corporate espionage can come from within and without.   There are foreign concerns that are looking to save the cost of research and development by stealing someone else’s proprietary data.    But don’t think the interlopers only originate from China and other foreign countries.   There are domestic companies who are also looking to get the edge on their competition by stealing their sensitive information.

Some who practice corporate espionage will do through by utilizing technology.   They will attempt to hack into the targeted companies system and retrieve the information from there.  Others will resort to the more traditional form, the old fashioned way.  They will pay someone to steal it for them.  More often than not, that someone is a current employee.   In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, a former employee at Akamai Technologies,  Inc.  was arrested and charged with the illegal passing of information to a foreign agent.  According to the article, the suspect may have been passing confidential data for more than eighteen months.    The accused now faces some twenty years in jail.

But if he is guilty, then the damage has been done.  Recently it came to light that certain companies have had sensitive data pilfered that can cost them their first in field standings in the industries where they are involved.    It is often mundane stuff, a certain chemical used to enhance the product, a certain process they use for better results than competitors.   At first blush the stolen material may seem innocuous and incidental.  But six months later when competitors are using the same chemicals, the same process, then the consequences are fully realized.

When staffing, I would love to say there are background checks an employer can utilize in its employment screening program to prevent against corporate theft and corporate espionage.  There are, but with this type of thing there are no guarantees.   We discovered recently that it often pays to run a full background check, including employment verifications, on your job applicant.    If he worked jobs at related industries and didn’t stay long, this may be a red flag.    Seeing signs that an employee, other than a contractor got the job, worked awhile, and then left in what is an unreasonable time frame should arouse suspicions.   Likewise, when you run the employment candidate’s social security trace and see he has worked in cities where your competitors are heavyhearted, you, the employer, may wish to look further into the applicant’s job history.

If there is a open space where the applicant was unemployed but was residing in the city where you competition is located, you may ask for further explanation as to what that candidate was really doing at the time.   Additionally, it pays to check country criminal records, the most accurate of criminal records, and county civil records, to ascertain if your candidate was charged with any crimes or sued for misappropriation of information.

Check his Motor Vehicle Driving Record for any signs of substance abuse.   As part of your employment screening, you may want to check his credit report for signs of current or imminent financial difficulty.    I realize conducting employment credit reports can be an unpopular subject right now, replete with accusations of bias,and that corporate theft is not nearly the same hot button issue, but it may be necessary to consider any legal option available.

Writing about corporate espionage may seem a bit overwrought.   Some may find it a little too dramatic.  But ask the directors at Akamai Technologies how they may feel about it, or those at the two companies where some of their most sensitive data may have been stolen either by interlopers or past employees.   Ask them if they are taking it lightly and are now performing the due diligence available as part of their employment screening effort.    I am sure they can offer a very different perspective.

Time and time again you read about a well intended public service agency or a community service or youth group running background checks only to discover months and even years later that those in charge of the oversight forgot to read them.   Either the officials in charge forgot to read the background checks or just didn’t read them thoroughly.

You hear about law enforcement group and city service groups who discover they have inadvertently hired convicted felons and sex offenders.   Or in some cases where fortunes will vary a group will suddenly modify standards and those employees and volunteers who were once acceptable, no longer are.    One case just arose with a Florida Youth Group, a local Police Athletic League where a much appreciated League coach was denied his application for coaching this year because of a long ago pot bust for less than an ounce of marijuana.     Ten other applicants were also denied coaching positions.

According to Tampa Bay Online, the job applicant was well respected by kids and parents.  Another applicant, and assistant coach was denied the job, although he too had been coaching for several years.

Now in cases where background checks are neglected or criminal charges are overlooked and serious criminal violations are later discovered, serious consideration should be given to retaining a hire.   Sex offenders around kids, a big no-no.   Serious felons working as police; this is not too smart.  But in this case the coach had long ago possessed less than ounce of marijuana and now much be penalized for this relatively minor transgression, in spite of his dedication to the kids and the League itself.    Let’s face it, in certain states, including my own, California, less than an ounce of marijuana is not really even a criminal offense.  It has just been signed into law that such position brings the slight penalty of a $100 fine, with no appearance in court.  Considering here in California you pay around $20 for a jaywalking fine, this is really no big deal.

So perhaps in Florida, such severe penalties for dedicated workers and volunteers should be reconsidered.