Watching the Detectives...

- written by Nancy Barber

Submitted by the Continuing Education Committee

FORMER NYPD OFFICER TURNED PRIVATE EYE CHARGED WITH STALKING CHINESE EX-PAT

A former NYPD sergeant-turned-private eye was among eight people charged with illegally participating in a Chinese government program that seeks to force expatriates to return to China to face prosecution.

A federal complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court alleged that Michael McMahon, a private detective licensed in New Jersey, was hired in October 2016 to “investigate and surveil” a former city government official from China living New Jersey.

McMahon later joined in the alleged stalking of the target — identified only as “John Doe-1” — as part of a failed campaign of coercion and intimidation that included bringing the ex-pat’s elderly father to the US and leaving a threatening note taped to the front door of his house, court papers said. “If you are willing to go back to the mainland and spend 10 years in prison, your wife and children will be all right. That’s the end of this matter!” the note said in Chinese.

The scheme was part of a Chinese program called “Operation Fox Hunt” to “forcibly repatriate PRC citizens living in the United States and other countries who are wanted in the PRC for allegedly committing various crimes,” court documents say. The program has seen operatives regularly flout US law, despite “repeated warnings” to Beijing, the papers charge. 

See 'Private eye busted in Chinese government plot is an ex-NYPD sergeant' and 'Five people accused of working in U.S. for Chinese secret police'

FORMER HOUSTON TEXAS POLICE CAPTAIN TURNED PRIVATE EYE CHARGED WITH AGGRAVATED ASSAULT

At the height of recent U.S. election, many investigators found employment not only in the traditional “political investigation” but a broader effort to challenge the validity of the election. 

A Texas investigator was retained to prove voter fraud claims.  A former Houston, Texas police captain, who remains licensed by the State of Texas was accused of holding an innocent air conditioner repairman at gunpoint after running him off the road in an attempt to locate fraudulent ballots.

The Harris County District Attorney “His alleged investigation was backward from the start-first alleging a crime had occurred and then trying to prove it happened.”  The private investigator-Mark Anthony Aguirre-was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony.  Aguirre was one of 20 investigators that were hired to look into potential voting misconduct nearly every day leading up to the election.

Aguirre related to police he was part of a group of private citizens called Liberty Center, who were conducting a civilian investigation into the alleged ballot scheme.  Aguirre conducted surveillance on the victim, and developed a theory that the air conditioning repairman, and detained him by ramming his van and forcing the driver to the ground.  Upon inspection, the truck contained only air conditioning parts and tools.  The investigation was part of a larger unsuccessful lawsuit to have Harris County ballots tossed.

See:  https://heavy.com/news/mark-aguirre/ and 'GOP donor linked to bogus electoral-fraud probe charged  with assault'

PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR ILLEGALLY SELLS US DATABASE INFORMATION TO BRITISH PRESS

A private investigator revealed that a British tabloid paid him large sums of money to spy on Meghan Markle at the onset of her relationship with Prince Harry.

Daniel Portley-Hanks, who is now a retired private investigator out of Los Angeles, was hired by The Sun to obtain private information about Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex.  The investigator illegally obtained Meghan Markle’s social security number and other sensitive information

The paper’s invoices by Portley-Hanks in which he was paid $2,055 included charges for information he obtained through the restricted database service TLOxp where addresses, cell phone numbers, and social security numbers can be found. The private information of Markle, her family, and her ex-husband were located and sold.

The U.S. allows this information to be used in criminal and civil cases. However, it is against the law for such sensitive intelligence to be sold to news agencies.  See 'Private investigator admits to illegally spying on Meghan Markle on behalf of British tabloid' and 'Private investigator says he skirted laws to get info on Meghan, Duchess of Sussex'.

CITY OF LISBON, PORTUGAL ASSESSED 1.3 MILLION DOLLAR FINE BY DATA PROTECTION COMMISSION

The mayor’s office in Lisbon, Portugal’s capital, was fined $1.4 million for sending the personal information of protest organizers to foreign diplomats whose countries were the targets of those political demonstrations, the European country’s data protection commission announced Friday.

Among the countries that received such sensitive data was Russia, where authorities are accused of increasingly cracking down on its critics. The national commission ruled that the fine was justified based on the 225 instances in which Lisbon authorities violated the General Data Protection Regulation. The practice of data-sharing, which dates as far back as 2012 under a previous mayoral administration, became illegal after the sweeping set of data-protection laws were enacted across the European Union in 2018. Nevertheless, data-sharing continued until last year.

See 'Lisbon fined $1.4 million for sharing personal data of protesters'. 

Say it ain't so.....California votes to hide criminal histories after four years!  Read here:

https://californiaglobe.com/articles/bill-to-seal-felony-convictions-of-most-ex-felons-after-4-years-passes-senate/