Maragell Corporate Investigations was honored for a second year in a row by our peers in the legal community with a New Jersey Law Journal Best of 2014 medal for Best Computer Forensics Expert. On behalf of our entire staff, thank you to all our law firm clients who voted for us and who, year after year, allow us to help them become the smartest attorneys in the room when it comes to electronic-based evidence.
Maragell recently exhibited at the NJ State Bar Association Annual Meeting and Convention at the Borgata.
500+ guests stopped by to learn more about our computer forensic and investigative services, 160 entered the Treasure Chest prize giveaway for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to the PI Gear online shopping mall, and 129 entered our fishbowl drawing for a chance to win an iPad mini and a free employee background check.
Congratulations to our winners:
Treasure Chest Prize–PI Gear Gift Certificate: Jonathan of NJ
1st Prize–$150 Background Check Certificate: Stephanie of Woodbridge, NJ
Grand Prize–iPad Mini: Doris of Freehold, NJ
We thank all our guests for taking the time to meet us and look forward to fulfilling their investigative needs.
Jeffrey Brenner, Esq., NJLPI, was quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer Business section on January 8, 2014 regarding J.P. Morgan’s settlement with the government over its dealings with Bernard Madoff. Brenner, who investigated Madoff’s auditors in 2006, described how basic due diligence techniques revealed major red flags about Madoff’s operations, and how the same techniques can help today’s investors avoid becoming a victim. Read the article here: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20140108_Due_diligence_crucial_in_investment_endeavors.html
Maragell Corporate Investigations’ Managing Principal Jeffrey Brenner, Esq., NJLPI, recently gave a presentation titled “You Found My Internet History? Tales from the Hard Drive” at the 21st Annual All-Day Fraud Training Conference hosted by the Philadelphia Area Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
The presentation focused on six cases in which the early preservation and forensic analysis of electronic evidence changed the outcome of the litigation.
On Friday, December 6, 2013, Superior Court Judge Rosemary Ramsay named Maragell’s Managing Principal, Jeffrey S. Brenner, Esq., NJLPI, as the court’s computer forensic expert in the case of former Parsippany Police Capt. James Carifi.
According to published news reports, Carifi, who was already engaged in separate litigation with the Township of Parsippany, became the subject of a police internal affairs probe in which the Township claims he “manipulated” data on municipal computers and transferred police documents to his personal email. These acts allegedly took place in late March, just before Carifi left the police department’s employ.
Rather than argue the motion for emergent relief, the Township and Carifi entered into a consent agreement under which Carifi will turn over his hard drive for preservation and imaging by Maragell. Carifi will then be allowed to assert any applicable privilege he might have and withhold certain documents but must keep a “privilege log” of those items for review (and possible challenge) by the Township.
On the heels of our first year anniversary celebration last month, Maragell Corporate Investigations was honored by our peers in the legal community with a New Jersey Law Journal Best of 2013 Bronze medal for Best Expert Witness (Computer Forensics). Voting was limited to lawyers and their professional staffs, making this honor especially gratifying.
Maragell, which comes from the Old Testament word for spy, provides a wide range of corporate investigative services, including computer forensics, background checks, due diligence research, expert witness services, and employee theft and internal fraud investigations.
The Maragell team extends its sincere gratitude to all those who voted for the firm, and we look forward to providing many more years of superior service and expertise.
HADDONFIELD, NJ – OCTOBER 10, 2013 – Maragell Corporate Investigations celebrated its first year in business on October 10th with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and interactive community open house. The company, which until 2012 operated as the U.S. office of Intelysis Corp., benefited from an upturn in the region’s economy. “We saw a marked increase in investment activity by hedge fund and venture capital clients, which use our services to conduct background checks on prospective portfolio companies,” said Jeffrey Brenner, Esq., NJLPI, the company’s founder. “Our team was also brought into several complex computer forensic investigations, including theft of intellectual property, bankruptcy fraud, and employee violations of restrictive covenants,” he added.
As part of the open house festivities, Maragell’s staff demonstrated several insider investigative techniques. Team members accepted computer hard drives from attendees and demonstrated how data the users thought was permanently deleted could still be retrieved. Then, using the U.S. Department of Defense data destruction standards, they wiped the hard drives, enabling them to be recycled without fear of data loss or identity theft.
Brenner and his team also amazed guests by broadening their understanding of the power of the Internet, showing that many of the same tools used to locate to locate lost friends and loved ones can be used to track down missing persons, debtors, and witnesses. Similar strategies are also used to conduct pre-employment background checks. Maragell’s researchers demonstrated how these checks are conducted and why they are more of an art form than an exercise in data input/output. Combining multiple sources of public information, investigative databases, social media sites, and Google, together with data provided by the subject (in this case one of Maragell’s employees), the demonstration revealed how a PI reads the tea leaves and assimilates the information to create a complete, and accurate, picture of the subject.
Maragell completed the day with a demonstration on how computer forensic experts hunt for evidence of wrongdoing through the use of keyword searches and deleted emails. Of note was the fact that words such as “non-compete” and “breach” which might be expected to return relevant information about an employee’s plans to violate his or her contract, were shown to appear in many forms and locations having nothing to do with the facts of a case. “Poor keyword choices can cost a client thousands of dollars in eDiscovery costs and attorney review time, and we make every effort to avoid this pitfall with highly strategic searching,” said Brenner.
Maragell, LLC, will celebrate its first year in business on October 10, 2013 with a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house. Founded by Jeffrey Brenner, Esq., NJLPI, Maragell is located on Mechanic Street in the heart of the historic borough of Haddonfield. During its inaugural year, Maragell was fueled by an upturn in the region’s economy as its clients increased their use of its investigative services in connection with their hiring and investment practices. Maragell was also kept busy with several complex computer forensic investigations through its partnerships with several top-tier accounting firms, eDiscovery vendors, and the region’s major law firms. In addition to the ribbon cutting ceremony sponsored by the Partnership for Haddonfield a number of special activities are scheduled throughout the day, including free investigative tutorials.
Noon
1:00 p.m.
2:00 p.m.
Learn how to get better search results
3:00 p.m.
Conduct a pre-employment screening with us, live
4:00 p.m.
See where the data resides on your computer
5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
Luncheon and evening Hors d’oeuvres by
Ludovico’s and Marie’s Sandwich Shop
Desserts by
Hollingsworth’s Cookies and Sweet T’s Bake Shop
RSVP by October 7 to celebrate@maragell.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Andrew Becker
Phone: 856.449.5220
Email: abeckernj@gmail.com
Increased Hiring Has Led to Increased Background Check Work for Local Firm
Haddonfield, NJ – July 15, 2012 – There is fresh evidence that the nation’s slow, steady climb out of the Great Recession is picking up steam, and it comes from a source for whom evidence is paramount: corporate investigations firm Maragell, LLC. “We’ve seen our venture capital clients light up the board with new investments, deep-dive due diligence investigations for manager-level jobs have increased in the corporate marketplace, and even our hedge fund clients, which have been rather dormant for the past three years, have begun investments with new managers,” said the Haddonfield, New Jersey firm’s managing principal, Jeffrey S. Brenner, Esq., NJLPI.
Maragell recently marked six months in business after forming late in 2012, spinning off from the US operations of Intelysis. Its clients include lawyers, accountants, hedge funds, venture capitalists, insurance claim specialists, and both small businesses and Fortune 100 companies. The core legal and IT professional staff previously worked together under Mr. Brenner’s leadership at Intelysis. Maragell is based in New Jersey, but covers the world through strategic relationships with skilled investigators on several continents.
Mr. Brenner, who worked as a trial and business transactions lawyer before transitioning into his investigative career, sees the investigative industry as a bell-weather of the economy. “There are many reliable indicators about new hiring, but one that is sometimes overlooked is background check activity. My colleagues and I have observed over our decade in the industry that we could predict the health of the economy by the number of new investigations firms like Maragell were conducting on behalf VCs, hedge funds, and family offices,” he said.
Deteriorating economic conditions were apparent in the investigative industry’s ebbs and flows several years ago, as well. “As soon as Bernie Madoff confessed in 2008, we saw an immediate drop off in business from our Wall Street clients, followed closely by our C-suite clients,” said Brenner. “Today, we are hearing from clients from coast to coast asking for investigative background checks on start-up tech companies, real estate investments, international money managers, and a variety of C-level executives who will be heading expansions of several of our clients’ business divisions.”
Maragell also has seen an increase in the use of its computer/digital forensics services by its legal clients. According to Brenner, who is a frequent lecturer on the topic, the legal community in Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey has been rapidly increasing its use of forensic investigations in employment law and business divorce matters. “The power of knowing what an employee or business partner has done with his or her computer for an extended period is an enormous advantage in court,” said Brenner.
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