AboutMaxwell Caulfield Expertise I am a licensed private investigator and Sheriff`s special appointed process server in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. My area of expertise in organized crime is drawn from actual experience. Maxwell Caulfield is not the name I was given at birth. It is the name that was given to me by the United States Government, through the Federal Witness Protection Program. I am one of only 2% of more than 16,000 witnesses who does not have a criminal history. My experience stems first, from my emloyment by organized crime figures in Chicago, IL. And then my testimony for the U.S. Attorney`s Organized Crime Strike Force for the Northern District of Illinois. I testified against organized crime figures and corrupt police officers. All were convicted, and sent to federal prison. Since this event 20 years ago, I have spent a great deal of time working in the field of investigations of organized criminal activity, violations of the R.I.C.O. statute and have been an outspoken critic of WITSEC. I have continued to work with several law enforcement agencies in various capacities.
Experience Listed above. See my websites: www.caulfieldinvestigations.com and www.caulfieldinvestigations.net
Organizations Florida Association of Licensed Investigators (F.A.L.I.)
Publications My life story and experiences have been the subject of several publications and books such as:The Newtimes, The Washington Post Magazine, The Washington Times Magazine "Insight", The book WITSEC by author Pete Earley (reporter from the Washington Post) and Gerald Shur (founder of the WITSEC program), The book "Once upon a time in Hollywood" by author and film director Rod Lurie. I have been interviewed on news and documentary television programs and was featured on Court TV's "Crime Stories" with Catherine Crier called "The Mobster Next Door". I was one of the technical advisors for the HBO film "Witness Protection", I was a technical advisor for The Discovery Channel's "The FBI Files". I have been declared an "Expert Witness in the area of Surveillance and Private Investigation by a Washington Court. My websites have links to the articles.
Expert: Maxwell Caulfield Date: 3/19/2008 Subject: Fraud commited by someone in witsec...
Question Hello Maxwell,
First I would like to thank you in advance here for your time. I've read your responses to other questions and I really need your help.
I'm not sure where to begin, I'll try to make this short. I got involved with a guy who told me he is in the witsec program. The guy is a major conartist. He conned me into putting my name and signing for a million dollar construction loan. 100% financing, I have no idea how he got the lender to do that, I think he conned the private investor as well. He begins construction on the house, everything looks normal. Then construction stops for months. I finally get in contact with the lender and to my surprise he say all the funds have been withdrawn and that I signed off on it, which i didn't. He signed my name on checks and I'm facing a foreclosure from the lender.
My question is, if this guy is in the witsec, do I have any additional legal protection because of the fact that the government helped this guy. Who do I call? What do I do?
Thank you,
Janey
Answer Janey,
If anyone ever needed an experienced board certified attorney...it's you! Like many questions I get asked all the time my answer to this could be interpreted as "legal advise" and that's something I cannot do, I'm not a lawyer. I will say that membership in Witsec gives you no special status to engage in nefarious behavior, frankly it gives you less rhythm in these situations in my opinion. It is also my opinion that the government is not in anyway responsible for the behavior of recipients of Witsec services. The government helps relocate people under the umbrella of Witsec as an extreme last resort and only after a long process of multi layered evaluations of the person and the situations including a serious examination of the value of the individuals testimony contribution and an exhaustive search by government agents to secure evidence which would make the persons proposed testimony un-necessary and not require putting the person in the program at all. In every conversation I have had with deputy U.S. Marshals, FBI agents and deputy U.S. Attorney's and I've had quite a few, this point is repeated again and again, that the program is a program of "Last Resort's"...period. The government if anything holds Witsec participants to a higher standard of behavior then it does John or Jane Q Citizen, I'm sure in part because so much emphasis is placed on following the rules of the program including but not limited to scams & con games, or any other criminal or even questionable activity. There is also a fair chance that the individual claiming to be a current or past member of the Witsec program...is simply not telling the truth. There are less than 17,000 people who can claim legitimate membership in Witsec in the entire history of the program and more than half that number are simply family members of protected witnesses, and did not furnish testimony at a criminal trial. Therefore in the grand scheme of world population the chances of actually meeting one of those actual witnesses is about the same as getting struck by lightning...the chances of meeting one who is willing to openly talk about it are probably comparable to being struck by lightning and being attacked by a shark on the same day! What you might want to do is gather up all your documentation, put it in a box and go to the nearest FBI field office in whatever jurisdiction you live, present yourself to the reception person and ask to speak with an FBI Special Agent, prepare to wait (bring a book to read this is a sign that you planned to stay a while) and gather your thoughts. Then when you have an opportunity to speak to an agent give him or her the facts as you know them and let the FBI decide whether or not federal law has been broken or whether or not the individual's supposed Witsec status (real or not) is an issue at all. The only exception to this advise is if you have any criminal liability or culpability in this situation in which case you might want to seek out that attorney first and go from there. Good Luck & Stay Safe.
Max Caulfield
www.caulfieldinvestigations.com
www.caulfieldinvestigations.net
