Investigator and Fraud Fighter Guidebook: Operation War Stories

Chapter 10

Large-Scale Investigations

“You don't know how much weight is enough until you know how much weight is too much.”

—Weight-lifting coach

Experience gained conducting major fraud investigations combined with my previously developed expanded-effort investigative techniques helped prepare me to conduct large-scale investigations. By large scale, I mean planning and conducting between approximately 50 to a couple thousand interviews on one case where the persons to be interviewed might be located across the United States or perhaps some across the globe. In one jointly worked taskforce investigation that I was part of, approximately 3,000 interviews were conducted! Just being a member of a taskforce that conducted such a large investigation helped prepare me to later lead, plan, and conduct similar investigations in the future. The guidance provided in this chapter can be applied to any investigation in which multiple interviews need to be conducted or travel to different geographical areas is required.

The first large-scale investigation I was part of consisted of a taskforce comprised of about 30 federal agents who mostly stayed on the road investigating one case for about a year. The case involved numerous sexually assaults committed by U.S. and other military officers. In that case I was involved from beginning to end but I was not the lead agent; in fact, I was a pretty much a rookie federal agent.

NOTE: Several military officers were identified for criminal prosecution ...