There are two approaches to corporate theft, proactive and reactive. Most companies are reactive and investigate system failures after the fact. Pinpoint can provide policies, procedures, and security enhancements to reduce or eliminate those risks.
We encourage our clients to partner with us as a resource to help prevent crimes against the corporation. Regular system reviews and audits can identify vulnerabilities and oftentimes lead to the early detection of any issue.
We have the technical expertise to investigate all manner of thefts and losses, including sophisticated financial crimes, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition, and breaches of contract. Pinpoint has also had great success in recovering the losses from corporate theft, identifying liable third parties, and helping companies prove and recover insurance claims.
If a criminal prosecution is indicated and beneficial, we can hand over a completed investigation to the authorities for prosecution. This report maximizes your results, minimizing disruption, and allows the client to get back to business quickly.
Pinpoint Investigations & Security Corp. provides these services throughout Staten Island, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx.
Who Uses This Service
- Business owners, executives, boards, partners, controllers, and family offices responding to unexplained losses or suspected insider theft.
- In-house and outside counsel, litigation teams, and law firms directing privileged or litigation-sensitive fact development.
- Human-resources, compliance, internal-audit, risk-management, corporate-security, and loss-prevention departments.
- Insurers, claims professionals, fidelity/crime carriers, special investigation units, and organizations preparing a documented referral or proof-of-loss package.
- Retailers, warehouses, distributors, manufacturers, healthcare providers, financial firms, property managers, contractors, logistics companies, nonprofits, and businesses responsible for cash, inventory, equipment, data, or valuable property.
When to Contact Pinpoint
Clients usually call after an unexplained loss, control failure, tip, or suspicious transaction indicates that property or funds may be leaving the business. Common triggers include:
- Missing cash, inventory, equipment, materials, medications, luxury goods, vehicles, tools, customer property, or other business assets.
- Embezzlement, altered checks, unauthorized ACH or wire activity, false refunds, expense abuse, payroll manipulation, ghost employees, or misuse of purchasing cards.
- Vendor collusion, kickbacks, duplicate or fictitious invoices, overbilling, diverted deliveries, side sales, or undisclosed related companies.
- Theft or removal of customer lists, trade secrets, electronic files, confidential data, intellectual property, or records by a current or departing worker.
- Inventory variances, camera or access-control anomalies, after-hours entries, unexplained schedule patterns, an anonymous complaint, or inconsistent employee/vendor explanations.
- A need to preserve evidence, identify the scope and method of loss, support insurance or litigation, or prepare an organized referral without alerting subjects prematurely.
What to Expect
Initial intake: we identify what is missing, when the losses were discovered, who had access, the affected locations and systems, known incidents, immediate risks, reporting obligations, and the business or legal objective.
Immediate preservation: counsel or authorized management may be asked to preserve relevant video, access logs, point-of-sale and inventory data, emails or messages lawfully controlled by the company, financial records, devices, photographs, packaging, and physical evidence before it is overwritten or altered.
Information requested may include loss summaries, transaction records, audits, schedules, policies, organizational charts, suspect and witness identifiers, vendor files, camera maps, badge/vehicle information, prior incidents, and any insurer or law-enforcement correspondence.
Investigation plan: define the lawful scope, decision-makers, confidentiality, interviews, records and transaction analysis, corporate/public-record research, surveillance or site work, evidence handling, specialist needs, fees, and written authorization. Counsel is included when appropriate.
Deliverable: a confidential chronological report with actions taken, sources, verified facts, transaction or loss analysis, interview information, photographs or secure evidence links, exhibits, unresolved issues, and limitations. Follow-up, testimony, and organized support for counsel, insurers, or a law-enforcement referral are available when requested.
Timing and Availability
Urgent triage and evidence-preservation guidance may begin the same day or next business day when personnel, authorization, required information, and the retainer are available. No start time is guaranteed until the matter is accepted.
A focused single-incident review may take several business days. Repeated theft, multiple locations or suspects, large transaction sets, or incomplete internal records commonly require several weeks and may proceed in phases.
Surveillance and site work depend on subject activity, operating hours, access, staffing, travel, and the number of observation dates. Interviews depend on locating people and voluntary cooperation.
Digital forensics, forensic accounting, insurer review, outside records, subpoenas or other legal process through counsel, and coordination with law enforcement can extend the timeline.
Important findings can be reported promptly; the final report follows review and organization of assigned records, field notes, interviews, photographs, video, financial data, and exhibits.
Why Pinpoint
Experienced supervision: work is supervised by Igor Galitsky, a retired NYPD Sergeant/Supervisor Detective with 23 years of law-enforcement and investigative experience, including financial-crime and money-laundering investigations.
Licensed regional capability: Licensed Private Detective, in New Jersey and New York, with practical New York/New Jersey surveillance, interview, court-record, corporate-record, and field-investigation experience.
Theft-focused methodology: loss and transaction analysis, timeline reconstruction, access and opportunity comparison, corporate relationship research, surveillance, interviews, site documentation, and specialist coordination are combined as the facts require.
Evidence preservation and discipline: records, video, photographs, physical evidence, direct observations, client-provided information, and investigative assessments are distinguished, dated, sourced, and organized with documented handling and limitations.
Business-sensitive approach: investigative steps are planned with authorized management and counsel to reduce unnecessary disruption, control disclosure, preserve evidence, and avoid premature accusation or confrontation.
Actionable reporting: decision-makers receive a clear chronology, identified discrepancies and patterns, supporting exhibits, unresolved leads, follow-up priorities, and testimony or referral support when needed.
Important Limits
- A private investigator is not law enforcement and has no subpoena, search-warrant, or arrest authority. Compulsory records, searches, seizures, and criminal charges require the proper legal process and government authorities.
- Suspicion, access, a database match, an anonymous tip, or an inventory discrepancy is not proof that a particular person stole property. Findings must be tested against records, timing, opportunity, alternative explanations, and corroborating evidence.
- We do not hack accounts, bypass access controls, unlawfully obtain bank/phone/email records, search personal devices without authority, trespass, impersonate police, or install tracking or recording devices without clear legal authority and written approval.
- Interviews are voluntary and surveillance shows only conduct visible from lawful vantage points during assigned periods. Either method may produce useful facts without capturing the entire scheme or every participant.
- An investigation cannot guarantee recovery of money or property, an admission, termination, insurance coverage, criminal charges, or a litigation result. Recovery and compulsory production may require counsel, insurers, banks, courts, or law enforcement.
- Investigators report facts and assessments; authorized management, counsel, HR, insurers, prosecutors, and courts determine discipline, liability, coverage, charges, and legal strategy.
A De-identified Example
De-identified matter: A business reported recurring inventory losses from a controlled area. Internal counts, schedules, access information, and employee explanations did not identify when or how the items were leaving.
What we did: We worked with authorized management and counsel to preserve available video and access records; compared loss dates with schedules, deliveries, inventory adjustments, vehicles, and authorized users; reviewed relevant employee/vendor and corporate information; conducted targeted surveillance and site observations; and documented interviews and investigative leads without making premature accusations.
General result: The final report organized the loss timeline, recurring access and transaction patterns, corroborating observations, discrepancies, evidence links, and remaining limitations. The business and counsel used the findings to tighten controls, prioritize additional records and interviews, evaluate personnel and insurance action, and decide whether a formal referral was appropriate.
Service area and contact
Pinpoint Investigations & Security Corp. serves Staten Island, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. Call 718-667-6422 to discuss your needs.
Related services: Corporate Investigations; Undercover Investigations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should we do first after discovering a theft?
Limit unnecessary discussion and promptly preserve video, access logs, point-of-sale and inventory data, financial records, emails or messages lawfully controlled by the company, devices, photographs, and physical evidence. Contact authorized management and counsel, and avoid altering original evidence or confronting a subject before a plan is in place.
Can you investigate without the employee or vendor knowing?
Often yes, when there is a legitimate purpose and the agreed steps are lawful. We control disclosure, coordinate with authorized management or counsel, and use records, research, surveillance, and discreet fieldwork without promising that an investigation will remain undetected.
Will you interview employees or witnesses?
Yes. We conduct professional, fact-focused interviews with authorized participants and document what was said. Cooperation is voluntary; employment interviews and any required warnings, representation, or policy procedures should be coordinated with counsel or HR.
Can you help recover stolen money or property?
We can identify facts, locations, transactions, relationships, and potential assets; preserve evidence; and support counsel, insurers, or law enforcement. Recovery is not guaranteed and may require legal process, insurance procedures, banks, courts, or government action.
What will we receive?
The scope controls the deliverable, but it normally includes a confidential chronological report, investigative actions, sources, verified findings, loss or transaction analysis, interview information, photographs or secure evidence links, exhibits, limitations, and recommended follow-up.
How long will it take and what will it cost?
A focused matter may take several business days; repeated losses, multiple locations, surveillance, interviews, financial review, or digital forensics may take weeks. We work on a retainer basis and explain rates, estimated effort, and approved expenses in writing before beginning.
