FILING ERROR IN FEDERAL COURT THAT EXPOSED ASSANGE INDICTMENT REMINDS US THAT INFORMATION CAN SOMETIMES BE FOUND IN STRANGE PLACES

Today's headlines, concerning the fact that a sloppy cut-and-paste error made by an Assistant US Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, which exposed the fact that there is a sealed indictment pending against Julian Assange, demonstrates that an alert investigator or compliance officer can uncover non-public information that may be crucial to identifying their own particular problem. What obviously happened is that someone used a motion from the Assange case, which remains sealed by Order of Court, as a form for an unrelated matter, but neglected to change the name of the defendant in every place where it needed to be changed. Clerical mistakes happen, but they may reveal something that was not intended to be public information.

The usefulness of the PACER (Public Access to Electronic Records) database to the compliance officer cannot be stressed enough, even for compliance officers at banks located outside the United States. Pending civil frauds, white collar crimes, and a wide variety of active, as well as closed, cases, assist the compliance officer in determining risk levels regarding new, as well as existing, clients. if your target was formerly involved with owning a company that has major litigation, against it, you want to make sure there was no misconduct attributed to him in the case.

While it is true that criminal indictments, where the defendants are outside the United States and therefore not yet in custody, are generally sealed, compliance officers, by examining open criminal files of close associates, business partners, or family members, may be able to determine that there are other co-defendants, which might include the bank client they are attempting to investigate. if tyou do not know who hid associates , friends and family are, use your social media/social networking resources, and find him, and therefore then, using the facial recognition system you are already using to vett the client.

Additionally, bankruptcies of fraudsters' companies, appeals of adverse decisions, original instruments attached to civil complaints, signatures of defendants on plea agreements, and many other useful items can be gleaned from PACER files. You can also determine whether a defendant is cooperating with the authorities, as a Criminal Information, rather than a Grand Jury Indictment, starts the proceedings. Also,when a defendant's counsel schedules a hearing for Change of Plea, you can gather he has decided not to go to trial.