The Expert Podcast

I've T V. And our affiliate actual human.com Today we're going to talk about…a bunch of really interesting subjects We're going to talk about electric vehicles and future developments where you might be able to drive. Almost halfway across the country on one charge. Also some updates on the used Evie market or some big changes happening there. And then there's, a development out of Detroit where there were some vehicle title fraud So if you're into the vehicle title, industry or that subject we're going to talk about fraud on new vehicles where there was some new car stolen.

And sold under fake titles…and then sticking with the fraud theme on our investigative division There. We're some pop-up companies that were defrauding corporations out of PPP money and also employment money. And then last but not least. we'll see an example of where mediation in a court case. Prevented an impasse it was millions of dollars even when both parties refuse to give in So first we're going to talk about electric vehicles.

And in this article what you're going to see. Is there are many examples of…

Electric vehicles that are trying to get longer range. So what happens is. When you have a. I guess…

A trip that you're trying to go on. That maybe is kind of be farther than you need to take a charge A lot of people worry about whether or not they're going to make it on that trip. Without having to stop. And. Recharge.

And there's manufacturers out there. That are trying to make that what they call range anxiety. Become a thing of the past, right Where you don't have to worry about it You can just go on your trip. not Nessus. worry about.

Plugging in. And this article. From automotive news talks about how Toyota. Is…working on their next generation of batteries where you can drive almost a thousand miles 900 plus miles…

So this is going to be wherever you go on a…day long trip. And you want to drive. You know five 600 miles. vehicle with even a 300 mile range you might have to stop twice because that 300 mile range is not always what you're going to get. You're going to have.

The range reduced. Because of the fact that maybe you put on the air conditioning you put on the heater. you. Have a extra passenger in the vehicle sometimes that can cause. The range to drop.

So if you're in a Toyota in a couple of years where…the next gen batteries will allow you to go 900 miles on. I have don't have to worry about it. Right You can drive all day. Look at. 70 miles an hour even…on average.

That's still more than 10 hours driving Most people don't want to drive that far. Right at 50 miles an hour. That's almost, you know, 18 hours So 900. It's going to be more than you're going to want to drive in a day anyways And of course you can charge up overnight. This technology obviously isn't out yet.

But that's going to revolutionize the way that people consider electric vehicles. Look. If you are. Considering an Evie…

And you know that once a month or twice a month you go on a day trip Even that's 400 miles. At 200 miles one direction 200 miles back or. Maybe even, you know if you live let's say in a big city like Atlanta, And you want to drive up to lake linear. 150 miles. Stop.

Spend couple hours and drive back. Well guess what? And Evie with a 200 mile range you might have trouble. Right. And you don't want to be sitting for three hours charging up your vehicle.

A 900 mile battery changes Everything. And that eliminates the excuse. For the majority of Evie potential buyers. It also may affect the value on existing. Electric vehicles use electric vehicles that are coming into the marketplace.

And we're already starting to see that. Because…

There's a report. That came out. That talked about. Used electric vehicles. Well guess what.

The prices are dropping. Right. This is something where the first generation. Of electric vehicles. Is not going to have the same desirability…years down the road.

Right. You're going to have…

The first. Trial. Batch of vehicles…

Pretty good…

Opens up the marketplace, but doesn't necessarily represent the highest and best technology. Electric vehicles been out for awhile. But they dropped dramatically recently Now some of this is out of the UK, but it reflects to. north America as well. They drop.

Almost 20% going to auto trader right. Used EV market is changing fast because many EVs that searched. Are now. Many companies are now delivering more. The Tesla model three really started selling in high volumes in 2018 five years ago That's a used vehicle.

Part of the reason that. Used EVs had a higher resale value. Is there wasn't that many of them. Up until you know four or five years ago. They didn't sell that many new ones.

Now. That the use Evie market is starting to hit the stride of when…there was more manufacturing that could be. A higher. volume And then by definition lower price, they're currently about 15,000 used EVs for sale each day on Autotrader. 20% or under 20,000.

Right. So the volume is going up There's more availability.

The biggest volume of course is the Tesla model three. This the Evie that flooded the market first and many ma many buyers still want that model. Retailers are slashing the prices then of Tesla more than any other brand. Because there are so many of them, and this is something that we're going to continue to see. over the next couple of years So if you're in the market for a used electric vehicle, now maybe the time to look and see what's out there.

Because…there's some deals that are happening. And that's something that…you might want to take advantage of. One of the things that…is related to electric vehicles. And that we talk about quite a bit on this…

Is…

Vehicle titles, and it may seem like a very small…

Percentage of people that are effected by vehicle titles, but when it happens it's a problem. This was a story. Out of Michigan. Where people stole brand new F150. From holding lots from the Ford manufacturer.

And what they did. Was they were able to get titles for them. And the reason they were is because they did fraudulent paperwork with a title company. And that's something you want to watch out for if you're purchasing a vehicle. And you are.

Getting. Title work done by a third party. You want to make sure that the VIN numbers legit you do a proper VIN search You're not doing any fraudulent paperwork. And. Titles can be forged, just like any other document…

One of the ways that it's done. Is…

When there's fraudulent paperwork that's filed with the DMV. If they do it in a way that changes hands very quickly. Sometimes the transaction of it being stolen is not discovered. Because they're not alerted by any tracking system. When the vehicles go missing and here's an example of a title certificate…

Many of these vehicles were sold to unsuspecting. People. And that's something that, you know you lose out on your car and you lose that all that money. So you want to double triple check your VIN numbers, do all your title searches That's one of the things that people don't realize is there's not one place. You can do a title search.

Four. Checking all the possible backgrounds of a vehicle you want to check liens stolen salvage any claims. And not one place. all those records. The police department has stolen.

The department of motor vehicles has. Lynx and ownership. The national motor vehicle title information system And then VTIs, they have. Salvage and junk and parts only. So you want to check out all of those.

Title locations to make sure that you're not getting ripped off and you're not being defrauded…

Sticking with the fraud scheme Here's something that we've talked about on prior videos. What happens is. You have a cottage industry according to this article. Which popped up over the last couple of years and you've heard the ads on TV. Employee retention credit ERC credits where if you were a company…

Which…

Got PPP loans or made it through the pandemic with your employees. You can now go back and claim credits. For keeping your employees. Even if you've got PPP…

What happens is you basically tell the treasury department. That you had this many employees before the pandemic. You kept that many or more afterwards. And they will give you up to $26,000 per employee…

Right. And it's free money. And it's good if you deserve it, but. There are strict eligibility requirements. Okay.

You have to have paid. The payroll out to these people throughout that time. Many owners of businesses do not understand the criteria. Many times you can inadvertently. Overestimate what you're supposed to do.

But it's worse than that. There are companies that are out there. That advertise to business owners. To claim these credits…companies don't need any kind of a license They don't need any kind of certification. They can just say we'll get you these credits.

Some of them will charge an upfront fee. But after a while…

Some business owners were hesitant on paying in up front feet. And so the companies the ERC. Refund companies I said look we'll…get paid entirely on…commission. So we'll get you your credits. And if you get the credits you just give us a percentage or we'll take a percentage.

So company feels like I got nothing to lose. So what these companies will do. Is, they will take the press prosper. The reality that it's easy to file for the credit. And to duke to small businesses.

What they will do is seek money They aren't entitled to. So they'll file a return on behalf of the business that says yeah I had 10 employees and I kept 12 of them and I got this much money. And what happens is these ERC refund companies…will just put all the paperwork in front of you make you sign it, you submit it as a business or they'll actually submit it for you. And you get this money and they take a percentage or maybe they take it first and then they give you the rest. The problem is you're on the hook If it turns out that you weren't.

Entitled to it. So let's say. You file for seven employees. At $26,000 a piece that could be almost $200,000. 1 71 80.

Right…

And. Maybe this company takes 20% so they get 40 grand. Let's say 30 grand. Well they have $30,000 for doing some paperwork You feel like this is great I got all this free money. And then you get a notice in the mail.

A few months later that says Hey we audited you. And. You don't deserve this money You have to give it all back. You don't just have to give back what you kept You have to get back the whole thing. Right…

The IRS is warning businesses to be on the low. for third parties promoting this…

These promoters actively mislead people to thinking they can claim these credits. The aggressive marketing of these credits. Our major concern. There are very specific guidelines, not available to just anybody, but because the treasury department wants to get this money out. They take your word for it Initially.

And…

If it turns out later it wasn't true, then you have to give it back They claw it back and they call it all back. Not just your net they claw back the gross amount And then whatever this scam company got they get to keep because. They're long gone at that point…

So be aware of these fraudulent tax filing. Players that are in the marketplace. You don't want to get caught up where…not only do you have to pay the money back but sometimes you have to pay a penalty on top of it. Sometimes. Now this comes.

also has your private information for you and all your employees names addresses social security numbers, who knows who they're selling it to. If they are a scam company. They are probably not just doing one scam. Right They're probably doing other types of scams. This is something that we've talked about for almost a year now to be aware of.

And you want to check the backgrounds of the people involved. Most of these companies that we've seen doing this. Many of the principals have extensive criminal records fraud. Larceny. sometimes narcotics trafficking So you want to make sure that you're dealing with the right kind of company.

When we come back. We are going to talk about another type of fraud. That affects a lot of consumers. And we're probably going to touch on mediation There was a company that swore up and down it would never settle on a case and a mediator stepped in and helped them out. They did settle It turns out was a.

thing they could ever done So on the other side of this break, We're going to have our friends from…

actual human talk to you about access to licensed and certified professionals. It we'll see in about a minute…

Are you tired of automated systems and chatbots when you need assistance? Experience actual human.com and connect with real professionals. Not automation. At actual human.com We bring you a network of professionals who are excited to answer your questions and provide guidance. Getting started is easy.

Let us show you how. Here's how it works. Step one. Select the best date and time for your video call. Step two.

Describe your situation and the areas you're looking for Advice. Step three. Connect one-on-one with an expert and get the undivided attention that you deserve. Experience the difference. Visit actual human.com today And schedule your professional consultation.

Actual human.com. Expert guidance from real people…

Good So the next story is about mediation and mediation. A lot of times it sounds boring but here's a case where Ryanair major European. airline. their CEO. Was involved in a major employment case.

And he said. Word for word verbatim. Hell would freeze over before they negotiated this case Hell would freeze over. Okay. And that was their chief executive Michael O'Leary.

He has been the CEO since 1994. And again 2017 hell would freeze over So he was adamant about that. But sure enough. The company has agreed. To the settlement of $5 million to settle the dispute.

How did that happen? Mediation brokered. And how did this. come to pass What does mediation do? Well here's what happens.

Many times a party to a dispute like in this case the CEO…

Is believing that hell would freeze over It's not like somebody put a gun to his head or tortured him or, you know made him. Under duress. Except something that they he didn't want to, what a mediator does is it looks at the dispute and normally in a dispute. The actual agreement is already there Both parties probably already agree to the vast majority of the terms of a case. And.

The reason why they don't. Initially settle is because they don't see that. They only see the one or two fringe elements that are keeping the parties from coming together…

When a mediator steps in, they don't have that same emotional attachment that pride that digging your heels in. Mentality that keeps the principles. From. coming together. So in a private.

Neutral and confidential environment. Both parties can put their case on the table. The mediator goes back and forth in different rooms between them hears them out and they can see the picture of the solution. In most cases. The answer is already there.

It just the parties don't see it. It's not that you have to force or coerce somebody into taking an agreement. This mediator if they're really any good. Will. See the answer that already exists and they'll paint that for you.

Yeah You might have to make a few little adjustments here and there. But normally. They're very minor and you get more back than you're actually giving up…

When the mediator does that they can take a case like this where one or usually both of the parties. Swears up and down I'm never going to settle. And shows them basically you already did settle You didn't even know it. Because the answer is already there…

In addition it does it in a way where you. still maintain your pride Do you say face You don't have to look like you're giving in. It looks like it's a win-win for everybody. Even if you don't think that immediation or settlement is possible. Do yourself a favor at least.

Step into the…mediation environment, let the media to do the work You don't have to carry the burden You don't have to…do the hard work of settling. Let the mediator. B. The one that does all the heavy lifting. Let them show you You can sit back with your arms folded and say I'm not doing anything.

That's fine. But the mediator. Carry that load because that's what they're there for. Or they do it all the time. And if.

You want to get out of a conflict because the longer you're in it the more you're spending on legal fees, the more your mind is distracted from your primary business. You're not focused on growth and positive business development. You're mired down in this case they can drag on for months or years, not counting the expense. And then God forbid you end up in court in actual litigation. As soon as you walk into that courtroom.

You're. Future is at the mercy of the judge or jury that's settling the case or that's deciding the case because you can't walk away from it. Once you get it to the court. Once that jury gets the case or the judge gets the case whatever they say. Is gospel You have to do it If they say you have to pay a million dollars, you have to do it.

And they are certainly not going to be of the same. Mindset as you the other party or mediator, they're going to be just like, I want to get these people out of here. The judge and a court normally looks at both sides as being ridiculous. They don't. See.

The honor. Of your case. They don't see the…

Good faith. Of your case and only see the bad things of the other side. Both people bring baggage to a court case. Both people bring. Things that they've done wrong in a court case Not everybody is clean hands.

So the court when they see that or jury is going to say, look both parties did something wrong. We basically want to punish both parties So even if we declare somebody the winner we're not going to give you everything that you should be getting, because we're going to slap your wrist a little bit for even making us go through this and taking it this far. And the person who inquiry maybe is the bad guy They might have to pay more than they thought or maybe not get as much as they thought…

Having a court decide your future is the worst thing in the world You want to decide your future in mediation Unlike any other type of settlement is completely voluntary. If the mediator. Puts forth a suggested. idea which is all it is. You don't have to take it You can walk away from it.

Right…

And in arbitration sometimes it's binding arbitration If the arbitrator says you have to do this you do. If the court gives you verdict you have to do that. Media. is your last chance. Of being your own boss and not being at the mercy of some other case…

So we're going to jump back and talk about…

Investigations And this is something that people ask us about quite a bit. They ask us. Well gee. What are the some of the stories What are the craziest stories you ever saw The craziest things that ever happened with an investigation…

And our investigative agency active Intel You see the link on the screen We do all kinds of cases. Fraud cases embezzlement asset search. verification of documents. Document forensics digital forensics getting records from mobile devices from computers. These computers behind me.

Extracting out records even deleted and hidden records finding hidden assets. And in one case we're working on it happened to be a family law case now. The. The subject of the case wasn't necessarily to find wrong in the other person for these people to get divorced the divorce is already happening…

But they were wanting to. Come to an agreement on in this case, the visitation with children…

And the visitation was…being…agreed upon by the parties and look. The spouse who happened to be the our client which is the wife. And to be fair. We've obtained permission to discuss some of the details of this case without any names or locations. from the client we never talk about cases.

It's all completely confidential, but this case the client. our client which was the wife. has given permission to talk about some of these details because they're quite comical actually…

So all the part the couple was already separated The husband had moved out. He was living in, Another house…

And he had while this case was going on through the court. A temporary visitation schedule. Let's say Tuesday and Thursday afternoon pick them up bring them back bring them to school the next day. That kind of thing. So.

There was a. 11 year old daughter. That was…the child of this couple…

And Tuesday and Thursday, the father who lived, you know separately was supposed to pick up. The kid from school…

At two o'clock take the kid for the afternoon do whatever they're going to do with the kid. And. bring them to school the next day They would stay overnight at the father's house and bring them to school the next day. Two days a week. Well, the wife was okay with that and actually for the permanent visit…

There was some discussion W that the visitation would actually even be more generous than that Wouldn't just be two days a week. It might be three days a week or even four days a week or maybe longer periods of time…

So the wife was was okay with that But w what was happening is the husband wasn't taking advantage of all those days, two or three times a month He was saying no I'm not going to pick up so-and-so today. I'm not going to pick up the daughter today on. Yeah she can go home after school and the wife was wondering well, you know if he's not even taking advantage of this. Why would he want more Why would they want to give him more? Presentation.

So there was some financial issues involved too with hidden assets and how much income he had that kind of thing. So we were tasked with finding out what was going on with the activity of this. father, the other. Person. So we started out with doing some research on his income because his income has dropped dramatically.

When the divorce started. And…the income. spousal maintenance You know what most people call alimony. Was going to be based on the person's income. Well what we did was we looked through some records with the company.

And we found, and some of you may have heard this story before and some of our other channels. That the father had gone to his boss He was a sales person for. Equipment. And said look here's what I want you to do. I want you to not pay me my commissions.

I want you to…

set them aside put them in another account. Don't pay him to me. I don't want my commissions. He was able to live off of his base salary. And this commission's the boss, the.

The business owner was keeping for him in a separate account. And he was friends with the boss so the boss was Okay With that. And he was kind of, of course after the divorce has done. Take that money back but also…the alimony. going to be based on the amount that he was making during this process which didn't include the commissions.

So we were able to. Follow. The. Father to find out where he was selling stuff to he went ahead a route he went to different companies and we're selling this equipment. So what was happening is he was still selling the same amount of equipment.

But…he was. Not booking the sales through his account He was booking the sales room though another salesperson. So he didn't get credit for it He was even telling some of his clients. Don't book. Through me don't order online through my account.

Do it through the corporate account. So by doing that he was diminishing his income, reducing his income So that was documented. The next thing that we were trying to document is. What he was doing when he didn't want to pick up the kid If he'd said to the, to the mother look I don't want to. up my daughter today after school He was always saying he had to work.

If he had to work extra hours. You know harder.

a hundred job functions…

And. The wife was thinking well if that's true, how come there's no income? How come the income's not going up…

Well…

We did some surveillance and we found that the guy I was going to work. On that day. Perfect example. There was one day when…the…daughter. That he had.

Visitation of have to go for a medical procedure Nothing nothing major minor procedure She had a little bit of a medical issue. And the daughter said daddy I'm going to be really scared. can you come with me? To disappoint me and he says no I'm sorry I can't, I have to work. So this is one of the days when the.

Daughter I…

was supposed to be with him. And he wasn't…

So we did surveillance He left his house where he lived. It turns out he lived with another woman at the time which he was separated He was entitled to do that. He went to work. He stayed there for about 15 20 minutes. He left his office.

And then went to Hooters. For lunch at 11:30 AM…

And this is when the daughter is going to be at her medical appointment at 11:00 AM He literally was at Hooters drinking a pitcher of beer and wings. Chatting up Hooters girls while his daughter was at this appointment. At great photographs. We had a picture of him looking over his shoulder at the Hooters girl a little yellow shorts, orange shorts. Pitcher of beer.

Bucket of wings. Stayed there for about two hours. It was almost two o'clock by the time he left. He leaves Hooters and he goes to…the. gambling racetrack…

Where he's betting…

Racing. Animal racing. Like I say if it was horses or dogs cause that might indicate the location…

And while he was there he's drinking again. He had a couple of shots He had a beer. Now it's three or four o'clock in the afternoon. the daughter had…finished her…

Medical appointment. He goes to pick her up at the mother's house And now it's five o'clock…

And he takes the daughter along with his new girlfriend. To a restaurant and they had dinner. And he had another couple of drinks at the restaurant and we notified the wife look he's had some drinks so you might want to check to see if he's okay to drive before he left with the daughter when he was okay to drive…

So he takes a door to the restaurant Didn't bring her home. To stay with him overnight And he said nah it's been a long day I'm tired. I'm going to bring her back home to the mother's house, which he did. And then he went back to where he was living with this, with this girlfriend this new girlfriend…

So. He goes back to the house and we're about ready to terminate the, Surveillance. And what happened was. He gets in his car. It's nine o'clock at night He gets in his car and leaves…

Drives away from this new house where he's living with the girlfriend. And he goes to another. Condominium where he's got another girlfriend and he stays there overnight Now I don't know what he told his second girlfriend. Like where he was going at nine o'clock at night and coming back the next morning he probably said he's going out of town. So we have surveillance on that Now granted, look if you're separated from your wife and your have a girlfriend and cheating on her, that may not affect the marriage but it does show some bad faith because your daughter was supposed to be with you And instead of wanting to be with your daughter, you'd rather be at Hooters drinking beer or at your other girlfriend's house Cheating on your.

Whatever. So this was a case where we had excellent surveillance excellent documentation of the finances. Excellent documentation of we even had our investigating went back to Hooters after. He left and got the receipt. With his credit card number on it with the pitcher of beer the wings and everything else to prove that he was there and was drinking at 11 o'clock when his daughter was at the medical appointment.

All this was very helpful. In negotiating. A financial settlement but also visitation where he still got the three-day visitation. But it was established that if he didn't. See his daughter on that day, there were penalties or penalties of finances There were penalties of maybe not seeing her another time.

Because the mother didn't want the daughter to have her hopes. Built up that she was going to see her father and then have them dashed. Right. So it was structured into the agreement The most important thing was the spousal maintenance was based on that higher income. So that's one of our famous investigator stories…

Keep an eye on our channel We'll kind of tell you more stories about surveillance and hidden assets and people doing all kinds of sketchy things. on our channel So hopefully. you'll give us some feedback on what kind of stories you want to hear about on the investigative side. And we'll see you on.