by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Sean Mulholland isn’t Jim Rockford or Magnum, P.I. However, he is a private investigator and many believe that means a life of lurking in the shadows with a telephoto lens, snapping pictures of cheating spouses and shady businessmen.
“There is a tremendous negative connotation or misperception in our industry,” said Mulholland, who started Mulholland Investigations and Security Consulting in 1996. “A majority of our work is legal and corporate. A majority of it is litigation support. Partners want to know about the party they are suing or being sued by.”
Mulholland’s company also does a lot of work for the insurance industry, investigating questionable claims, potential fraudulent personal injury claims, suspicious claims of auto theft and home and office burglary claims where the evidence may not support the claim.
“I’ll give an example. We got a claim from a guy who lived in a trailer and said he had 17 guns stolen,” explained Mulholland, adding the man claimed to have kept the guns in a safe. “The manufacturer of the mobile home said the floor would not have supported the weight of the safe. People exaggerate claims.”
Mulholland was a police sergeant for the New York City Police Department from 1981-88. His wife is from Jacksonville and after leaving the force, they moved here. Mulholland worked for a company that sold security equipment, primarily access control equipment: slide card access, gate operational equipment and turnstiles.
“It was good exposure,” he said. “I was never into private investigation, but it was a natural progression. There are similarities between being a cop and doing private investigations, but there are distinct differences. The law has authority. As a PI, you have no arrest authority and you cannot compel someone to speak.
“I enjoy the diversity of it. There are highs and lows. You never know what you are going to get a call about.”
When Mulholland started his company in 1996, it was a one-man operation he ran from a spare bedroom at home. Today, it’s a 25-person company that needs room to grow. As owner, Mulholland is the face of the company and spends most of his time drumming up new business. However, he still gets in the field (or on the Internet).
“I probably bill 10-20 hours a week,” he said. “We do a fair amount of security consulting, mostly myself. As the city grows, we grow.”
Due diligence has become a specialty of Mulholland and his staff. As business deals become more and more complicated and involve more money than ever, Mulholland provides services that include in-depth background checks.
“We can save people headaches,” he said. “People call and say, ‘I wish I had spoken to you last week or six months ago.’ Due diligence is a tremendous return on your investment.”
Mulholland’s most valuable research tool – outside of his employees – is the Internet. For an annual fee, he has access to several data base search engines. Often, that information helps Mulholland discover things that make and break deals.
“We saved one guy in town $10 million,” said Mulholland, describing a venture capital deal he was asked to look into. “Seventeen companies were going to be merged into one. A general partner had $4 million in federal tax liens and was scheduled to be indicted.”
The human resources departments at various companies also use Mulholland to research potential employees and even dig into current employees that may be up for big promotions.
Mulholland, however, doesn’t have access to everything. Several data bases are off limits: the IRS, unless the information is part of a court file; credit reports, unless consent has been given; medical records, which includes psychoanalysis; the FBI’s data base and others.
During last year’s Florida Bar meetings in Boca Raton, Mulholland nearly landed what surely would have proven to be his “toughest” client.
“I was approached by the publisher of Penthouse magazine to do background checks on the models,” he said. “It never materialized. We had some dialogue back and forth and I sent him some material.”