My customer's house and business got raided today

Scottwax

New member
I got to his house a few hours after the FBI left. My customer was out of town but I have the code to his back door. I go in and was suprised to see mud tracked in his house, plus all his guns were on the kitchen counter, disassembled, along with a few boxes of ammunition. I go to the other side of the counter to the drawers he keeps the keys to his car and truck and saw the search warrant and items seized list. :nervous2:



I call him to let him know what was going on but couldn't reach him (he was on a plane heading back to Dallas) but I did get hold of his assistant. She asks me to check both rooms that have computers in them so I did. No more computers. She asks me to read from the list of what was seized and I told her it was 4 pages long. She said "well, just the highlights then".



Apparently, someone is running illegal stuff through my customer's server banks.



FBI raids downtown Dallas building | WFAA.com | Local News: TV



DALLAS -- The FBI hauled away millions worth of computer servers from a company called Core IP Networks during a Wednesday raid in downtown Dallas.



But it affected a number of businesses that were not under investigation and about 100,000 phone customers across the country have lost part of their 911 service.



Matthew Simpson is the owner of that company. He says his home was also raided.



Simpson says the FBI is after a former client who may have used servers to pirate movies and software.



But innocent companies are also effected including AT&T, Google, which both had equipment at the building at 2323 Bryant St.



Locally, Classic Chevy lost its e-mail. A small ad agency is locked out of the internet and a small phone company-- Sitcom in McKinney-- says all its customers have lost service and access to 911.



"It's like an apartment building. If you have 500 tenants and one of them has a meth lab inside his apartment, they don't hold the apartment liable for that guys actions. But that's what the FBI is trying to do here," said Simpson.



Simpson also estimates 100,000 phone customers across Texas, and the country, are now without E-911 service, which provides dispatchers with information about where you're calling from.



The FBI will not say who is under investigation.



And unfortunately for the companies who rely on those servers the FBI says it may be several days or more before their service can be restored.
 
Flawless Image said:
wow! looks like your day was alot cooler than mine! it rained here...



Rained early in the morning here but moved out before daybreak. Good thing too since my first customer would have cancelled (he'd have to drive on wet streets after I finished) and I would have been at the house that got raided about the time it was swarming with FBI agents.
 
Flawless Image said:
man, that sucks.. so whats the gameplan? still gonna be detailing his rides?



He says they are after a client of his so hopefully it all works out on his end. He also keeps a car at an apartment he has in Phoenix (he does business there too) and mentioned flying me out on his plane to take care of that car a few times a year.
 
sounds like the kind of customers i need! ha. not too much clientelle like that around here.. about 300 is the most I can demand out of a 6 hour detail..
 
With all that happen was the car available to have you perform your magic or did the take it away?
 
PaintPolisher said:
With all that happen was the car available to have you perform your magic or did the take it away?



No, they left his cars so I went ahead and took care of them.



Showroom Shine-he already has mentioned it online himself. Not here but on the forum I know him from. There is a 10 page thread about it.
 
Scottwax said:
...all his guns were on the kitchen counter, disassembled, along with a few boxes of ammunition. ..



ScottWax- Since you have a key, maybe you oughta secure the above. Sitting out on the kitchen counter isn't good.
 
Accumulator said:
ScottWax- Since you have a key, maybe you oughta secure the above. Sitting out on the kitchen counter isn't good.



I don't have a key, I have a code for the back door lock. When I left last night, the owner was about 30 minutes away and his assistant said just to make sure I close the garage doors and reset the back door lock.



I could not figure out how the FBI got in the house since it was all locked up when I got there. My customer posted in a thread that they broke down the front door, then used screws to hold it back in place. One of them also fell through the attic ceiling, which explains the insulation mess in the garage. They even popped open his nav screen in his Z06 to see what was in it (just the GM nav DVD).



I've known this guy nearly 3 years and he's never given a hint of being involved in anything shady.
 
Scottwax- Too bad they were so destructive about the whole thing :( I'm a fan of presumed-innocent, at least in cases like this, so maybe he's not involved in anything shady after all. When you first posted this I was thinking it might've been one of your other clients (you can probably guess which one).



Glad they were nearby and that his assistant had a heads-up, I'm not a fan of unsecured firearms just sitting around in plain view.
 
I was under the impression that a search warrant allowed unfettered access, but did *not* allow for property damage. They should be held liable for any and all expenses related to the damage they caused while executing the warrant. At least, that's how it used to be.
 
One of the businesses affected by the raid that lost e-mail, internet and phone service has already filed suit against the FBI to get the servers back online (this is a business that uses the data center my customer owns). This has really affected a lot of people.
 
Just thought I'd revisit this. Apparently what was happening is my customer and several others were using the names of homeless people to purchase blocks of service from AT&T, Verizon and others, then reselling it to other companies.



ISP Operators Among 19 Arrested in Cyber-Fraud Case - CSO Online - Security and Risk



The owner of a Dallas-based Internet service provider that was raided last April has been charged with participating in a conspiracy to defraud more than US$15 million from companies such as Verizon, AT&T and XO Communications.



January 12, 2010 — IDG News Service — The owner of a Dallas-based Internet service provider that was raided last April has been charged with participating in a conspiracy to defraud more than US$15 million from companies such as Verizon, AT&T and XO Communications.



Matthew Simpson, 25, of Red Oak, Texas, is one of 19 people charged in the case, according to a grand jury indictment that was unsealed late last week.



His Dallas company, Core IP Networks, was raided by FBI agents on April 2, 2009. At the time, Simpson claimed that his company and nearly 50 of his customers were the innocent victims of another's actions.



"The only data that I have received thus far is that the FBI is investigating a company that has purchased services from Core IP in the past," he wrote in a note posted to Google Sites on the day of the raid. "This company does not even colocate with us anywhere."



But according to federal prosecutors, Simpson was an active participant in a long-running scam to set up companies that fraudulently obtain lines of credit and then resell telecommunications services before skipping out on the bills.



The operation was masterminded by Simpson's business partner Michael Faulkner, formerly of Southlake, Texas. According to court filings, Faulkner and his wife, Chastity, are both considered fugitives, but Simpson has been arrested he remains in custody.



The indictment cites e-mail messages allegedly written by Faulkner, explaining how to manipulate shell corporations in order to obtain loans.



"As our clients pre-pay ... we can effectively catch up on all our bills, payroll and then some, and launch another profitable endeavor, long before we even get a bill from Verizon," one reads.



Another 2008 e-mail tells Simpson he can obtain CEOs for his shell corporations, apparently by using the identities of the homeless, paid off with cash and an inexpensive fortified wine drink known as "Mad Dog," or MD 20/20. "They each get $100 cash money and a bottle of MD 20/20," the e-mail stated.



Simpson, who is in custody, could not be reached for comment.



But one of his former customers said Monday that the April raid cost his Internet marketing company dearly. "We had to sue the federal government to get our key data storage units back," said Michael Daseke, president of Liquid Motors, which was knocked offline by the April raid. "We are still waiting on the government to give us some of our equipment back."



Total costs of the outage were well into the "six figure" range, he estimated. "I think the government messed up and the criminals messed up."



It's unusual for the FBI to shut down legitimate businesses when conducting raids, but it appears that investigators thought that Core IP -- which was renting out data center space and Internet connectivity to Liquid Motors -- might have left some evidence on its customers' computers.



Daseke isn't the only person who says he was hurt by the scam. Several of the people charged by the government were simply well-meaning employees who had no idea they were working for a criminal enterprise, said George Milner III, a partner with Milner, Finn & Price, who is representing one of the accused, Brian Haney, of Plano, Texas.



Haney was a temporary employee who was laid off and rehired several times by Michael Faulkner. "He was out of work and found out about this job through a temporary agency" Milner said. "If he had a hand in what was going on, they wouldn't have laid him off."



In court, FBI Agent Allyn Lynd testified that the Faulkners absconded to Mexico before the April raid and are now operating a similar business out of Monterrey, Mexico, Milner said.



The Department of Justice (DoJ) is unsure whether Michael Faulkner is alive or dead however. In a press release, the DoJ cited an "anonymous Internet report" claiming that he was killed while trying to return to the U.S.



Matt has been in jail since the fall of 2009 and has yet to be tried. Several others involved had tried to flee the country, the ringleader tried to fake his own death in Mexico so I guess they all now sit until it goes to trial. I have no problem with that since they apparently stole millions of dollars in service but on the other hand, rapists and murderers get bail. Go figure.
 
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