“Surveillance is a tactic. It is not a substitute for an investigation or a strategy,” said John O’Dea, owner of private investigations firm 303 Alpha. “Most investigative firms are focused on surveillance and providing surface-level reporting. Attorneys (and clients) are often handed photos, videos, or raw notes and left to determine how to utilize them.”
“We don’t deliver piles of raw data. We deliver an investigative strategy and case-ready intelligence. Attorneys can use our insights as tools in mediation, negotiation and trial.”
Our Mission is Leverage
The Raleigh and Denver-based 303 Alpha handles infidelity and asset concealment cases, such as exposing affairs and uncovering hidden accounts or financial abuse, including cohabitation; high-conflict custody battles, including documenting behavioral patterns and evidence that impact parenting capacity; and fraud and financial exploitation, such as following the money trail, exposing hidden transfers, and unraveling schemes designed to dodge accountability.
“We work as a strategic intelligence partner for attorneys. Our mission is to identify, collect and process evidence that leverages our attorneys’ positions and changes the outcome of their cases,” said O’Dea. “We tell our attorney clients our job is to give you leverage, not just evidence. We’re looking for that one thing, that one game-changer that will shut the whole case down and make those guys fold or go away.”
Data + Context = Intelligence
O’Dea developed his private investigation chops when regularly using private investigators on behalf of lobbying clients, including construction interests and commercial real estate developers. Having served two terms in the Maine Senate and two terms in the Maine House of Representatives, O’Dea’s standard became “everything that can lawfully be known.”
While doing this work, his company developed new ways to exploit then-emerging curiosities like Facebook and Twitter. “We were pioneers in using disparate data sources, including social media, to drive physical surveillance,” he said.
O’Dea launched 303 Alpha in 2015, and today, the company has the ability to conduct investigations on a nationwide basis. “We always keep the strategy, data and case-management side of the investigation in-house. Our tools, data and analytic capacity are unrivaled in the industry,” said O’Dea.
Case Study: $800K Elder Fraud Case
In 2023, a highly regarded retired military nurse living in Virginia received a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice stating that her bank account had been compromised to fund child pornography. For her own protection, the DOJ letter directed her to withdraw her money from her bank and send a series of cashier’s checks to several corporate entities in NC.
The woman’s nephew suspected elder fraud. When the police showed no interest in the case, he retained 303 Alpha to investigate. “We sent an investigator to talk with the victim. The story unfolded over a period of days, and he went to the bank and interviewed the teller who had issued the cashier’s checks for the victim. Then we went to the UPS store where the victim sent the checks from,” recalled O’Dea. “We got the actual shipping labels. The checks had been sent to addresses in Smithfield and Selma, NC.”
“We tracked every telephone number, every IP address, every shipping label, and every credit card, and investigated the corporate entities to which these checks were made out. We traced them back to two people.
“We conducted extensive surveillance, including using facial recognition technology on the two suspects. They resided in two lower-income neighborhoods and were doing an extensive amount of home repairs, wearing expensive gold watches and diamond jewelry. We doggedly tried to get local, state and federal attention on the case,” said O’Dea. Finally, in March of this year, one of the suspects was indicted and is now in jail awaiting trial.
The total amount of the fraud was $800,000. The victim has since passed away, but her family hopes to recover some of the stolen funds through the sale of the suspect’s assets.
For more information, visit 303alpha.com.
