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Dear Editor:
As it has now become public information, Veracity IIR (formerly known as “John Doe”) has been sued by the City of Westfield for performing a task requested by the Westfield Clerk Treasurer’s Office. We are disappointed that the City of Westfield has chosen to add Veracity IIR as a defendant in this ongoing and expensive dispute when our actions were limited to performing lawful IT security services requested by the Clerk Treasurer.
We are a private investigation and security consulting company. Our roster includes former FBI Agents, intelligence community analysts, other former high level law enforcement officers, and highly accomplished and experienced security professionals. IT security and electronic forensics are among the professional services we provide.
In July 2021, we were contracted by the Clerk Treasurer to conduct a forensic examination of the computers in her office. The concern was their system was possibly infected with spyware and being accessed and monitored by an outside party.
On July 26, 2021, one of our qualified and accredited IT specialists began the process by mirroring the hard drives for examination. This was done after business hours in order to minimize disruption. With the last drive downloading, he planned to come back in the morning to finish, leaving a NOTE WITH HIS NAME AND PHONE NUMBER on it. The next morning, he learned his equipment had been taken without permission. He filed a theft complaint, and the equipment was returned by the City of Westfield. Thus, Veracity was involuntarily dragged into the ongoing conflict between these offices.
Veracity approaches every assignment as a search for the truth. Regardless of who asks us to investigate, the result would be the same. We named our company Veracity (devotion to truth) because it describes who we are and what we do in one word. Although Veracity was contracted by the Clerk Treasurer’s Office, our investigative results have been, and will remain, objective and in accordance with the highest professional standards.
J. Douglas Kouns, MBA, CFE
Owner / CEO Veracity