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Agency's Stand on Expansion is Relative
The family that investigates together stays together
BY DOUG CHILDERS SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
The claim was fairly straightforward. According to its owner, the 60-foot yacht struck a coral reef off the Florida coast and sank, destroying the yacht and its expensive electronic equipment.
The insurance company wasn't convinced. It hired the Trident Team, a subsidiary of Bob Livermon's company, Central Virginia Investigations Inc., to investigate the owner's claim.
It was the kind of case that required Livermon to get his feet wet -- a lot. Livermon's private investigation firm, which has offices in Powhatan County and in the Arboretum in Chesterfield County, is one of the few on the East Coast that conducts underwater investigations for insurance companies.
"Pulling the boat up can damage the evidence," he said. "So we dive down and videotape it."
Livermon, who used to produce videos for the Virginia Department of Economic Development, said videotape plays a part in 98 percent of his cases.
Livermon's son Josh, a scuba and technical diving instructor and licensed private investigator, helped investigate the case of the sunken yacht. They soon discovered that the yacht wasn't where the owner said it would be. After less than a week of searching with sonar equipment, Livermon found it 200 to 400 yards away from the owner's claimed site.
"He'd hit a reef, but somehow the boat ended up in 120 feet of water," Livermon said.
The owner's claim looked even worse after Livermon's team dived down to the wreck and discovered that all its electronic equipment was missing. And it appeared "the damage had been done from the interior rather than the exterior," Livermon said.
With the evidence Livermon and his son gathered, the insurance company was able to press charges against the boat owner and save thousands of dollars. The boat owner was found guilty of insurance fraud and went to jail for it.
Not all of Livermon's cases are as unusual as that one. Domestic cases and land-bound insurance fraud are the bread and butter of the detective business. Livermon, who bought Central Virginia Investigations Inc. five years ago from Cecil Glunt, a former Army Ranger and Richmond police officer, has seen his share of them.
"Most of our cases are with attorneys and their clients in divorce, spouse infidelity and child custody," Livermon said. "We also work with insurance companies on corporate espionage, insurance fraud and workman's comp claims. We are a full-service investigation agency."
Livermon charges $60 an hour and 50 cents a mile, plus expenses, for the firm's services. Clients may opt for a flat-rate fee of $600 a day, which includes travel, motel and meals.
"Sometimes we can complete the case quickly, and other times, it can take weeks," Livermon said.
Business is good these days, thanks to the agency's Web site as well as referrals from law firms and insurance companies with which Livermon has worked. Clients are approaching the agency from as far away as Florida, California, Michigan, New York and Missouri. Recently, Livermon received a query from Johannesburg, South Africa, about a missing person who may be in Portsmouth.
To meet the growing demand and to move closer to its client base, Livermon will move the firm's headquarters in June from Powhatan County to its satellite office at the Arboretum in Chesterfield County. He is also introducing several new investigators to the firm.
Livermon's son Josh, who had been working as a private investigator in Florida, is moving to Virginia to work in the Chesterfield office next month. In January, Livermon transferred ownership of the firm to Josh. Livermon now serves as the firm's chief executive officer.
Josh's wife, Gigi, a former Fort Myers, Fla., police officer, is joining the agency as well. She will serve as vice president and will handle marketing issues. Because she is fluent in Spanish, Livermon anticipates the firm will be able to expand the range of its clients.
Livermon's son Jake, a private investigator registered in Virginia, is also joining the firm, as is Livermon's daughter Jordan, who will be the firm's office manager.
By the end of May, three of Livermon's four children will be working in the Chesterfield office. The investigatory instinct might be genetic: Livermon's father worked in the 1940s as the U.S. Postal Service's youngest postal investigator.
The agency utilizes several part-time investigators as well, including a retired FBI agent and a former military police officer.
Joe Cravens, president of the Cravens & Noll law firm, estimated that Central Virginia Investigations handles 75 percent of his firm's investigatory needs, including criminal cases, domestic relations and personal injury.
"It might be anything from photographing a crime scene to finding a witness I need in a criminal case," Cravens said. "Sometimes it's finding somebody who can lead you to the witness. I hate to sound like the Canadian Mounties, but they always get their man."
The new headquarters of Central Virginia Investigations will be located inside Cravens & Noll's offices.
Eventually, Livermon would like to see the agency grow as a full-service firm that operates up and down the southern East Coast. And while most of the firm's underwater investigations have been in Florida, he'd like to expand the service to the Caribbean. Since his children and his daughter-in-law are certified divers, the opportunity to expand is great.
"Right now, we're going to be starting an aggressive marketing campaign," Josh Livermon said. "We're a small- to medium-size agency, and I'm looking to grow this statewide and eventually nationwide. I have a big vision for this company."
"I always believed that it would be nice for me to leave something for my kids," Bob Livermon said. "Now that belief is becoming a reality." This article is re-published with permission from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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