Lessons You Can Learn From the Sleuth to the Stars Guilty Verdict

For a gumshoe who once said nothing would stick, Anthony Pellicano is officially stuck.

The investigator for hire allegedly employed a police detective and phone company employees to access the confidential information of Hollywood notables. After a six year federal investigation, the former sleuth to the stars, was found guilty of 76 of the 77 charges against him on May 15. It took 20 minutes for the jury to state verdicts on the multiple counts of racketeering, computer fraud, wire fraud, and wiretapping. Pellicano has already served a 30-month prison sentence for federal weapons violations and will return for sentencing on September 24.

“This case is not about Hollywood,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Daniel Saunders, in his closing arguments. “It's not about Sylvester Stallone . . . or Mike Ovitz or Brad Grey. This is a case about corruption, about cheating, about greed and arrogance and the subversion of the justice system. It just happened to take place in Hollywood.”

Could your personal or professional life fall under the scrutiny of someone like Pellicano? It is possible. “People tap phones lines for one of three reasons—money, power, sex,” says Kevin Murray, of Murray Associates, which secures corporations against eavesdropping. Dr. Gordon Mitchell, president of the counterintelligence consultancy company, Future Focus agrees. “Oddly enough, in the private sector it isn’t usually a situation where the big powerful competitor is trying to get information, but some sort of soap opera is going on inside,” he says. “And usually you can preface the person you suspect with an ex. Ex-boyfriend, ex-husband, ex-partner.”