This report combines regulatory checks, court searches, alias expansion, associate mapping, and repeatable automation into one operational playbook.[web:1][web:2][web:3][web:5][web:9][web:16][web:18][web:21][web:28]
For an individual investor or operator, the closest practical substitute for a private investigator is a layered workflow: official regulator databases first, federal court search second, paid background and people-search tools third, and OSINT expansion for aliases, entities, and known associates last.[web:1][web:2][web:3][web:5][web:6][web:7][web:9][web:16][web:20]
No single database is enough. The strongest workflow cross-checks each claim across at least two independent source types, such as regulator filings plus PACER, or a people-search hit plus entity records and public web evidence.[web:2][web:5][web:6][web:9][web:16][web:18][web:27]
| Category | Resource | Why it matters | Use in pipeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adviser checks | IAPD / adviserinfo.sec.gov [web:2] | Public disclosure system for investment advisers and firms.[web:2][web:4] | Confirm registration, disclosures, history, and firm identity.[web:2][web:4] |
| Enforcement | SEC Action Lookup and SEC litigation releases [web:1][web:3] | Find individuals subject to SEC actions and related litigation history.[web:1][web:3] | Check for enforcement red flags before deeper work.[web:1][web:3] |
| Broker history | FINRA disclosure framework [web:5] | Regulatory reporting includes events such as bankruptcies, judgments, liens, and complaints in the broker context.[web:5] | Use whenever a target has broker-dealer exposure or dual registration.[web:5] |
| Federal litigation | PACER Case Locator [web:6][web:9] | Nationwide index for district, bankruptcy, and appellate federal courts.[web:6][web:9] | Search civil cases, bankruptcies, and linked entities.[web:6][web:9] |
| People search | OSINT people-search lists and commercial aggregators [web:7][web:16][web:20] | Useful for aliases, addresses, phone numbers, relatives, and possible associates, though not authoritative by themselves.[web:7][web:16][web:20] | Use as lead generation, not final proof.[web:7][web:16][web:20] |
| AI investigation patterns | Miessler investigation skills and LangGraph-style OSINT agents [web:18][web:21][web:27] | Offer reusable structures for person lookup, company intel, and due diligence workflows.[web:18][web:21][web:27] | Adapt these for automation and standardized agent behaviors.[web:18][web:21][web:27] |
| Skills ecosystem | skills.sh / GitHub skills ecosystem [web:22][web:28] | Defines portable agent skills and version-aware installation workflows.[web:22][web:28] | Package repeatable tasks as skills and pin versions for auditability.[web:22][web:28] |
Capture full legal name, middle names, prior names, DOB, city-state history, firms, websites, emails, phones, and any known entities or trusts. Without canonical identifiers, later alias and court work produces too many false positives.[web:6][web:9][web:16]
Run adviser, broker, and SEC enforcement checks first because they are high-signal, public, and structured. Record exact names, CRD-style identifiers if present, dates, and disclosure language.[web:1][web:2][web:3][web:5]
Use PACER Case Locator for federal civil, appellate, and bankruptcy cases, then review dockets for anything material rather than relying on hit counts alone.[web:6][web:9]
Expand maiden names, shortened first names, middle-initial variants, prior addresses, business aliases, domains, and usernames using people-search leads and open web traces.[web:7][web:16][web:20]
Known associates matter because repeat co-founders, officers, relatives, and shell entities often surface patterns not visible on the primary subject alone. Query the same court and regulator pipeline on the closest connected names and entities.[web:6][web:9][web:16][web:18]
Classify each finding as verified, probable, unverified, or false positive. Escalate high-severity hits such as SEC actions, repeated fraud allegations, or recent bankruptcies for manual review.[web:1][web:3][web:5][web:9]
Build a case-centric web app that stores one JSON record per target, with tabs for intake, sources, findings, associates, and decision memo. Use agent skills for repeatable subtasks and pin skill versions using GitHub's emerging skills tooling so behavior changes are traceable.[web:22][web:28]
A practical flow is: intake form → query launcher → evidence capture → review queue → final report packet.[web:18][web:21][web:27]
| Project / pattern | What it offers | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| People-Search-OSINT [web:16] | Curated catalog of people-search and public record resources oriented toward OSINT workflows.[web:16] | Use as a directory for discovery and fallback source selection. |
| Coeus OSINT People Search list [web:20] | Another curated set of fee and public tools for people, records, and contact discovery.[web:20] | Cross-reference providers and build launch templates for each source. |
| Miessler Personal AI Infrastructure investigation skills [web:18][web:27] | Reusable investigation skill structure for people lookup, company intel, and due diligence.[web:18][web:27] | Borrow the skill decomposition model for your own internal agent library. |
| OSINT AI Agent with LangGraph [web:21] | Demonstrates a multi-agent reconnaissance framework using specialized agent roles.[web:21] | Use as reference for orchestration, role separation, and tool chaining. |
| DueDiligenceAI [web:24] | Illustrates a multi-agent company investigation workflow, though aimed at company research rather than regulated-person diligence.[web:24] | Adapt the pattern for human and entity due-diligence cases. |
| skills ecosystem / gh skill [web:22][web:28] | Portable agent skill packaging and management with version-aware installation and updates.[web:22][web:28] | Package your investigation tasks as skills, then pin and update safely. |
Normalizes names, DOB, addresses, entity links, and source consent boundaries into a single schema. This is the foundation skill for all downstream automation.
Queries adviser, SEC, and broker disclosure systems and returns structured disclosures, identifiers, and enforcement history.[web:1][web:2][web:3][web:5]
Generates PACER search plans, logs case numbers, and classifies case types such as civil, bankruptcy, or appeal.[web:6][web:9]
Produces candidate name variants, usernames, domains, and linked entities using public web and people-search leads.[web:7][web:16][web:20]
Builds a first-degree network of relatives, partners, officers, registered agents, and recurring co-defendants or co-managers.[web:16][web:18][web:27]
Assigns severity, confidence, source type, and next action, and produces a final memo with an audit trail.
skills.sh positions agent skills as reusable capability packages, while GitHub's recent skills tooling emphasizes versioning and content-aware change detection, which is especially useful when the workflow itself must remain auditable.[web:22][web:28]
This page is designed to gather the minimum viable facts needed to launch the pipeline with low ambiguity and immediate follow-on tasks.
Use a case object with keys for subject, aliases, identifiers, entities, associates, sources, findings, and decision. This keeps the workflow compatible with skill-based agents and Git-backed versioning.[web:22][web:28]
Suggested severity levels are informational, caution, elevated, and critical. Suggested confidence levels are verified, corroborated, probable, and unverified.