New England Association of

  Insurance Fraud Investigators, Inc.

March 3, 2010

Dear Members,

February’s meeting at Kowloon’s Restaurant in Saugus was a great success. The turnout was huge with a great number of members and guests attending. Board member, Michael Merolli, did a fantastic job of explaining the intricacies of Crash Data Retrieval (CDR) and its usefulness during the course of an investigation. Michael has initiated a pilot program to use this tool as part of the SIU with Commerce Insurance Co. That was coupled with Attorney David Brink’s presentation of the applicable case law that enables one to use this information in court. Attorney Brink discussed, with the CDR being relatively new, how everyone from judges, courts, and attorneys are exploring these new waters and the affects it may have in the courts both criminally and civilly.

This months meeting on Friday March 12, 2010 is being held at the Château commencing at 10 AM. The Château is located on Rt. 9 in Westborough. The speaker is going to be Jeff Cosgrove of the ATF. His lecture is going to focus on the financial aspects of an arson investigation. Joining him in his presentation will be ATF Special Agent John Pihaca and Worcester PD Detective/ATF Task Force Officer Michael Sabatalo. Agent Pijaca is a Certified Fire Investigator and Detective Sabatalo has a long history of investigating arson for the Worcester PD.

This would be a great opportunity to bring along some of your claims adjusters. This presentation will shed a new approach into the handling of an investigation in terms of the way the facts of the loss are reviewed and the type of questioning that should be utilized.

On another note, elections for the 2010-2011 year are approaching. We have seen some great work completed this year by our very active Board of Directors. A number of the seats on the Board are being vacated as their term will be expiring. I am urging members to contemplate running for one of these seats, along with the Vice-Presidents position which is opening.

Sincerely,

David M. Potter

President

2010 Joint Seminar Registration Form