As a private investigator headquartered in Newburgh and working nationwide, Leonard Golino not only helps solve crimes, he also has a hand in preventing them.
Founder and president of Gold Shield Elite Investigations L.L.C., Golino is immersed in his third career. “I always wanted to be a cop,” he confides, looking back on his Bronx childhood. Earning an associate in business administration degree from Bronx Community College, he studied at the John Hancock Institute in Boston, becoming, at age 24, the youngest individual in John Hancock management.
But, the urge to become a cop lingered. He took a 50-percent salary cut to launch his police career in New York City and was eventually promoted to detective and earned the coveted Gold Shield designation from which his firm derives its name.
Working with his cousin, Richard DeMaio, and a team of 20 to 25 part-time investigators hired on a per diem basis according to their specialties, Golino screens nannies, home care aides, prospective tenants, job applicants; investigates personal injury cases, vehicle accidents, suspected infidelity and even does premarital and Internet dating screening.
He recalls a case of nanny investigation with a happy ending that could have wound up a tragedy. “Newspaper headlines across America too often tell stories of child care providers guilty of abuse, identity theft or even kidnapping,” he points out. “A woman psychologist had been asked by her husband to contact an investigator to check on a nanny they planned to engage. The nanny was hired, but I was not contacted until three months later. She was performing well, but the husband asked the wife one night at dinner what the investigator had said. She admitted to never contacting me, noting that, as a psychologist, she could read people well. The husband insisted that I be contacted.”
Golino shudders as he recalls his findings. “I don”™t just check employment background, but relatives, family make-up, financial problems,” he explained. “In this case she had given invalid addresses, had serious financial problems and domestic issues where she was the agitator. If she had stayed, trouble could have erupted.” He went on to check on the nanny”™s proposed replacement. “She came back squeaky clean,” he reports with delight.
He finds himself cast into the role of a counselor in cases in which marital infidelity is confirmed. “There are decisions to be made,” he notes. “It is difficult when children are involved. I point the clients toward a counselor or an attorney to help them with the transition.”
Golino believes that an investment in tenant screening saves landlords in the long run. “Without tenant background check, thousands of dollars can be lost in rental income and property damage,” he says. “It is important to know if they have moved frequently. Typically in a scam a tenant starts off as a model renter, but within several months the rents start to become lax and delinquent, followed by a series of excuses as to why payments are late. The next thing you know, months have gone by and you have to start the eviction process, sometimes making costly repairs and you begin the rental process all over again.
“Like landlords, employers can become victims,” he says. “Background checks of potential employees avoid such problems as thefts and workplace violence.”
