Cody Shultz is a senior director and leads Guidepost’s Private Client Protection practice group. As a former CIA counterintelligence officer, Mr. Shultz is regularly called upon by ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals and family offices as a strategic advisor for executive privacy, personal safety/security and reputational decisions in response to public and private crises. He also works with enterprise clients managing the privacy and security of their C-suite, particularly with the tax benefits available from the Independent Security Study (IRS Code 132 – working condition fringes).
Mr. Shultz is a recognized expert in social media unmasking, which identifies digital bullies and cyber criminals who harass or make online threats against executives and their families. He is frequently retained by partners and managing directors of high-profile law firms who recognize “he is someone who solves problems discreetly, efficiently, and ethically.” Mr. Shultz spearheads the Sentinel Premier program – an invite-only privacy and security solution for UHNW clients and their families.
Mr. Shultz focuses on the unique challenges of high-profile individuals, and families with significant wealth. He routinely assists clients in matters such as scrubbing online identities, digital vulnerability assessments, ransom and extortion response, business due diligence, and global executive protection. The following are highlights of his experience.
Digital Privacy and Unmasking
- Oversaw the development of a comprehensive privacy program for a client and family that included designing and assisting in the implementation of a privacy asset acquisition and holding structure by creating a legal entity and using a proxy agent to create firewalls between potential adversaries and the principal’s new home address.
- Routinely scrubs clients’ information from over 450 data brokers, reducing their online footprint, minimizing their risk of having personal information (e.g., home address, phone number, list of assets) exposed, all while not requiring any change to their lifestyle.
- Led and supervised an investigation into an “anonymous” stalker of an on-air personality ultimately identifying the individual behind the unwanted communication and coordinating a law enforcement response.
- Managed an investigation into identifying an individual making terroristic threats through social media against executives of a multi-national company. The individual, who was a former employee, was surveilled over several weeks and observed driving by the homes of the executives at odd hours in the early AM. The individual was later arrested and imprisoned.
Reputation Management
- Oversaw an engagement responding a competitor’s global publication of “fake news” stories to damage the client’s reputation to make the client acquiesce to an unfavorable business deal.
- Led an investigation into an organized group of masked protestors that showed up at a client’s home and workplace making claims of anti-Semitism. He ultimately identified not only those who wore masks at these protests, but also the source of their funding originating from an extremist group in another country.
Discreet Investigations
- Recovered $9,000,000+ in stolen cryptocurrency from an overseas bad actor who impersonated a potential romantic interest. At the client’s request, law enforcement was not involved so as to minimize his embarrassment, and public knowledge, about falling victim to the scam.
- Led an investigation into the fiancé of a high-net-worth family’s daughter that revealed the fiancé was maintaining inappropriate sexual conversations with several Instagram models both before the engagement up and through the week prior to the wedding.
- Led and supervised an investigation involving a theft of over $500,000 of designer clothing from a client’s property, in which mobile device tracking identified a vehicle that left the subject’s home to a public storage facility several hours away. Law enforcement involvement ended in the arrest of a suspect.
- Oversaw a multi-year investigation into organized crime’s use of fraudulent passports to steal a company’s intellectual property, ultimately leading to the arrest of fourteen individuals in India, Turkey, Thailand, and the Philippines.
Due Diligence
- Managed multiple pre-transactional due diligence investigations of people and entities in difficult jurisdictions such as Russia, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Laos.
- Led and supervised business intelligence investigations on entities to determine ultimate beneficial ownership of companies, undeclared connections to government agencies, and uncovering reputational concerns related to proposed incoming members of boards of directors.
- Conducted multiple background checks on household staff (nannies, estate managers) revealing histories of embezzlement, DUIs, lack of discretion about their employer in social media, and outstanding warrants in other countries.
Prior Experience
Prior to joining Guidepost, Mr. Shultz was the senior investigator for ACT, Inc., where he brought his experience as a federal investigator to the educational testing industry. He stood up an entirely new investigative division, responsible for international security matters, which included intellectual property protection, developing country-specific risk assessments, creating, and deploying data analytics to detect testing misconduct, and managing ACT’s global hotline reporting system.
Mr. Shultz began his career with the Central Intelligence Agency. Throughout his tenure, he performed personnel security, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism investigations in Eastern Europe, South America, and the Near East.
Community Engagement
Mr. Shultz is a lay leader in his local church, serving as co-director of the men’s ministry. He teaches weekly classes on systematic theology, church doctrine, and reformed dogmatics.
Education
Mr. Shultz earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Philosophy from Texas A&M University and a Master of Divinity degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Did You Know?
Cody grew up in Texas, and the first time he saw snow was after he graduated college and moved to DC.
