The Search for Madeleine McCann and Oakley International
Oakley International was a US registered firm solely controlled and headed by fraudster Kevin Halligen which was awarded a £500,000 6-month contract by the Madeleine Fund to spearhead the search for the missing child.
Oakley International won the contract after an introduction by another company, Red Defence International (RDI) (http://www.miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=3126.msg114654#msg114654), based in Jermyn Street, Central London. Unsurprisingly, Red Defence was itself wholly owned by Kevin Halligen. Washington-based Oakley International was paid around £300,000 by backers of Madeleine McCann's parents to help look for the child after she went missing from an Algarve resort in May 2007 at the age of three. The six-month contract saw the firm hire other private detectives, set up a hotline and process information. The firm had initially been given a £500,000 contract, but the McCanns terminated the arrangement before paying any more fees.
Listed as being involved with both companies was Mr Halligen, 47, a communications expert. He is given as the 'contact name' for Oakley International Group, a company registered in Washington DC as the manufacturer of search and navigation equipment.
The company claimed annual sales of £33,000 and only one employee, who appeared to be Mr Halligen.
The address given for the company is 2550 M Street NW Washington, which was the downtown office of Patton Boggs, one of the largest and most powerful law companies in America.
(http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/press/62june12/washington10612Halligen.jpg)
Convicted fraudster Kevin Halligen, the man behind Red Defence and Oakley International,
the PI firms which headed up the search for Madeleine in 2008.
A friend of the McCanns said: 'The hunt for Madeleine is becoming more and more international and it was felt that a truly international firm was now needed to lead the inquiry.
"These really are the big boys. They are absolutely the best, but they are extremely secretive and cloak-and-dagger about what they do.
'Since their appointment, Metodo has very much taken a back seat and they are now concentrating primarily in Portugal and Spain and across the Straits of Gibraltar into north Africa, where they have their main contacts.
'The American agency is pretty much handling everything else.'
The secretive firm is said to employ ex-FBI, CIA and U.S special forces, according to the Daily Mirror.
The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell, said: 'Kate and Gerry made it clear from the outset they would leave no stone unturned in finding Madeleine and that means employing the very best people in any given field.
'It is correct that an international firm of investigators have been appointed.
'But I am unable to say anything at all about them because of the covert nature of their work and the need for secrecy, not only in looking for Madeleine, but also in relation to previous operations.'
The McCanns now have detectives working around the world at a reported cost of £166,000 a month.
Among the possible sightings they are following up, apparently ignored by Portuguese police, is one by a British yachtsman on the Caribbean island off Margarita last May.
The appointment of the U.S firm comes after it was revealed that a suspected sighting of Madeleine in Brussels was ruled out by police.
A blonde girl had been seen with a woman in a hijab at the KBC bank in the Belgium capital and the McCanns had been treating the sighting as a priority.
However their hopes were dashed when a man came forward and confirmed that the girl was his daughter out with her nanny.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1044260/McCanns-hire-crack-team-ex-FBI-agents-Madeleine.html