Former IRS enforcement officer Michael Valvardi joins Gary Pinkerton to talk about the state of security in the US. Michael shares his thoughts for helping first responders and schools, which he thinks can end school shootings. They also talk about policies that changed when Obama took office and what needs to be changed to prevent terrorism.
Announcer 0:04
Welcome to the heroic investing show. As first responders we risk our lives every day our financial security is under attack. Our pensions are in a state of emergency. A single on duty incident can alter or erase our earning potential instantly and forever. We are the heroes of society. We are self reliant and we need to take care of our own financial future. The heroic investing show is our toolkit of business and investing tactics on our mission to financial freedom.
Gary Pinkerton 0:39
Hello, and welcome to Episode 102 of the heroic investing show, where we focus on the unique challenges faced by members of the armed services, first responders, those firefighters, EMTs and police officers out there protecting us and keeping our homes safe and our family safe. but also those challenges that are common to all investors. We aim to provide the tools that enable our listeners to secure their family, their future and their retirement, and we help them put in place a solid plan to replace their w two job or trading time for dollars as I say it with passive income. We help them create options in their financial future. My name is Gary Pinkerton co hosting this show with Jason Hartman. In heroic investing 102. We’re going to talk with Michael Velarde. Michael is a retired federal agent from here in the New York City area and who’s now lives in Florida, on how to prevent or at least dramatically deter terrorist events like 911, and curb the wave of tragic school shootings in America. But before we get to that show, I just want to make a couple of announcements. Last week, I participated in a book launch on Amazon with 25 other entrepreneurs. And it was certainly a surreal event. For me my first event of launching a book that’s for sale, I’ve done a couple of ebooks and certainly several blogs and other writings. But this one was really, really interesting. It was truly inspiring. And the the whole process of working with other authors to put together a a book of common theme to understand the process of launching your book was amazing. And it was extremely successful. We hit number one on Amazon as a number one bestseller in a few categories. And really it was a tribute to my audience, to my friends and to those of similarly with the other 25 individuals that were part of this book, the books called the one thing that changed everything. It’s an extremely powerful book, I learned a tremendous amount by reading and editing everyone else’s stories in that book. And I’m certainly proud to be a part of it. It’s an honor to be, you know, counted among the this all star dream that includes the 18 year business partner, and marketing genius behind the Jim Rohn company for many years. Mr. Kyle Wilson. It also includes a 15 year Major League Baseball player Todd Stottlemyre. I’m sure many of you are familiar with Todd and his father who was manager for the New York Yankees for many years to time us memory champion Ron White. Ron’s just an incredible individual with a great story. There’s a video in his website that is just it’s it’s great. Passion Easter’s author, Erica Dela Cruz, PGA Tour mentor, Nick Bradley, you know, and just many others in the entrepreneur, real estate world. I mean, not just real estate, but many individuals running their own businesses as entrepreneurs outside of real estate, which of course, Jason and I talk about very often on our site. You know, these unstoppable superstars I’ve come to learn, share transformative stories about the one moment that one big thing that changed their lives and set them on the path for success.
I share my story with as an individual who had spent 25 to almost 30 years actually, in the US Navy as a submarine officer, very rewarding career, but also one that was not a permanent path for me. I’m an entrepreneur at heart. I talk about how I came across that. But also what what difference it has made my life and the path that I’m currently on, as you know, working in at paradigm life with Patrick Donahoe, to help spread a message about a better, better financial foundation for those of us in the middle class that are looking to change our world. The themes that resonate in this book, or in these stories are themes of persistence, courage, redemption, and unconventional approaches to challenges. They’ll absolutely inspire you, I promise you that and they’ll give you ideas and strategies that will impact you both personally and in your business. So please head over to Amazon. If you haven’t done so already get a copy you can get either a paperback copy, or you can get a copy on Kindle and get that immediately. All the proceeds from this go to charity. So you can find out more about that and about me and my other books and writings. Either there at Amazon on the author page, or you can go to Gary Pinkerton Comm. That’s Gary pinkerton.com. And please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at Gary at Gary Pinkerton comm if you have feedback on this show, or on the book itself or anything else that you think I could do to help, so thanks so much for that. And now let’s talk about this interview with Michael Velarde. So after his career in as a federal law enforcement officer, Michael now lives in Florida, and along with the successful tax consulting and advocacy business, he’s a frequent speaker and guest expert on the subject of deterring violence. You know, again, harkening back to his time as a federal law enforcement officer, his training, the expertise that he went through, and what he saw leading up to and during the events of 911. We recorded this episode just after the Douglas High School tragic shootings in Parkland, Florida, that claimed the lives of nearly 20 individuals. And I’m sure all of you out there are familiar with that event. Michael had been discussing this topic frequently on radio and TV interviews. And so appropriately, as you will see here, he was very focused on that subject, a very important one to be focused on. So we also discuss though his take on about air travel in 2001, led to the terrorist attacks of 911. And why they they chose to use commercial jets as weapons for the destruction that they caused. So there’s a lot in this episode, and I think you’re gonna find great value in the concepts of you know, how to protect our children, on how to keep America safe. And just on you know, other inspiring topics about how to make this a better place that we live. So please do provide feedback on iTunes or wherever you if you go to Roku, investing calm, or you can also provide feedback on my website, for this podcast. So thank you so much for visiting those. And please do rush out and grab a copy of the one thing that changed everything.
Gary Pinkerton 7:08
Well, everyone, I have a special treat for you today. This is Michael Valvardi. And Michael grew up and spent many, many years working as a federal agent, specifically with the criminal division of the IRS, as I mentioned in the introduction, now, Michael is most of his time in Florida. But as current events go, everyone i’m sure, is certainly taken aback by but aware of the most recent of all of our shootings, school shootings, and that one being in Florida. And so I asked Michael to be on the show with us to talk about that he’s pretty busy, you know, relay in his experiences from being a 911 responder up in New York. And of course, you know, his expertise on the current crisis, which we’ll probably focus mostly on, but he’s also he also happens to be an enrolled tax agent. And given we’re all real estate enthusiasts, so maybe we’ll venture into the 2018 tax code or something. So But first of all, and most importantly, and current, Michael, let’s talk about what you’ve been kind of relaying as your experience. But take us back to 911. And then we’ll jump forward to today.
Michael Valardi 8:11
Okay, great. You know, before 911 happened in 1997, I remember my supervisor having a group meeting, telling us there was a there was a new policy of the FAA and they didn’t want arm federal agents on the planes with the guns, they wanted to check our gun, when we got on the plane and pick it up after the flight. And I remember saying to him, I said, Fred, how stupid is that? Why would you not want an armed federal agent on the plane? in case something happens? Yeah. But there was, you know, that was the policy. So we either had to have a prisoner with us, or had to show cause In other words, we had to have a letter from the supervisors say, hey, my agent needs to have that gun on the plane for whatever reason. All right. So as a result, I believe no, this is just my belief that they wouldn’t have planned 911 unless they knew there was gonna be no one on that plane with a fire on the stop. Of course, after 911, President Bush automatically told everyone the next day 929 12 he said, Listen, if you’re a federal agent, you are carrying your gun. If you’re going to a white on vacation, whatever it takes, you’re on that you’re in that plane with your gun in your arm. And then we all got Air Marshal training, all the federal lands and all that Air Marshal training, which is actually one training, by the way. And then if I went onto the plane with my supervisor, and this happened once we were in Florida, we’re in Jacksonville, they take the marshals off the plane, put them on another flight. From that day, there hasn’t been another 911. Now, how about the schools, same situation, you guys gun free zones at the schools? I am an HR to 18 qualified, retired federal law enforcement officer. I cannot carry my gun on the school grounds. It’s illegal. Does that make any sense?
Gary Pinkerton 9:48
Again, we’ve lost protection that would otherwise be there, right?
Michael Valardi 9:51
Yeah, absolutely. So my solution to this problem is simple. There’s a lot of retired federal agent cops that have to qualify Every year on the HR to a pain, give those people preferential hiring in the schools. There’s a lot of people that want to get second jobs and retirees with being a police officer, they can get a job at the school as the gym coach, the administrative assistant, whatever positions available, but now you will have responders that are trained, and it’s important that you’re adequately trained, and in a position to respond in the event that another school shooting woodworker.
Gary Pinkerton 10:26
Yeah, makes sense. So the schools that we have here in New Jersey, they all have retired police officer or agent at least at the front doors, is that common across America now? Is it expected?
Michael Valardi 10:39
Well, that’s the thing I would rather than being employees of the school, no additional expense, when you put them out there and say, you got to go to school. Now you got an arm guy walking around. First of all, somebody wants to target that school, they’re gonna know if there’s one of them or two avenues, the targets are the first ones to get taken out or avoid. Right? If nobody knows who they are, you can’t respond to that. Because you don’t know. Right? All you know is there’s somebody there with a gun, and they’re gonna pick you out if you show up to do harm to the kids.
Gary Pinkerton 11:06
Right. That’s a great point. That’s a great point, because you don’t know where they are or who they are.
Michael Valardi 11:10
You don’t know where they are. And the reason I suggest people that are HR to 18, qualified is this. When I was a federal agent, we not only had to go to the range and shoot targets and made sure you know, your score high enough to keep you going every quarter. But we went through submunitions training, that’s where you’re taking fire. And those things do hurt if they hit you, you know what I mean? You get into the habit of seeking cover responding when somebody’s shooting at you, as well as they have what’s called the facts. A fax machine, is a firearm training system that you go into the situations where they give you up your gun, it’s like a laser guns a big screen. It’s like, you’re in a movie theater, you know, it’s a room, it’s the size of a movie theater almost. And you’re in like these live situations with a guy on the bench. He said, Show me your hands and he takes out his wallet real quick. You know what, it’s all judgment pistol, he’s gonna shoot him or not shoot them. And they test your judgment. And if you don’t score 100% every time you lose your firearm. Wow. So not only are you get a you, are you trained to shoot the targets that we’re shooting at, but you’re trained to make good judgment decisions. This is why you haven’t heard about a criminal investigator from the IRS shooting somebody, okay, because their training is four times out of a local police force, because the IRS would not want that kind of publicity. So they’re going to make sure that your judgment is 100% before they let you take that gun on the street. Wow, nice. That’s something I certainly didn’t know. A lot of people don’t realize that. And the reason is looking, if you take the New York City police force, there’s 30,000 of them. Okay, one day off for training costs $10 million for the city of New York. So they’re not training nearly as much as some of these federal agencies, because federal entities a much smaller force, but they don’t want the publicity of a bad shoot, right? Yeah. The rest of your hire, grab it, no, rather spend the money, make sure you go every 90 days, and they put you in different situations, testing your judgment, testing your ability to respond under live fire, even though it’s simulations, you still got somebody shooting at you. Right? True. And that is why I propose as opposed to just people that have a concealed carry, but people that are hr 218 qualified, because they’ve had that additional training for years. And you know, if you get to retirement, it says something that you had to be, you know, decent on the job. You know what I mean? There’s only a make it that far.
Gary Pinkerton 13:29
That’s true. Yeah. And you’ve had lots of training just by the fact that you didn’t make it that far.
Michael Valardi 13:32
Right, exactly. So my proposal, I think, first of all, there’ll be a deterrent effect. If they know there are now people, retired Secret Service guys, retired police officers, retired FBI agents in that school, there are nobody knows who they are except the principal. Okay, they’re ready to respond. You know what I mean, in case something happens, you’re not going to go there. Why would you, you know, you’re not going to know who’s going to take you out and how quickly you’re going to get taken out anymore.
Gary Pinkerton 13:58
Yeah, that’s that is. That’s fascinating. So you’ve written a letter to the president talking about this? Yes. Right. Okay. It’s been recent, I would guess so probably not not much response from any of it yet.
Michael Valardi 14:09
Right. I haven’t gotten a response yet. But I’ve certainly been out doing it. You know, the radio shows, talk shows, because I think it’s a solution that’ll work. It won’t cost any additional money. I mean, maybe they can give these guys bonuses when they hire and giving preferential treatment to hire them. But the fact is, now, you know, in schools, you have trained law enforcement officers who would better respond in case there’s a problem.
Gary Pinkerton 14:33
Interesting. So what has been the feedback? Have you gotten feedback from any other shows? You’ve been on on this idea? Is it catching, catching hold do you think?
Michael Valardi 14:41
Yeah, everybody loves it because it makes sense.
Gary Pinkerton 14:43
Of course it does. Yeah,
Michael Valardi 14:44
You have the best trained, you have the best paid-trained people. You don’t have an additional expense where you would have you hired a security guard. Now you have those additional expenses. No, these are people you’re going to hire for jobs that are otherwise qualified within this school. You just give them preferential treatment, kind of like you Because there are able to respond in the event of an emergency. So you have a little thing on the application or you HR today to qualify, and are you willing to respond in the event of an emergency? If you check the two boxes? Yes, you get preferential treatment as long as you can do the job, right?
Gary Pinkerton 15:18
As long as you remain qualified. Yeah. Oh, and the teaching.
Michael Valardi 15:22
Right, exactly. To teach gym, to teach math, to teach whatever.
Gary Pinkerton 15:25
Yeah, that’s interesting. I mean, obviously, this is the height of everyone’s awareness and thoughts right now, given the tragedy in Florida, anything more specifically on what happened there recently.
Michael Valardi 15:37
I mean listen, I think, to some degree, the FBI dropped the ball. And then we could get into that a little too, you got under when I when I was there under the Bush administration, I left during the Obama administration. We stopped everything. We had carte blanche to do a lot of stuff. They changed the policies within the federal agencies. When Obama took office, you know, eventually they changed how they looked at people how they followed up on people. And that’s why during his administration, and subsequently now, you’ve seen these people fall through the cracks. Yeah. And I think they need to go back to the policies we had in effect after 911. that prevented 100% of the terror attacks. There wasn’t a 911 while bush was still going on. There wasn’t a second one, you know what I’m saying? And that was by design, we know that the agencies were sharing information better. We were diligent about following up. And we stopped everything that was planned before, which feel for wishing that change under Obama.
Gary Pinkerton 16:35
Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about New York City. I was having dinner last night with a couple of friends who had not been to New York City since before 911. And which is really kind of surprising, but they’ve just been busy in the military. And they since I’ve retired like me, and we’re up in the New York City, you know, area, just doing some shows and things but spending quite a bit more time in the last six months. They were blown away by the, you know, patriotism, the kind of assistance that the common person in New York City provides to others, unlike, you know, Baltimore, DC or many other cities, I live near New York City have been there numerous times before and after 911, I’ve experienced the same thing. What did you see following 911? And then all your years up thereafter?
Michael Valardi 17:19
Well, 911, it was sheer amount of patriotism right after it. I mean, it died down within a year, but it was I mean, people were you know, and and certainly I saw with the law enforcement community, we came together, we really jelled to make sure that that doesn’t happen again. And like I said, we you know, after the bushes, I noticed the change before right before I left with the Obama administration, just in the way federal agencies handled, handled things, and we’re following up and they even changed the wording in the manuals and stuff. I mean, they kind of, I don’t know, I don’t want to say allowed it to happen, but just seems like there was more diligence, they after 911. And then things kind of went the other way. And now we see again, here, this guy was reported to the FBI was a person that probably should have been stopped before he got a chance to take that rifle into that school and start shooting everybody. And it’s not the first time it happened. You know what happened in California with the shooters out there. They were reporting but they didn’t follow up on them. So we need to change the procedures, they really need to make an effort to stop things again, before there’s an incident. And I don’t know if it’s by design or just by stupidity. But the policies that were so effective back in 2004 2005 have cells when we changed to now in 2018. And I think that’s something the President needs to examine within the Justice Department is their procedures, so that the federal agency can again come together and put in the time the resources. I mean, I don’t know if you knew this or not, but the terrorism budget was cut by 50%. In New York City, you know, and that was done by Obama, and he attributed to human I voted for the Iran deal with, you know, when it happened, but you know, that means there’s a lot of surveillance that’s not taking place. There’s a lot of proactive things that they were able to do that they’re not able to do, because they don’t have the funding, they don’t have the manpower, they don’t have the funding for it anymore. That funding has dried up. And that’s where an ounce of preventive cure is worth a pound afterwards. You know what I’m saying? If you put in the time and effort beforehand, if you have the funds, if you have the people in place, you have the procedures in place to stop anything before it happens. It’s much better than dealing with the afternoon.
Gary Pinkerton 19:31
Yeah, absolutely. No question. You do more than than just this right here. You’re an interesting individual because you spend so much time doing law enforcement, but it was for the IRS. Right. When you join the IRS. I know your father has a long history of being an IRS agent and a teacher on the subjects of tax code. When you join did you join as a law enforcement officer or as an accounting trained IRS individual that then branched over
Michael Valardi 19:57
My father, who was a revenue agent for years told me about the Special Agent shop. Okay. And that’s a war enforcement position where you carry the gun right from the start. So I got that job, I took that job, and probably the best job in the IRS. I mean, you know, you get the 25%, you know, extra pay, because you work two extra hours a day, the law enforcement availability pay, they call it, you know, they get out early. I mean, I got out of the 22 years, my father was here for 37 years. And then, of course, I went into my own tax business, you know, I but what I do is strictly represent people before the IRS got it. So, if you’re having a problem with collection, or you having a problem with an audit or anything like that, and of course, being there, knowing the ins and the outs, I’ve been very effective. I mean, if you go to my website, you see my testimonials of Mike velocity ea.com you’ll see, you know, I’ve gotten I’ve settled cases, you know, $300,000 tax cases, $10,000 gotten stuff, you know, dismissed would have been going to court, you know, totally dismissed. Because I, I’ve been there and I know the ins and the outs, it gives me a little bit of an advantage of how to deal with the IRS. Yeah, absolutely. It’s been effective. I also wrote a book on Bible prophecy called the time of is coming, which is available, the time of is coming calm, which basically talks about all the, you know, the biblical prophecies, as well as some of the ones that have the Koran, because I had the opportunity when I had a cable show, to meet a guy named Kemal, so we moved the number three guy in the PLO, and he was a planner for planning, you know, the worldwide takeover for probably long throughout the world. And I did eight shows with him. And I had a lot of got a lot of insight into Islam and, and their and their plan for America, and Israel and how they plan to expand and, and take over and you could see this migration in Europe was by design, even the migration here of the large Muslim population that we now have, that have basically come in since 911. Again, by design, so I tried to incorporate all that into the book, so people would have an understanding of what’s really happening.
Gary Pinkerton 22:03
Fascinating. I was not aware of your book, can you say again, the title and the and the website,
Michael Valardi 22:08
the time of his coming, and the website is the time of his coming.com. And it’s available at Amazon. Just put my name in Michael Valardi , V I L A R D I. And it’ll pop up.
Gary Pinkerton 22:21
Excellent. Well, I look forward to checking that one out and getting a copy of it. Michael, what am I not asked you either related to 911 the recent shootings or your current business that our listeners should consider or should keep in mind?
Michael Valardi 22:34
As far as the 911 goes, I want to illustrate that this is very strong parallels for as I see it, of the policy of not having the guns on the plane. And then afterwards, you had this tragedy. And then of course, since then, we’ve had nothing. And I think if we institute that same policy in the schools, you’ll see the school shooting stop tremendously, tremendously. Okay. And then as far as the business goes, if you have a serious issue with the IRS, I can help you a lot of things.
Gary Pinkerton 23:08
That’s a great connection audience. That’s a great connection. Well, and Michael, very sobering about the schools. I mean, I’m a father of two teenagers who go to school every day. And we’re not in a really dangerous community here, thankfully, but every community can become dangerous with an outsider walking in with a with a shotgun and rifle as we’ve just learned, so thank you for your time. I mean, I really appreciate these insights. wish you the best on that initiative. And if you need help with the President’s letter in any way, please reach out to me, Michael, and I’ll do what I can.
Michael Valardi 23:39
Gary, thank you so much for being on your show. Appreciate the opportunity.
Gary Pinkerton 23:42
Yes, sir. Enjoy that Florida weather, my friend. And to everyone else out there. We will see you next week.
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