“If I told you, you would recognize many of the (client) names,” Kelley said. He specializes in surveillance operations. He does everything from workman’s compensation and fraud cases to personal injury claims and employee theft cases, to divorces and child custody cases. Akins’ investigative profile is much broader. Kelley specializes in “high-end” white-collar cases. But the profiles of the work they do are different. Technically, Akins and Kelley are competitors. Today Kelley, whom Akins considers a mentor, operates a different company, The Kelley Group LLC. Back in 1999, he merged a private investigation company he had with retired FBI man John Kelley’s company – Federated P.I. “I was a good steward.”Īn Air Force veteran who was a law enforcement specialist, Akins now has been a licensed private investigator for more than 20 years. “But it didn’t bankrupt me,” Akins said of the 2010 incident. LLC, with a main office in Memphis and a secondary office in Nashville, and also is president and CEO of Signal 88 Security of Memphis, a franchise that provides contract security to clients in the form of officers and patrol units. “It was devastating for me,” said Akins, 47, who today is president and CEO of Federated P.I. Although charges against the man were dropped, Akins paid a huge price: He lost the Kroger account and took a public relations hit. The woman accused the officer of sexually assaulting her in the store manager’s office. “One of my plain clothes officers made a grave mistake with a female shoplifter,” he said. But in February of 2010, Akins found his business at risk. His plain clothes officers, dispatched at various intervals, would troll for shoplifters. The account with Kroger covered 19 stores. The lessons learned from that experience have carried over into his businesses today. LLC and Signal 88 Security of Memphis, faced a major business setback in 2010. Akins, president and CEO of Federated P.I.

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