Frank Maurizio RELATED STORY Ethics hearing set for Dec. 11 Advertisement

An ethics complaint against Pahrump Town Board member Frank Maurizio came to light last week on the state's Commission on Ethics Web site.

At the same time, the transcript of the Sept. 17 meeting of the Private Investigators Licensing Board, or PILB, was released.

The board fined Maurizio the mandatory first-time penalty of $2,500 for advertising as a licensed private investigator while he had no license.

Tammy Whatley, the board's investigator, said Maurizio's business is not listed with the Secretary of State as being incorporated, nor does Maurizio have a limited liability corporation or "any sort of a license" from PILB and has never applied for a license through them.

Al Balloqui, who oversees licensing in Pahrump as the director of economic development said, "He has never had a license in Pahrump."

On June 1, Balloqui filed the ethics complaint against Maurizio that coincidentally was released almost simultaneously to the public last week, resulting in six allegations of violations of state law.

Maurizio is currently out of the country. While he is unable to discuss his alleged ethics violations for legal reasons, he did speak out about the PILB hearing.

He said in 2007, he had a Web site designed by AMB Web Design in Las Vegas to get some temporary work by putting his 13 years of police experience to good use. However, Maurizio said the Web designer published the site before he gave her the okay to do so.

"I am a licensed bail enforcement agent and that's what should have been put on the Web site," Maurizio said. "It shouldn't have said licensed investigator. I have to take the hit for that. It's my fault for not reading it carefully, but I didn't conduct any business with the Web site."

Maurizio told the PILB he tried to incorporate the business in the summer of 2007 but the paperwork and payment sent to the Secretary of State's office got lost. He said "a number was assigned" to the situation, but he lost interest in following up.

"I pretty much abandoned the idea when I began working as a substitute math and earth science teacher in October 2007," he said. "I don't even know why the Web site was still up in 2008 and 2009 because I didn't pay for it to be published after 2007."

Maurizio said he is no longer being asked to teach but continues to take classes to earn his certification.

The services offered on Maurizio's Desert Springs Investigations Web site include accident investigation and reconstruction, fugitive recovery, bail enforcement and expert witness services for Pahrump and the Las Vegas area.

A single line on the three page site, stated: "We are licensed Nevada private investigators."

That claim will cost Maurizio, who is in bankruptcy, $2,500 he doesn't have. Maurizio said he had AMB take the site down after he was questioned by the PILB investigator.

The fact that Maurizio never did business as Desert Springs Investigations, does not affect the complaint against him, which is for advertising as a licensed investigator.

The purpose of the Private Investigators Licensing Board is to license private investigators and patrolmen, process servers, repossessors, dog handlers, security consultants and polygraph examiners.

Chapter 648 of Nevada Revised Statutes mandates the board to regulate the standards of conduct for these professions in order to protect the public safety and general welfare of people of Nevada.

One of the prime focuses of the board is to eliminate unlicensed activity.