About Us
About Atlantis Private Investigations | Licensed Investigators You Can Trust
About Atlantis Private Investigations
Atlantis Private Investigations is a California-licensed investigative firm based in Fresno, serving attorneys, tribal governments, businesses, and individuals throughout the Central Valley, Sacramento, and the state. The firm is 100% Native American–owned and veteran-owned.
What we do and what we don't. We investigate and we report. Findings are documented, sourced, and built to survive scrutiny — from opposing counsel, from a board, from an auditor, from a judge. We provide facts and investigative opinion. Legal strategy, argument, and advocacy belong to counsel. We have never confused the two, and attorneys retain us because of it.
Practice areas. Workplace and grievance investigations · Asset and financial investigations · Litigation support and document analysis · Heir and missing-person searches · Surveillance · Background investigations · Tribal government matters
Meet Our Team
Michael W. Braa, JD — Founder & CEO
Michael W. Braa, JD is the founder and CEO of Atlantis Private Investigations, a California-licensed investigative firm in Fresno serving attorneys, tribal governments, and businesses in complex civil and workplace matters. He practiced law in California from 1997 until his disbarment in 2009, and has worked as a licensed private investigator since 2011.
In 2022 he purchased the Los Banos Enterprise, a 131-year-old Central Valley newspaper, and in 2026 received a first-place award at the George F. Gruner Journalism Awards for his writing there. He hosts The Michael Braa Show and published two books in 2026.
He is a U.S. Navy veteran and an enrolled citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Atlantis Private Investigations is 100% Native American–owned and veteran-owned.
Carl Whitney — Vice President
Carl Whitney brings more than thirty years of law enforcement experience to Atlantis. He retired at the rank of lieutenant, and over his career led homicide investigations, SWAT operations, and financial crimes casework. He is a recipient of the [Agency] Medal of Valor. He also instructs active law enforcement officers in interview and interrogation technique.
At Atlantis, Carl handles the firm's most sensitive assignments — matters where the investigative record will be examined closely and the methodology has to hold up as well as the findings. His background in homicide and financial crimes brings two disciplines that transfer directly to civil and workplace work: building a case from physical and documentary evidence rather than from assumption, and tracing money through records that were not designed to be read by outsiders. That he still teaches interviewing to working officers is the reason his interviews produce usable records rather than disputed ones.
Investigative Services
Atlantis conducts investigations that establish what the record supports. Our clients use those findings to make decisions — legal, organizational, and personal — with an accurate picture rather than an assumed one.
Litigation Support and Pre-Filing Investigation Establishing facts, locating and interviewing witnesses, developing documentary records, and assessing credibility — before a complaint is filed, during discovery, or in advance of settlement.
Workplace and Internal Investigations Independent investigation of complaints, grievances, and misconduct allegations for employers, boards, and organizations. We determine what happened, who was involved, and what the record will support — documented to withstand review by counsel, a board, or a court.
Asset and Financial Investigation Identification of assets, business interests, and financial relationships in judgment enforcement, pre-litigation evaluation, family law, and probate matters.
Background Investigation and Due Diligence Vetting of executives, partners, vendors, and counterparties that goes substantially beyond automated screening — including record verification, litigation history, and business affiliations.
Tribal Government and Public Entity Matters Investigations for tribal governments, boards, and public organizations, conducted with attention to the jurisdictional and governance considerations these matters carry.
Locate and Heir Search Locating witnesses, debtors, beneficiaries, and heirs, including collateral heir research through genealogical and public records.
Surveillance Documented surveillance in insurance, family law, and civil matters, conducted within the limits California law imposes.
Early Risk Assessment Sometimes the useful step is identifying which questions need answers before a situation develops further. We help clients determine what their actual exposure is while options are still open.
Not every situation requires a private investigator. When yours doesn't, we'll tell you.
Our Investigative Approach
We are not reactive. We are not sensational. We do not promise outcomes we cannot control.
Our role is to establish facts early — while clients still have options and before positions become fixed. That means conducting investigations with discipline, documenting findings with precision, and being clear about what we know, what we suspect, and what remains uncertain.
That restraint is deliberate. It is also why our findings hold up when they are examined — by opposing counsel, by a board, by a court.
When Should You Call an Investigator?
The best time is before decisions become final.
If a contract has not been signed, a statement has not been made, or a position has not been locked in — that is when investigation delivers the most value. Facts gathered early create options. Facts gathered late narrow them.
Sometimes clients call after problems have surfaced.
When consequences are already unfolding, Atlantis establishes what actually happened and what can be proven, and delivers a documented record your counsel and your decision-makers can work from.
Preventing problems is better. Documenting them is sometimes necessary. We do both.
Why Clients Choose Atlantis
Experience That Transfers Our team combines legal training, investigative journalism, and decades of law enforcement casework — including homicide, financial crimes, and workplace investigation. Different disciplines, one habit: build from the record, not from assumption.
Discretion Sensitive matters require investigators who understand that the fact of an investigation can be as consequential as its findings. We staff, communicate, and document accordingly.
Work That Holds Up Our investigations are conducted and documented with attention to how they will be examined later — by opposing counsel, by regulators, by auditors. We do not take shortcuts that create problems downstream.
Honest Assessment If you do not need an investigator, we will say so. If your matter is not something we can help with, we will tell you that too. Our reputation depends on being straight with clients, not on closing every consultation.
Contact Atlantis Private Investigations
If you are facing a decision, a dispute, or a situation where verified facts could change the outcome, contact us for a confidential consultation.
All engagements are governed by a written agreement as required under California Business and Professions Code § 7524.
Michael Braa — Media
The Michael Braa Show
Yesterday's Cases. Today's Technology.
Hosted by Michael W. Braa, JD, the show examines history's most enduring unsolved cases through the working methods of a practicing investigator — applying modern forensic and analytical tools to historical records. Airing on the KSEE24/CBS47+ app and on YouTube.
Watch Episode 1 — The Black Dahlia
Published Author
Why Jesus, and Why Then: How God Prepared the World for a Perfect Man Published 2026 — Atlantis Private Media
The Conductor: The Attorney's Guide to Modern Private Investigation Published 2026
Atlantis Private Investigations is a California-licensed private investigation firm (PI #188611) providing litigation support, workplace investigations, asset and background investigation, and due diligence. Founded by Michael W. Braa, JD.
