Former FBI director Louis Freeh and his firm, including a team of former federal prosecutors and FBI agents, were hired by the Penn State Board of Trustees to conduct an independent investigation into the scandal. In the opinion of writer Michael Sokolove, the mission Freeh was given seemed to presuppose that Sandusky's crimes were not his alone and that people who had reason to suspect him had looked away. After interviewing over 400 people and reviewing over 3.5 million documents, the investigation team reported that Paterno, Spanier, Curley, and Schultz concealed Sandusky's actions in order to protect the publicity surrounding Penn State's celebrated football program. Freeh's firm's investigation found that by their actions, the four men "failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade." The report concluded that Paterno, along with Schultz, Spanier, and Curley "concealed Sandusky's activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and authorities."