"Last year, when he came on the scene, my, we were deluged," said Bob Spoo, Romo's coach at Eastern Illinois, referring to media requests for background information and interviews.
Since 1994, Russia and the United States have routinely exchanged requests for background information on residents traveling between the two countries on visa, criminal or terrorism issues.
According to the F.B.I.'s data, the number of requests for background checks normally peaks toward the end of the year.
The mounting requests for background checks quickly flooded the F.B.I. and C.I.A, where workers must compare thousands of refugees with reputed terrorists of similar ages and names, officials say.
Mr. Strang's firm, along with others that specialize in accounting, security and investigation -- including Kroll, I.G.I, ChoicePoint Inc., KPMG and Controlled Risk -- are getting a spike in requests for background checks on candidates at the highest executive levels.
According to the F.B.I., there have been 1.2 million more requests for background checks of potential gun buyers from November to February than there were in the same four months last year.
Last year, requests for background checks for firearms sales submitted under the National Instant Criminal Background Check System of the F.B.I. totaled 16.4 million, up from 14.4 million in 2010 and 8.9 million in 2001, according to F.B.I. data.
Between November 3 and 9 -- the week Obama was elected -- the FBI had a more than 48percentt increase in requests for background checks for gun purchases than it received during the same period the previous year, CNN reported at the time.
