Broker, trader, lawyer, spy : inside the secret world of corporate espionage

“Eamon Javers has produced a remarkable book about the secret world of business warfare—a world filled with corporate spies and covert ops and skullduggery… An important book that has the added pleasure of reading like a spy novel.” —David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z Award-winning reporter Eamon Javers’s Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy is a penetrating work of investigative and historical journalism about the evolution of corporate espionage, exploring the dangerous and combustible power spies hold over international business. From the birth of the Pinkertons to Howard Hughes, from presidents to Cold War spies, Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy is, like Legacy of Ashes and Blackwater , a first rate political thriller that also just happens to be true. In this penetrating work of investigative and historical journalism, Eamon Javers explores the dangerous and combustible power spies hold over international business. Today's global economy has a dark underbelly: the world of corporate espionage. Using cutting-edge technology, age-old techniques of deceit and manipulation, and sheer talent, spies act as the hidden puppeteers of globalized businesses. They control markets, determine prices, influence corporate decisions, and manage the flow of data and information of some of the world's biggest corporations. In his gripping and alarming book, Eamon Javers takes the reader inside this hidden global industry. Readers meet the spies who conduct surveillance operations, satellite analysts who peer down on corporate targets from the skies, veteran CIA officers who work for hedge funds, and even a Soviet military intelligence officer who now sells his services to American companies. This industry has tentacles in almost every industry in almost every corner of the globe. Intelligence companies and the spies they employ are setting up fake Web sites to elicit information, trailing individuals and mirroring travel itiner-aries, Dumpster-diving in household and corporate trash, using ultrasophisticated satellite surveillance to spy on facilities, acting as impostors to take jobs within companies or to gain access to corporations, concocting elaborate schemes of fraud and deceit, and hacking e-mail and secure computer networks. The work of this industry can be ingenious, but it also raises crucial moral and legal questions in a world where global conflicts are as likely to be corporation versus corporation as they are to be nation versus nation. This globalized industry is not a recent phenomenon, but rather a continuation of a fascinating history. The story begins with Allan Pinkerton, the nation's first true 'private eye,' and extends through the annals of a rich history that includes tycoons and playboys, presidents and FBI operatives, CEOs and accountants, Cold War veterans and military personnel. Built on exclusive reporting and unprecedented access, this book features accounts of Howard Hughes's private CIA, the extensive spying that took place in a battle between two global food companies, and interviews with some of the world's top corporate surveillance experts In 2006 a spy scandal at Hewlett Packard erupted when it was revealed that Patricia Dunn, then the company's chairwoman, had hired a team to spy on journalists covering the company and members of its board. These spies used a technique called "pretexting," pretending to be someone else to obtain phone records, in order to figure out how information had been leaking from the company. In response, Congress passed a law banning pretexting, but the visibility of the corporate intelligence industry surfaced and then vanished almost as quickly.As it turns out, the pretexting at HP is just one, relatively benign example of the work of an industry with tentacles in almost every industry in almost every corner of the globe. Intelligence companies and the spies they employ are setting up fake websites to elicit information, trailing individuals and mirroring travel itineraries, dumpster-diving in household and corporate trash, using ultra-sophisticated satellite surveillance to spy on facilities, acting as impostors to take jobs within companies or to gain access to corporations, concocting elaborate schemes of fraud and deceit, and hacking email and secure computer networks. The work of this industry can be haunting and ghoulish, ingenuous and exciting, but it also raises crucial moral and legal questions in a world where global conflicts are as likely to be corporation v. corporation as they are nation v. nation.This globalized industry is not a recent phenomenon, but rather an extension of a checkered and fascinating history. The story begins with Allan Pinkerton, the nation's first true "private eye," and extends through the annals of a rich history that includes tycoons and playboys, presidents and FBI operatives, CEOs and accountants, Cold War veterans and military personnel. Built on exclusive reporting and unprecedented access, this book features accounts of Howard Hughes's private CIA, the extensive spying that took place in a battle between two global food companies, and interviews with some of the world's top corporate surveillance experts. A Shocking Exposé Of The Sordid World Of Corporate Espionage And Its Historic Cast, Including Allan Pinkerton, The Nation's First Private Eye, Tycoons And Playboys, Presidents And Fbi Operatives, Ceos And Accountants, Cold War Veterans And Military Personnel, And Howard Hughes' Private Cia. Eamon Javers. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Code name: Yucca Part I: From Bogus Island to Deep Chocolate A high and honorable calling For the money The man is gone Thug busters The chocolate war Part II: Techniques, technologies, and talent Tactical behavior assessment The Eddie Murphy strategy Nick no-name They're all kind of crazy Is this a great country, or what? In form the cold. A shocking expose of the sordid world of corporate espionage and its historic cast, including Allan Pinkerton, the nation's first "private eye," tycoons and playboys, presidents and FBI operatives, CEOs and accountants, Cold War veterans and military personnel, and Howard Hughes' private CIA An in-depth work of investigative and historical journalism examines the evolution of corporate espionage, exploring the dangerous and combustible power spies hold over international business