Situation:

We were contacted by a major insurance carrier based in Los Angeles, California. The management staff was puzzled by what appeared to be a tremendous sales advantage by a local competitor that just didn’t add up.

Results:

We discovered who was recording and selling sensitive company information to the competitor, however it was not what the President of the company was expecting! We busted the guilty party and secured a confession.

Details:

The President of the company, based on consultation with his COO, was certain that someone must be listening to their private phone calls. Fortunately, they were savvy enough to keep their thoughts to themselves. One of our senior investigators met with the President and COO, and explained how we conduct our three-phase, two day electronic eavesdropping detection sweep of the entire office. In simple terms, we were looking to find bugs, taps and cameras.

We conducted the sweep on a weekend so as not to alert employees and make the sweep logistically much easier. At the end of the day we found that the phone lines were were perfectly clear. However, much to the surprise and dismay of all, we found not one, but two monitoring devices in the corporate boardroom. One was strategically situated under the conference room table where the President sat, while the other was placed under the center of the table to maximize hearing all board members speak. The devices were purchased either on the black market or the internet, preventing us from making a direct link to the perpetrator.

Since we knew information was being leaked, we reasoned that a board member must have some alternative reasons to record on-site and transmit to an unknown location. We discussed the possibilities and concluded it must be a board member that traveled and wanted to know what was being said in his absence. As the most likely candidate was the Chief Financial Officer, we set up surveillance on this individual. He was followed right to the Corporate Headquarters of a major insurance competitor. When confronted by our staff, he readily admitted his guilt and confessed that he was sharing his own company’s strategies and sensitive information in exchange for large monetary payments.