Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage

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 itineraries, 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.

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Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage

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 itineraries, 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.

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Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage

Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage

by Eamon Javers
Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage

Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage

by Eamon Javers

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Overview

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 itineraries, 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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780061697203
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 02/09/2010
Pages: 306
Product dimensions: 6.52(w) x 9.28(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

Eamon Javers is a correspondent for Politico, where he covers the Obama White House and the economy. Earlier in his career he was a Washington correspondent for Business Week magazine and an on-air correspondent for CNBC. In 2006 he received an investigative reporting award from the Medill School of Journalism for a story exposing how convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff had secretly paid columnists to write favorable stories about his clients. Javers appears frequently on CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC, and the BBC. He is a graduate of Colgate University and lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife, Maureen, and two children.

Table of Contents

Prologue ix

Chapter 1 Code Name: Yucca 1

Part I From Bogus Island to Deep Chocolate

Chapter 2 A High and Honorable Calling 31

Chapter 3 For the Money 61

Chapter 4 The Man Is Gone 85

Chapter 5 Thug Busters 115

Chapter 6 The Chocolate War 137

Part II Techniques, Technologies, and Talent

Chapter 7 Tactical Behavior Assessment 173

Chapter 8 The Eddie Murphy Strategy 201

Chapter 9 Nick No-Name 221

Chapter 10 They're All Kind of Crazy 243

Chapter 11 Is This a Great Country, or What? 253

Epilogue In from the Cold 281

Acknowledgments 287

Notes 289

Index 295

What People are Saying About This

David Grann

“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. This is an important book that has the added pleasure of reading like a spy novel.”

Tucker Carlson

“Turns out there are far more cloaks and quite a few more daggers in this country than most of us realized. That’s one of the many lessons of this terrific book. Eamon Javers is as talented a writer as he is a reporter. What a great read.”

Bill Moyers

“If only the mainstream press would follow Eamon Javers’ lead and expose the powerful saboteurs and predators of the corporate underworld, this would be a different country. But it’s not too late. Read this book and roll up your sleeves.”

John Stewart

“Stunning, revelatory.”

John F. Harris

“Eamon Javers is one of Washington’s best reporters. In Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy, he has told a wonderfully readable tale with great characters and high stakes, and the dubious practices by corporations and intelligence agents he exposes are going to ignite an important public debate.”

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