Charlene Smith
Outside a Johannesburg court, a policeman and private investigators compare notes before testifying at a trial of a major criminal syndicate.
The policeman’s original notes came from the private investigators, who in turn were contracted by major medical aid firms to investigate millions of rands worth of fraud. As soon as they came close to landing their quarry, they called in the police to make the actual arrests and help tie up final threads in the investigation.
In discreet offices in Pretoria, former national intelligence operatives are briefing each other about their investigations into a major vehicle theft operation. In the financial services industry, police investigations are strengthened by forensic auditors or entire intelligence units operating for banks or international auditing firms and private investigators that have links to the intelligence community.
Rates vary from R60 to R400 an hour, with a good firm charging about R150 an hour.
For a mere R1E500, moles in various organisations – whether banks or the Department of Home Affairs – will divulge the bank details of a client, the passport movements of an individual, or previous criminal records: there is little you cannot get without enough money and the identification number of the subject of your inquiry.
And if you can’t find a mole, there are enough computer hackers around who will seek the necessary data.
In the past, South African business organisations made use of intelligence organisations to track thieves, and to assess political risk. The name of the Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (Absa) came up unfortunately often into inquiries into death squads. A number of their agents were involved with Vlakplaas operatives, even though not at the behest of the bank.
But with international borders shrinking, and information becoming the world’s most valuable commodity, espionage in the workplace has become common.
Coupled to that are several thousand former security policemen, conventional police officers and intelligence agents, all in private practice as private investigators or working for the anti-crime units of major corporations.
Dave van Heerden of Pharmaceutical Investigators, a former drug squad police officer, began business as a private investigator a decade ago. Today he owns the building he first rented offices in and employs a number of full-time investigators. He says they seek evidence and intelligence to bolster police inquiries.
“Most companies hire us to investigate theft and fraud. Everyone has theft – whether products or technology. Counterfeiting, whether money or products, is also a huge problem in this country.”
He cautions that there are unreliable investigators and intelligence organisations on the market, and that companies should follow recommendations put forward by the South African Security Association or the South African Council of Civil Investigators in Johannesburg and the Security Officers’ Board in Pretoria.
A former member of the then National Intelligence Service who would not be named, used his severance package to start a business with former colleagues. He is an expert on criminal syndicates and has clients within the corporate sector. He says that some former intelligence agents also work for foreign governments, “and others have been recruited by big crime syndicates. There is a lot of money to be made.”
Howard Griffiths, of Griffiths and Associates, which is attached to Vika International, says that large corporations are increasingly infiltrated by criminal syndicates and that investigations are not enough. “Investigations react to a problem, but intelligence can prevent a problem.”
He says that in one large organisation they found intelligence gathering was flawed because they were hiring detectives: “Detectives are trained to investigate, not seek intelligence. We came up with a two-week intensive training programme for field operatives and management – it is important that managers can critically analyse intelligence too.”
He says a lot of commercial security is flawed because companies hire guards, “but the guards tend to be underpaid, overworked and in a boring job. They often become part of the problem and not the solution. We’re way behind Europe and the United States in recognising the importance of intelligence in business.”
Corporate spies are increasingly acceptable. In France they are trained by the Ecole de Guerre Economique, which specialises in the gathering of corporate intelligence. In the US, the Centre for Operational Business Intelligence is run by former members of the CIA and the US Defence Intelligence Agency.
Most private investigators in the US belong to an organisation called the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals. They have guidelines for members to ensure ethical behaviour and give companies some assurance that information gathered won’t later be sold to a competitor by an unscrupulous agent.
Although the government is presently compiling information on private investigators and corporate intelligence units, there appear to be no plans for formal regulation of the industry, aside from registering companies.
The widespread use of intelligence by corporates has given it a sheen of respectability and seen higher standards applied.
The top corporate users of intelligence in the US – according to a recent study by the Futures Group, a business intelligence consultancy – names Microsoft, Motorola, IBM, Procter and Gamble, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Coca-Cola and Intel, in that order.
There are no similar studies of corporate intelligence users in South Africa.
One business executive would only say: “Corporate intelligence is essential not only to gain competitive advantage, but it is also a means to ensure we get prosecutions in important cases where the police just do not seem able to cope.
“There is not a major company in this country today that can afford to be without either a specialised unit or reliable private investigators it can call on.”