Case Study
Case Study # 1
THE CLIENT
A subsidiary of a leading US-listed company with substantial operations and businesses in Hong Kong.
THE PROBLEM
Senior management of the company had observed abnormal long-term customer attrition to a few identified competitors, which triggered concern of probable corporate espionage operating inside the company. The severity of the loss was likely due to a conspiratorial and coordinated effort across ranks and departments.
THE SOLUTION
VGM met the senior management to obtain a full picture of the corporate structure and conducted a site visit. Given the suspected company-wide espionage operation, VGM arranged a team to join the company as new hires working in various capacities and job functions. Our investigators firstly approached the suspected key personnel through personal interactions; after identifying the targets involved in espionage work, our team conducted in-depth investigations by communication monitoring and close surveillance of the suspected spies.
VGM’s team also performed a two-month surveillance operation for the purpose of evidence collection. We successfully uncovered suspicious meetings of the identified persons with other practitioners in the industry. Footage of the meetings was recorded. Further analyses and investigations provided concrete and conclusive evidence of corporate espionage.
THE OUTCOME
VGM successfully identified 16 persons in the company engaging in corporate espionage operations. All cases were substantiated with intercepted messages, reconstructed documents, and/or audio/video footage of unwarranted meetings. Senior management of the company then took legal actions towards the corresponding persons with the evidence compiled by VGM and alleviated the loss with timely remedial work.