Hedge Funds CIA

Hedge Funds CIA

Hedge Funds Hiring CIA Agents as Advisors

I came across this interesting story about how hedge funds are trying to get a leg up on their competition, by paying current and former CIA agents as advisers.  This comes from the book Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage by Politico writer Eamon Javers.  The book alleges that top hedge funds have put CIA agents on their payroll for various activities using the officers' unique talents, including so-called "deception detection."  It may seem a bit far-fetched but the book focuses on Business Intelligence Advisors, a very real Boston-based advisory firm which boasts of having a mix of "highly accomplished professionals from the national intelligence and business communities."
The moonlighting by the nation’s spies and intelligence analysts is permitted by the CIA, which is intent on holding on to top talent that might otherwise be tempted to leave the agency and peddle their wares to the private sector.

In particular, Javers’ Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy: The Secret World of Corporate Espionage deals with a company called Business Intelligence Advisors. Boston-based BIA was founded by a group of retired CIA members, and has been retained by a number of hedge funds, including SAC.

In 2006, the Stamford, Conn.-based hedge fund giant had a pair of BIA specialists teach its employees the finer art of “tactical behavior assessment,” or how to be a human lie detector. The former spooks, one with 20 years in polygraph experience, the other with 25 in interrogation experience, taught the SAC employees how to look for both verbal and nonverbal cues that a person—say, a company executive—is being something less than truthful.  Source


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