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Casefiles: "The
Director"
By Phil
Guillen
President, OMEGA, Inc.
E-mail: eric1com@chicagonet.net
P.O. Box
964, Tinley Park, Illinois 60477 Telephone: 708-429-1563
Copyright © 2002 OMEGA, Inc., All Rights
Reserved.
The true tale of "The Director" starts with a
successful company with numerous offices and locations that required extensive
subcontracted services. These included travel agencies, trucking firms,
catering, hotel and conference/ trade show sites, limousines, etc. The selection
and coordination of the various services and subcontractors were part of the
responsibilities of a "Director of Operations" – in this case, not a
particularly honest Director of Operations! Lets call this Director –
"Dale". We’ll call Dale’s employer, The "WAWLOA"
Company (for "Why Are We Losing Our Assets?").
Due to their success, the Wawloa company kept their
subcontractors quite busy. Dale was always attending to one major venue or
another, ensuring that the required services were all properly scheduled and
that every needed service was being properly attended to by the responsible
subcontractor. Dale was also ensuring that DALE was being properly
attended to as well! Dale, you see, was receiving special
"favors" from many of the subcontractors – for the privilege of
their being selected to do business with the Wawloa company. This was
strictly Dale’s idea. The company had no idea that this special and
secretive arrangement between many of the subcontractors and Wawloa existed!
Depending on the size and worth of the awarded
contract, the subcontractors had to come up with a percentage of the profits, or
something of equal value such as an island vacation, a cruise, an
all-expense-paid vacation at some exclusive resort, a golf outing, etc.
The range of Dale’s "benefits" even included such sundries as fancy
barbecue grills, and term-leases for expensive sports cars – all at the
subcontractors' expense, of course.
Indirectly though, Wawloa was ultimately footing the
bill as Dale would approve the subcontractors' inflated invoices – which would
cover Dale’s "benefit package." Thus Wawloa was actually
paying much more for the subcontracted services than they were
worth!
Dale, however, didn’t at all mind paying the
subcontractors inflated invoices; after all, it wasn’t his money. Over
time, Wawloa was steadily paying increasingly higher prices for its
subcontracted services, and Dale was of course growing much fonder of his job --
as he enjoyed being "pampered" by his vendors.
Dale also had an "insurance policy" against
anyone becoming suspicious of his special perks program. Dale, over time,
established himself as a forgetful and somewhat absent-minded type of executive,
as was demonstrated by his constantly misplacing his briefcases.
Dale had a small selection of briefcases (he claimed
they were gifts from family and friends), that he would use interchangeably
around the office – and always would leave them in other executives' offices,
conference rooms, etc., that he had visited. It was not unusual for Dale to have
several briefcases scattered about the executive suites. Like Dale,
however, his briefcases had their own special secrets!
What was only known to Dale, was that each of his
briefcases contained a concealed bugging transmitter that relayed all of the
conversations in the area of each briefcase – to Dale’s office! Dale had a
small portable receiver system that received the transmitted signals from each
of his briefcases (each briefcase transmitter was set to a different frequency),
and recorded every word that was said in the room and general area of each of
his briefcase "spies." Dale could choose to listen in on each
conversation individually "live" while in his office, or simply let
the recorders tape the conversations for him to review later – usually at
home.
Needless to say, Dale quickly amassed a wealth of
office information with his system, even when he was not present during the
discussions or meetings. This, then, was how he would find out if anyone ever
voiced any suspicions about his profitable arrangement with the
subcontractors. Nevertheless, things eventually began to slowly unravel
for Dale.
The soaring operating costs eventually caught the
attention of management and they began inquiring as to why Wawloa was paying
what appeared to be unreasonably high fees for many of their subcontracted
services. Meetings were held (both with and without Dale in attendance),
and discussions about the excessively high costs became more frequent.
When Dale as the Director of Operations was approached with questions about the
matter, he would always have answers ready that appeared to almost sound
reasonable – but not quite.
Management began also to notice that Dale seemed to
always know when someone was involved in meetings or discussions relating to the
subcontractors' fees – even when he was not included in the deliberations.
This started to become even more evident as an irate Dale began approaching more
of the executives who were investigating the matter, as he attempted to get them
to stop what he eventually labeled as their "unreasonable and
needless" concern for business matters that were HIS responsibility – and
not theirs. His growing irritability and apparent all-knowing insight of office
activity, only served to generate more concerns and suspicions among the senior
executive staff.
Dale’s final and big mistake came when he chose to
get away from the office pressures and take a relaxing two week vacation
(another "freebie" courtesy of one of his special arrangements).
While he was absent (and unable to eavesdrop on office conversations), senior
management decided to confirm or disprove one of their suspicions – that Dale
may be using "bugs" to stay covertly-informed about the discussions
and activities in the executive office areas. This seemed to be the only
logical way that they could explain how Dale seemed to always know about
discussions and activities which were confidential in nature, and that had not
been shared with him. The decision was made to call for a complete and
thorough Sweep Survey of the executive suite, before Dale’s return.
Arriving at the appointed time, the Sweep Survey was
begun and included a complete Spectrum Scan (to detect illicit transmitter
signals – such as from concealed bugging devices), of the offices, phones, and
conference rooms, as well as the inclusion of a full Physical Analysis (for the
identification of non-radiating devices such as "hardwired"
microphones, tape recorders, etc.). Shortly after the start of the Sweep Survey
– Dale’s secret was no more!
The briefcase transmitters were quickly detected and
localized by the Spectrum Scan, and the Physical Analysis soon turned up the
receiving equipment – with the recorders running! Dale had elected to
leave the recorders running (they, like the transmitters, would only activate
when conversation was detected – to conserve battery power), to later provide
him with a complete account of all conversations in the "bugged"
executive suite transpiring during his absence. To say that there was a surprise
awaiting Dale when he returned from his vacation was an understatement!
The new "package" awaiting Dale’s return
(and this time assembled by Wawloa’s attorneys), consisted of multiple
parts. In a nutshell, the subsequent investigative interviews with the
subcontractors bore fruit, as many gave Dale up and disclosed the
"shakedown" tactics he used against vendors wishing to win any of
Wawloa’s many profitable service contracts. Management's discovery of
Dale’s well-planned electronic eavesdropping program, simply added that much
more fuel to the already well-fanned fires!
Wawloa would give Dale the choice of; [a] having
charges brought against him for his extensive, felonious actions which included
theft and fraud against the company, and be prosecuted for his crimes, or [b] he
could choose the option of paying full restitution for the theft and losses –
and be allowed to "resign" from the company (without any of the usual
departure benefits and perks, and the forfeiture of his profit sharing
package).
Dale naturally considered himself lucky by being given
the opportunity for opting for plan "B", and took the smarter, less
costly way out – though his career and reputation were now completely
ruined. Dale had never figured on the potential for his employer having a
Sweep Survey performed – but then, they rarely ever do!
Wawloa eventually recovered from its losses and
continued its successful business operations, replacing Dale with a properly
screened and trustworthy individual. Much wiser from the experience,
Wawloa also instituted a comprehensive program of regular discreet Sweep Surveys
of their executive suite, as advanced insurance against any future technical
assaults against their operations.
Rumors had it that Dale moved out of state where he
eventually obtained a position with a new company. It is unclear if he
ever changed his proclivity for "special treatment", and his fondness
for miniature transmitters – but that would be a matter for another story!
Click here to read Phil Guillen's
and Omega's intro page.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: The author can be contacted
as follows:
Phil Guillen
President, Omega, Inc.
eric1com@chicagonet.net
P.O. Box 964
Tinley Park, IL 60477
708-429-1563
Copyright © 2002 OMEGA, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
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