Corporate Spooks—Never Heard of 'Em

Abstract

You're not alone. In fact, it's doubtful if many have. If, upon hearing the term spook, you picture a spy tiptoeing through a darkened office, armed with a tiny pen that shoots a deadly projectile into a counterspy extracting trade secrets from a computer, read on, because your image is not too different than that of William Klausman.For nearly thirty years, Klausman has led double lives as a businessman and an undercover spy in the shadowy world of corporate espionage. He began his investigative career in the late sixties with the Multnomah County Sheriff 's Office in Portland, Oregon. He took a leave of absence to look over the Washington, D.C., intelligence community but, disillusioned, he returned to Portland to continue his career in finance, business ownership, and, finally, as a corporate spy.Most of his assignments are defensive. When business clients are threatened by outside attack, he explains, I am hired to determine who, what, where, when, and why and neutralize the attack. Subject matter includes theft of trade secrets, copyright infringement, embezzling, drug dealing, product diverting, and other activities. The list is long.On call around the clock, Klausman may be found entertaining in a target's night club some evening and hours later boarding a redeye flight to Washington, Frankfurt or Pusan. appropriate identification, a bit of nerve and a whole lot of luck, he says, I've portrayed a computer programmer, accountant, chief financial officer, cartoonist, artist, writer, lecturer, master of ceremonies, advertising executive, cook's helper, warehouseman, entertainer, auditor, television newscaster, technician, race car driver, retailer, medical doctor, psychiatrist, attorney, bar tender, and countless others. He is the true chameleon.You won't find Klausman in the Yellow Pages, but he can be reached through the corporate grapevine. He also receives some assignments through advertisements in bar directories, through an attorney, and nationally renowned investigator who all maintain his secret identity.Corporate Espionage is a term that describes the arena within which he sneaks, mostly undetected, within and around the secret boardrooms and information systems of the world's major corporations, sometimes bumping against moles from different venues. And his work is, most certainly, dangerous. Oh yes, the cloak-and-dagger syndrome is commonplace in the after-hours work environment, as is a clear and present danger of being caught, especially for Klausman, a counterespionage operative.Specializing in information systems, he infiltrates a clothing manufacturer's business one day as an auditor to gain access to the books, and the next day as a janitor to find discarded documented proof in the trash. One moment he is a psychiatrist infiltrating a psychiatric hospital's records to find proof of patient abuse and the next day, a narc operating a sting operation to trap a druggist as he knowingly fills false prescriptions. From transportation director to cook's helper to television newscaster, he does them all and, as far as he knows, has only been caught once.Say, for instance, a huge American manufacturer of athletic apparel learns that their men's cross trainers are being sold by non-licensed retailers at a price less than their licensed retailers' costs. Klausman infiltrates the small company as a workers' comp auditor and, using their own system, discovers their source of the illegal shoes. With this data, he works his way to the transporter and finally to the Asian manufacturer who produces the shoes for Klausman's client during the day. But then he learns that on the other side of the clock, the socalled licensed manufacturer turns out the identical product line for someone else. Successfully, he infiltrates the international network and puts a stop to it, saving the apparel manufacturer money and grief.In most cases, the intruder is an infiltration specialist, and enters the workplace in one of many imaginable descriptions, for one reason, and will allow nothing to stand in his way-well, almost nothing. …